WinRAR 3.62

Many servers and workstations have to compress a lot of data. WinRAR is one of the most popular compression applications and now features a multi-threaded benchmark.

WinRAR 3.62
  Multi Single
Dual Xeon E5345 2.33 1501 522
Dual Opteron 2224 SE 1259 529
Dual Xeon 5160 3.0 1236 549
Dual Opteron 2222 1219 471
Dual Opteron 8218HE 2.6 1172 426
Xeon E5345 2.33 1169 522
Xeon 5160 3 923 549

Compression algorithms work on large streams of data, so fast memory access is important. The WinRAR Benchmark has a rather high margin of error, but it is still is interesting to look at the scaling numbers.

WinRAR Scaling
  Single Dual Quad Octal
Xeon 5345 2.3 GHz 522 901 1169 1501
Xeon 5160 3 GHz 549 923 1236 N/A
Opteron 2224 SE 3.2 GHz 529 957 1259 N/A

The picture gets clearer as you compare the gains from extra cores in percentages.

WinRAR Scaling - Percentages
  Dual vs. Single Quad vs. Dual Octal vs. Quad
Xeon 5345 2.3 GHz 73% 30% 28%
Xeon 5160 3 GHz 68% 34% N/A
Opteron 2224 SE 3.2 GHz 81% 32% N/A

The algorithm does scale somewhat but it is another example of how hard it is to scale well as more cores get added. NUMA architectures like AMD's Opteron have the potential to extract more memory performance, but there's still the problem of properly coding an algorithm to work with NUMA.

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  • 2ManyOptions - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    ... for most of the benchmarks Intel chips performed better than the Opterons, don't know why Intel should get scared from these, they can safely wait for Barcelona. Didn't really understand why you have out it as AMD is still in game with these in the 4S space.
  • baby5121926 - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    intel got scared because they dont want to see the real result from AMD + ATI.
    the longer intel lets AMD lives, the more dangerous intel will be.
    that's why you guys can see Intel is attacking AMD really really hard at this meantime... just to kick AMD out of the game.
  • Justin Case - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    What are the units in the WinRAR results table?
  • coldpower27 - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    Check Intel own pricing lists, and you will see that Intel has already pre-empted some of these cuts with their Xeon X5355 at $744 or Xeon E5345 at $455 and the "official" Xeon X5365 should be cout soon if not already...

    http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/pricelist/proce...">http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/pric...rice_lis...
  • TheOtherRizzo - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    I know nothing about 4S servers. But what's the essence of this article? Surely not that NetBurst is crap? We've known that for years. Is the real story here that Intel doesn't really give a s*** about 4S, otherwise they would have moved on to the core 2 architecture long ago? Just guessing.
  • coldpower27 - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    Xeon 7300 Series based on the Tigerton core which is a 4 Socket Capable Kentsfield/Clovertown derivatives is arriving in Sepetember this year, so Intel does care in becoming more competitive in the 4S space, but it is just taking some time.

    They decided to concentrate on the high volume 2S sector is all first, since Intel has massive capacity, going for the high volume sector first makes sense.
  • mino - Monday, August 13, 2007 - link

    Yes and no, actually to have two intel quads running on a single FSB was a serious technical problem.

    Therefore they had to wait for 4-FSB chipset to be able to get them out the door. Not to mention the qualification times which are a bit onger for 4S platforms that 2S.

    AMD does not have these obstacles as 8xxx series are essentially 2xxx series from stability/reliability POW.
  • Calin - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    The 5160 processor is Core2 unit, not a NetBurst one. Also, the 5345 is a quad core based on Core2
  • jay401 - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    People built 3.0GHz - 3.33GHz E4300 & E4400 systems six months ago that cost roughly $135 for the CPU. Others went for an E6300 or more recently an E6320, both again under $200.
    They were all relatively easy overclocks.

    Why does anyone with any skill in building their own computer care about an $800+ CPU again?
  • Calin - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    Why don't Ford Mustangs use a small engine, overclocked to hell? Like an inline 4 2.0l with turbo, and a high rpm instead of their huge 4+ liter engines?
    Why do trucks use those big engines, when they could get the same power from a smaller, gasoline, turbocharged engine?

    People pay $800+ for processors that work in multiprocessor systems (your run of the mill Athlon64 or E4300 won't run). Also, they use error checking (and usually error correcting) memory in their systems - again, Athlon64 doesn't do this. They also use registered DDR in order to access more memory banks - your Athlon64 again falls short. On the E4300 side, the chipset is responsible with those things, so you could use such a processor in a server chassis - if the socket fits.

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