The Test

We are mostly concerned with how the machine performs under Solaris 10 in comparison to SUSE 9, but we are also concerned with performance from the previous generation V40z to this one. Our very own Johan De Gelas recently wrote a very detailed comparison of various Linux database setups, so we won't spend as much time on database benchmarks for this review. Make no mistake, however, that a machine like the V40z makes the most sense in a database environment. We will use very similar benchmarks to the previous V40z examination, but we will also draw on some references from our Linux workstation articles.


Test Configurations

Machine:

Sun Fire V40z (Dual Core)

Sun Fire V40z

Processor:

(4) AMD Opteron 875

(4) AMD Opteron 850

RAM:

8 x 1024MB PC-2700

8 x 1024MB PC-2700

Hard Drives

SCSI u320 Seagate Cheetah 10,000RPM

SCSI u320 Seagate Cheetah 10,000RPM

Memory Timings:

Default

Operating System(s):

SuSE 9.1 Professional
RedHat 9
JDS 2.0

SUSE SLES 9

Solaris 10

Kernel:

Linux 2.6.8
Linux 2.4 (JDS 2.0)

Linux 2.6.5
SunOS 5.10

Compiler:

linux:~ # gcc -v
Reading specs from /usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/3.4.2/specs
Configured with: ./configure
Thread model: posix
gcc version 3.4.2

Our tests consist of everything from render benchmarks to database to compilation benchmarks. Each of these are designed to stress a particular portion of the system. As we mentioned earlier, the V40z is a premiere platform for databases due to the large amounts of CPU and memory. All tests are done with x86_64 binaries on Solaris and Linux unless otherwise noted. Furthermore, all programs are compiled via GCC with the flags mentioned in the table above.

X was disabled during these benchmarks to reduce overhead.

But... (Solaris 10 Cont.) Database Benchmarks
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  • nottlv - Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - link

    #46; the 8 way record claim was for a 64-bit JVM. The PowerPC result you reference was for a 32-bit JVM. specjbb stresses the memory architecture heavily (there's no I/O); the submitted result from IBM include a machine with 64GB of RAM, while the Sun Opteron box had 16GB, and they are running different JVM versions. If you look at the lower numbered runs you'll notice they're pretty close (the Opteron being slightly ahead), but that it hits it's wall much earlier due to significantly less RAM.
  • jjames5 - Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - link

    8 way jbb2000 world record - right!

    This result is a year old and still bests the sun with over 50%:

    http://www.spec.org/jbb2000/results/res2004q3/jbb2...
  • nserra - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link

    #34 That is plain stupid, it isnt from been taken out that it will protect him (if thats the true), or the microsoft guys cant read forums where the article have been already posted.

    Microsoft only have to look for who usually talk with anand.

  • Opteron - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link

    Forget my last comment...


    ps. i missed 4 way Xeon and Itanium systems :D
  • Opteron - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link

    There is miscalculations about percentages, those are calculated wrong.

    In http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/sun%20fire%20v4...

    comment is:
    " We see a 43% performance increase over the quad Opteron 250 V40z; certainly impressive but we would like to see more."

    But actually it's almost 64% since there is no point in comparing 5 threads vs 5 in a 8core system..
  • Googer - Friday, July 1, 2005 - link

    Where did the article go?
  • KristopherKubicki - Thursday, June 30, 2005 - link

    Den: Very true but recall that our previous test was done on Opteron 850s instead of Opteron 852s. The 852 performs a bit better than th 850.

    opus13i: We have been stuckin MI redtape land for some time. It wouldn't make sense to change the benchmark at this point either because our previous tests used the 32-bit single core solution. Since they don't seem to have much desire to provide us with the correct license we will probably drop that benchmark in favor of something a little more versatile.

    Kristopher

    Kristopher
  • jkostans - Thursday, June 30, 2005 - link

    I dont care who made the hardware, its a hell of a machine. I wish Intel had to rely on inovation and good products to survive like AMD does. Intel really doesn't have many products capable of out performing AMDs equivalent anymore.
  • opus13i - Thursday, June 30, 2005 - link

    ugh.

    Did you even bother to check with mental images? With a simple phone call you could have had the proper licensing in place for 8 cores, as well as every possible variation of 64bit possible.

    "We include Mental Ray and Shake as a point of reference, although both applications are strictly 32-bit at this time. Mental Ray is further hindered by the fact that the version we have is not SMP-aware."

    way to go detective, i dont suppose you actually looked at teh specifications did you?

    http://www.mentalimages.com/2_1_2_configurations/i...

    no 64 bit indeed.



  • Xunilla - Thursday, June 30, 2005 - link


    You folks are giving Sun a bit too much credit on the hardware portion of this review. In reality, the system OEM is a company called Newisys, a subsidiary of Sanmina-SCI.

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