AMD Opteron 6308, INTEL XEON e5-2690 & INTEL XEON e5-2667V2 Comparison using ANSYS FLUENT 14.5.7

Note: The information and data contained in this article was complied and generated on September 12, 2013 by PADT, Inc. on CUBE HVPC hardware using FLUEN 14.5.7.  Please remember that hardware and software change with new releases and you should always try to run your own benchmarks, on your own typical problems, to understand how performance will impact you.

By David Mastel

Due to the response to the original article on this subject,  I thought it would be good to do a quick follow-up using one of our latest CUBE HVPC builds. Again, the ANSYS Fluent standard benchmarks were used in garnering the stats on this dual socket INTEL XEON e5-2667V2 configuration.

CUBE HVPC Test configurations (Same as in last comparison)

• Server 1: CUBE HVPC c16
• CPU: 4, AMD Opteron 6308 @ 3.5GHz (Quad Core)
• Memory: 256GB (32x8G) DDR3-1600 ECC Reg. RAM (1600MHz)
• Hardware RAID Controller: Supermicro AOC-S2208L-H8iR 6Gbps, PCI-e x 8 Gen3
• Hard Drives: Supermicro HDD-A0600-HUS156060VLS60 – Hitachi 600G SAS2.0 15K RPM 3.5″
•  OS: Linux 64-bit / Kernel 2.6.32-358.18.1.e16.x86_64
• App: ANSYS FLUENT 14.5.7
• MPI: Platform MPI
• HCA: SMC AOC-UIBQ-M2 – QDR Infiniband
  • The IB card installed however solves were run distributed locally
• Switch: MELLANOX IS5023 Non-Blocking 18-port switch

Server 2: CUBE HVPC c16i (Intel server from last comparison)

• CPU: 2, INTEL XEON e5-2690 @ 2.9GHz (Octa Core)
• Memory: 128GB (16x8G) DDR3-1600 ECC Reg. RAM (1600MHz)
• RAID Controller: Supermicro AOC-S2208L-H8iR 6Gbps, PCI-e x 8 Gen3
• Hard Drives: Supermicro HDD-A0600-HUS156060VLS60 – Hitachi 600G SAS2.0 15K RPM 3.5″
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
• App: ANSYS FLUENT 14.5.7
• MPI: Platform MPI

Server 3: CUBE HVPC c16ivy (New “Ivy” based Intel server)

• CPU: 2, INTEL XEON e5-2667V2 @ 3.3 (Octa Core)
• Memory: 128GB (16x8G) DDR3-1600 ECC Reg. RAM (1600MHz)
• RAID Controller: Supermicro AOC-S2208L-H8iR 6Gbps, PCI-e x 8 Gen3
• Hard Drives: Supermicro HDD-A0600-HUS156060VLS60 – Hitachi 600G SAS2.0 15K RPM 3.5″
• OS: Linux 64-bit / Kernel 2.6.32-358.18.1.e16.x86_64
• App: ANSYS FLUENT 14.5.7
• MPI: Platform MPI
• HCA: SMC – QDR Infiniband
  • The IB card installed however solves were run distributed locally

ANSYS FLUENT 14.5.7 Performance using the ANSYS FLUENT Benchmark suite provided by ANSYS, Inc.

ANSYS Fluent Benchmark page link:http://www.ansys.com/Support/Platform+Support/Benchmarks+Overview/ANSYS+Fluent+Benchmarks

Release ANSYS FLUENT 14.5.7 Test Cases
(20 Iterations each)

• Reacting Flow with Eddy Dissipation Model (eddy_417k)
• Single-stage Turbomachinery Flow (turbo_500k)
• External Flow Over an Aircraft Wing (aircraft_2m)
• External Flow Over a Passenger Sedan (sedan_4m)
• External Flow Over a Truck Body with a Polyhedral Mesh (truck_poly_14m)
• External Flow Over a Truck Body 14m (truck_14m)

Here are the results for all three machines, total and average time:

Summary: Are you sure? Part 2

So I didn’t have to have the “Are you sure?” question with Eric this time and I didn’t bother triple checking the results because indeed, the Ivy Bridge-EP Socket 2011 is one fast CPU! That combined with a 0.022 micron manufacturing process  the data speaks for itself. For example, lets re-dig into the data for the External Flow Over a Truck Body with a Polyhedral Mesh (truck_poly_14m) benchmark and see what we find:

Current Pricing of INTEL® and AMD® CPU’s

Here is the up to the minute pricing for each CPU’s. I took these prices off of NewEgg and IngramMicro’s website. The date of the monetary values was captured on October 4, 2013.

Note AMD’s price per CPU went up and the INTEL XEON e5-2690 went down. Again, these prices based on today’s pricing, October 4, 2013.

AMD Opteron 6308 Abu Dhabi 3.5GHz 4MB L2 Cache 16MB L3 Cache Socket G34 115W Quad-Core Server Processor OS6308WKT4GHKWOF

•  $501 x 4 = $2004.00

Intel Xeon E5-2690 2.90 GHz Processor – Socket LGA-2011, L2 Cache 2MB, L3 Cache 20 MB, 8 GT/s QPI

• $1986.48 x 2 = $3972.96

Intel Xeon E5-2667V2 3.3 GHz Processor – Socket LGA-2011, L2 Cache 2MB, L3 Cache 25 MB, 8 GT/s QPI,

• $1933.88 x 2 = $3867.76

REFERENCES:
http://www.ingrammicro.com
http://www.newegg.com

INTEL XEON e5-2667V2
http://ark.intel.com/products/75273/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2667-v2-25M-Cache-3_30-GHz

INTEL XEON e5-2690
http://ark.intel.com/products/64596/

AMD Opteron 6308
http://www.amd.com/us/Documents/Opteron_6300_QRG.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-precision_floating-point_format

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit#Integer_range

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_point

STEP OUT OF THE BOX, STEP INTO A CUBE

PADT offers a line of high performance computing (HPC) systems specifically designed for CFD and FEA number crunching aimed at a balance between cost and performance. We call this concept High Value Performance Computing, or HVPC. These systems have allowed PADT and our customers to carry out larger simulations, with greater accuracy, in less time, at a lower cost than name-brand solutions. This leaves you more cash to buy more hardware or software.

Let CUBE HVPC by PADT, Inc. quote you a configuration today!