AMD EPYC 8534P / EPYC 8534PN Benchmarks - Siena Delivers Incredible Value & Energy Efficiency For Linux Servers
Back in September AMD rounded out their Zen 4 server product line-up with the EPYC 8004 "Siena" processors that are optimized for delivering excellent energy efficiency with leading performance-per-Watt and maximizing value both for initial server costs and ultimately the TCO. These single-socket server chips are quite interesting for a range of workloads form the edge to networking and more. In today's article are benchmarks of the top-end AMD EPYC 8534P and EPYC 8534PN 64-core server processors and showing how they can take on Intel Xeon Platinum "Sapphire Rapids" in raw performance and blow the competition out of the water when it comes to the incredible performance-per-Watt and value.
The AMD EPYC 8534P is the top-end Siena OPN with 64 cores / 128 threads, 2.3GHz base clock, 3.1GHz boost clock, and a default TDP of 200 Watts. The EPYC 8634P also supports an adjustable TDP from 155 Watts to 225 Watts. The EPYC 8534PN as the NEBS-compliant offering is 64-cores too but with a 2.0GHz base clock while keeping to a 3.1GHz boost clock, which in turn allows it to have a default TDP of 175 Watts. The EPYC 8534P has a list price of $4950 USD and the EPYC 8534PN has a list price of $5450. Since launch I've found these EPYC 8004 series processors in-stock at a few Internet retailers for similar prices.
As a reminder from the original Siena launch article as well as my EPYC 8324P(N) Linux benchmarks, the Siena processors make use of Zen 4C cores with all of the Zen 4 common ISA features being supported like AVX-512, six channels of DDR5-4800 memory, 96 lanes of PCI Express 5.0, and many of the other elements in common with Genoa and Bergamo.
For getting a feel for the AMD EPYC 8534P(N) performance, I benchmarked these processors on AMD's Cinnabar reference server against the Xeon Platinum 8468 as the closest Sapphire Rapids processor available. The Xeon Platinum 8468 has 48 cores / 96 threads, up to 8 channels of DDR5-4800 memory, 2.1GHz base clock, 3.8GHz turbo frequency, and a 350 Watt TDP while carrying a price tag of $7214 USD.
All of this benchmarking was done on Ubuntu 23.10 with the Linux 6.5 kernel and GCC 13.2 default compiler for providing a leading-edge look at the Linux server performance with these fresh packages ahead of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS in the spring.
The AMD EPYC 8534P was tested at its default TDP and in the default performance determinism mode, at 155 Watts for its lowest cTDP in performance determinism mode, at its default TDP in power determinism mode, and for top-power potential at the 225 Watts cTDP in power determinism mode. The AMD EPYC 8534PN was tested at its default in performance determinism and then power determinism modes. The PN processors do not have a configurable TDP.
The Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 meanwhile was tested at its default and using eight channels of DDR5-4800 memory and then re-tested when using just six channels of DDR5-4800 to match the memory configuration of the AMD EPYC 8004 series.
The CPU power consumption was monitored on a per-test basis using the PowerCap/RAPL Linux interfaces. The performance-per-dollar was also calculated based upon the CPU list pricing and then also adding in the DDR5-4800 32GB RDIMMs at a price of $150 per DIMM, for helping to factor in the impact of the six versus eight channel memory testing. Thanks to AMD providing the EPYC 8534P and 8534PN review samples for the Linux benchmarking on Phoronix.