Database Server CPU Comparison: Athlon MP vs. Hyper Threading Xeon

AnandTech Forums Database Performance

Now it's time for the beast, the AnandTech Forums DB. With hundreds of users always logged on and thousands more just browsing the forums, this database gets a full workout. Now with over 88,000 registered users it has become a difficult task making sure our upgrade cycles keep up with the growth of the forums.

Currently our Forums DB server is running on a dual Athlon MP 1800+ platform which gives it enough headroom for the foreseeable future.

AnandTech Forums Database Performance Transactions per Second

Athlon MP 2000+ (1.6GHz) x 2 Xeon 2.2GHz x 2 (HT Enabled) Athlon MP 1.2GHz x 2 Xeon 2.2GHz x 2 Xeon 1.7GHz x 2 AMD Athlon MP 2000+ (1.67GHz) Intel Xeon 2.2GHz (HT Enabled) Intel Xeon 2.2GHz AMD Athlon MP 1.2GHz Intel Xeon 1.7GHz 211.1 205.9 185.5 175.9 156.6 141.4 134.5 123.2 112.8 96.7 | 0 | 42 | 84 | 127 | 169 | 211 | 253

If you'll recall from our original 760MP review, we ran a Forums DB trace on the first Athlon MP platforms and they completely dominated the first Xeons. If we were to knock off the recently released Athlon MP 2000+ platform and just compared the new Xeons to the Athlon MP 1.2GHz setup we ran back in June, the performance would still be impressive.

Do notice that although the dual Athlon MP 1.2GHz setup is 18% faster than the dual 1.7GHz Xeon platform, it is also just over 5% faster than the dual 2.2GHz Xeon platform. In our most strenuous database server test, the Athlon MP continues to shine and perform extremely well. The higher clocked CPUs result in a 13.8% boost over the first MPs that were released in June.

But the real kicker here is what happens when Hyper Threading is enabled on the dual 2.2GHz Xeon platform. The resulting 17% improvement brings the new Xeons back into the game and puts them less than 3% away from the fastest dual Athlon MP 2000+ setup. This is by far the largest tangible performance improvement we've been able to produce in a real-world setting on Intel's 2.2GHz Xeons. For being the first true incarnation of a Hyper Threading enabled processor, we can say that we're impressed with the technology at this point. The performance boost not only resulted in a noticeable improvement in DB processing power but it also made the Xeon competitive. Without Hyper Threading, the Xeon would be in some serious trouble in the server world from a performance standpoint. With Hyper Threading enabled however the 2.2GHz Xeons can keep up with AMD's Athlon MP 2000+ CPUs. Oh, how times have changed; it used to be that AMD would never have been taken seriously in the enterprise market, and now we're talking about Intel striving to be competitive enough with the AMD's enterprise level performance.