Intel Xeon 6980P "Granite Rapids" Linux Benchmarks

[coder]

I know what you mean, but we don't have that sort of infrastructure. Just getting a new 200V line can involve months of debate

Oh, sorry. Here I am talking about the subject from the perspective of cutting-edge datacenters and HPC. I wasn't thinking about the typical enterprise server room.

Okay, so if that's what we're talking about, then I'd agree that dual-CPU servers with 500W CPUs seem like they'd be challenging to fit in a 2U form factor. Then again, I believe I've seen air-cooled 2U server designs that I think can host >= 2 kW worth of GPUs, so maybe it's not too far-fetched? Not something you'd want to sit near, without hearing protection!

[Paradigm Shifter]

Oh, sorry. Here I am talking about the subject from the perspective of cutting-edge datacenters and HPC. I wasn't thinking about the typical enterprise server room.

Okay, so if that's what we're talking about, then I'd agree that dual-CPU servers with 500W CPUs seem like they'd be challenging to fit in a 2U form factor. Then again, I believe I've seen air-cooled 2U server designs that I think can host >= 2 kW worth of GPUs, so maybe it's not too far-fetched? Not something you'd want to sit near, without hearing protection!

It's worse than that, even, but I'll basically be doxing myself if I go into too much detail. We have one 2U server - worst mistake I ever made purchasing that, it's an absolute screamer when loaded - but it was marginally cheaper than the 4U version at the time and that meant we could double the RAM and still fit in budget.

[coder]

Ouch. For the privilege of such performance, the list price is $17.8k per 128-core CPU. Once Turin launches, I'll bet what people actually pay won't be quite so much.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intels-latest-flagship-128-core-xeon-cpu-costs-usd17-800-granite-rapids-sets-a-new-high-watermark

To give another sense of how expensive this is, at the rate of $139 per core, an 8 P-core desktop CPU would cost $1,112!

[Paradigm Shifter]

Ouch. For the privilege of such performance, the list price is $17.8k per 128-core CPU.

Yup. But we knew these chips weren't for people who actually need to ask how much something costs. They're for groups who just say, "What's the current most powerful CPU? We'll take 2,000."

[trivik12]

I dont think CPU price is that big a deal for these servers as RAM and especially Software licenses are way higher cost than saving few K on thse chips.

[msroadkill612]

This is a tech forum, not investing. Please stop pumping (or trashing) stocks on here.

Moronic and hectoring to boot. "This is why I keep telling people to buy as many Intel shares as they can."

[msroadkill612]

Yes, the typical data center doesn't care about power consumption of the CPU but the whole system and the cooling requirements for it....

If Intels CPUs need 100 W more than AMDs for the same task but the platform can somehow save 100W then it is basically a tie for data center people.

Hmmm... but non CPU matters above, have solutions which are common to both intel & AMD. It is the CPU which is by far the biggest consideration re differing power/heat/volume of a DC.

[coder]

Hmmm... but non CPU matters above, have solutions which are common to both intel & AMD. It is the CPU which is by far the biggest consideration re differing power/heat/volume of a DC.

That's an interesting question. Storage servers often have dozens of HDDs, SSDs, etc. each of which can use anywhere from like 5 W (idle) to 22 W (active). Then, consider that they probably have multiple 100+ Gbps network adapters. And, for a storage server, might not actually need very many CPU cores. In between, you've got layers of multi-100+ Gbps switches.

I have no idea what's the ratio of storage servers vs. compute nodes. I think you're probably right that CPU and GPU efficiency is the main concern, but I wouldn't be too dismissive of the power footprint of storage devices and networking.