Ampere Altra Max M128-30 Linux Performance Preview

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ampere Altra Max M128-30 Linux Performance Preview

The past month we have started our testing of Ampere's Altra Max M128-30, the company's new 128 core server processor, and in this article today are our initial benchmarks of this promising chip for high core count servers in both 1P and 2P configurations tested.

https://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=30562

[vb_linux]

So, it beats Intel in every test. Really bad days for Intel ahead. It is one thing losing to AMD in a duopoly, but ARM64 licensing can open the floodgates.

[Dr.N0]

More and more, lower power consumption will be an advantage that is hard to ignore.

[willmore]

It would be interesting to see perf/Watt rankings for these configurations. I have a feeling we're going to see almost always Amepere, then AMD, then Intel--from best to worst. Absolute performance is nice, but more and more perf/Watt matters.

[peterdk]

It would be interesting to see perf/Watt rankings for these configurations.

Would love to see those indeed.

[brucethemoose]

That's quite competitive.

The next Ampere designs will probably be ARMv9, right? That could be another huge boost for toolchains/apps that can take advantage of it, while Intel/AMD are stuck with a fragmented x86 ISA for the foreseeable future.

[SWY1985]

My main PC broke, so I'm currently recycling old computers while saving for a new computer. I could buy a decent PC now but the saving is a good excuse to wait for a non-apple ARM64 workstation to get released.

I'm really happy with the software that's available for my Raspberry Pi 4, and with solutions like Box86 (and Box64), there might even be a solution for running games on ARM64. (I saw someone got Tomb Raider 2013 running on Raspberry Pi... albeit with 5 seconds per frame)
The way things are progressing, I wouldn't be surprised if many new games might get native ARM releases too in the near future.

[brucethemoose]

The way things are progressing, I wouldn't be surprised if many new games might get native ARM releases too in the near future.

Maybe if a big platform like Steam or EGS pushes for it? And Unreal/Unity really back it. Otherwise I'm skeptical, given the history of the gaming industry.


I think ARM is the future, but barring some emulation miracle, commercial PC gaming is one of the hardest markets for it to penetrate.

[perpetually high]

With Ampere Altra Max the flagship processor is currently the M128-30 that has a 3.0GHz maximum clock speed for its 128 cores.
(The model numbers from Ampere continue to be quite practical and convenient!)

Great point, Michael. Other companies should take notice. Convenient and practical model numbers that make sense should be the new norm. Only reason the alternative exists is to confuse consumers and make money off them to buy old generation hardware at an unnecessary premium.

Personally, I think I'm gonna hold on to my i5-4670K Haswell as long as I possibly can, and then get a monster ARM machine for my next desktop.

As for notebook, still have a 2010 MBP. Does what I need to do. I'd like to get a M1 MacBook (I know, sorry y'all. Thank you for your work, Alyssa!), and possibly even keep MacOS on that (stupid I know, but I like macOS also), or wipe it clean and run the supreme Linux kernel on that bad boy. Or - I may get the Framework laptop and let it be the end all, be all for notebooks.

Decisions, decisions.. but that seems like the right move. Might even get an AMD Zen4 or whatever desktop as my last x86_64 hoorah.

One thing is for certain - my next machine will *have* to include strong Linux support. I refuse to be battling drivers or crappy premature, nonexistent Linux support. Won't do it.

[squash]

Server grade ARM is going to stay interesting for just the open source/linux crowd for a while I think. We've had ARM in AWS for over a year and you're still not seeing much of any proprietary software being published for them... For better or worse, Windows Server is not offered for them either. That's just fine for me, but most companies have substantial Windows presence and won't be too excited about running their Linux systems on different infrastructure than their Windows crap.

perpetually high MacOS runs great on their M1, btw. After 3 years of waiting for someone to build the x86 laptop I wanted, I ended up getting a new Air and it's more than met my expectations. I sure don't miss wifi, USB , or GPU crashes, and Docker gives me a local linux/arm environment with minimal fuss. I find the MacOS window manager to be clunky but given my usage (lots of terminal tabs, web browser, ide) I'm not too bothered.