[SOLVED] Reasons for Xeon over AMD

[slu_1234]

Hello all,

I have to (re)configure some Workstations. At the moment all the workstations are configured with Intel's Xeon processors. I found a helpful list of benefits of Xeon processors compared to Core processors (it wasn't clear to me):

• Support for ECC RAM
• Support for larger amounts of RAM in general
• More cache memory
• Higher core and thread counts
• Option for dual CPUs
• Support for more PCIe lanes

Most of the points are about power or speed and of course the best solution here depends on the individual use case. But after reading and comparing I was wondering why espacially in industrial Workstations AMD processors aren't used (or rarely used?). It seems to me Intel's Xeon processors have the repution to be more stable and more reliable. And exactly this is my question:

Is stability and reliability a quantifiable reason to choose a Xeon processor or is this just an image? (This ist the last point I have to clearify for myself to make a decision.)

Thanks in advance.

 

[kanewolf]

Hello all,

I have to (re)configure some Workstations. At the moment all the workstations are configured with Intel's Xeon processors. I found a helpful list of benefits of Xeon processors compared to Core processors (it wasn't clear to me):

• Support for ECC RAM
• Support for larger amounts of RAM in general
• More cache memory
• Higher core and thread counts
• Option for dual CPUs
• Support for more PCIe lanes

Most of the points are about power or speed and of course the best solution here depends on the individual use case. But after reading and comparing I was wondering why espacially in industrial Workstations AMD processors aren't used (or rarely used?). It seems to me Intel's Xeon processors have the repution to be more stable and more reliable. And exactly this is my question:

Is stability and reliability a quantifiable reason to choose a Xeon processor or is this just an image? (This ist the last point I have to clearify for myself to make a decision.)

Thanks in advance.

It would depend on which AMD you wanted to compare. Ryzen is comparable to i5/i7. Threadripper would be the AMD equivalent of Xeon.
The current Xeon line the "scalable" has the advantage that all the CPUs use the same socket. So upgrades are possible without replacing the motherboard.
What is your baseline hardware (as specific as possible) ?
What is your budget per workstation ?
What type of work do these workstations need to be optimized ?

 

[slu_1234]

Hi kanewolf,

Thanks for your reply. It's not a question of power or budget. I just search for something like a reliability benchmark of processors. I'm just wondering if my workstation is, for example, with an ryzen 9 5950x as stable as with a Xeon w-2295. Or do I have a higher risk of crashes, more errors in calculations, shorter lifetime or something like this?

 

[kanewolf]

Hi kanewolf,

Thanks for your reply. It's not a question of power or budget. I just search for something like a reliability benchmark of processors. I'm just wondering if my workstation is, for example, with an ryzen 9 5950x as stable as with a Xeon w-2295. Or do I have a higher risk of crashes, more errors in calculations, shorter lifetime or something like this?

If you have a large amount of RAM (greater than 64GB, IMO) you want ECC.
Other than that, it is a question of quality components. Especially power supply. And the "platinum" vs "bronze" is no indication of quality.
Keeping everything cool, including the voltage regulators on the motherboard is important. That is one reason I don't like AIO water coolers. No airflow around the CPU socket.
Stability, also means conservative. Don't by 4000Mhz RAM and expect to run at that speed as reliably as 3200. Don't manually overclock things. Accept the small performance reduction for stability.

 

[slu_1234]

If you have a large amount of RAM (greater than 64GB, IMO) you want ECC.
Other than that, it is a question of quality components. Especially power supply. And the "platinum" vs "bronze" is no indication of quality.
Keeping everything cool, including the voltage regulators on the motherboard is important. That is one reason I don't like AIO water coolers. No airflow around the CPU socket.
Stability, also means conservative. Don't by 4000Mhz RAM and expect to run at that speed as reliably as 3200. Don't manually overclock things. Accept the small performance reduction for stability.

Ok, so if I understand you right, you say stability is not a question of cpu type but of a correct configuration.
Is there maybe a bottleneck for a 10 Gbit PCIe Card if I have only 20 lanes of the Ryzen 9 5950x with a nvidia Quadro P4000 and a 1 TB SSD on M.2? (The network traffic is more important than graphic.)

 

[kanewolf]

Ok, so if I understand you right, you say stability is not a question of cpu type but of a correct configuration.
Is there maybe a bottleneck for a 10 Gbit PCIe Card if I have only 20 lanes of the Ryzen 9 5950x with a nvidia Quadro P4000 and a 1 TB SSD on M.2? (The network traffic is more important than graphic.)

A single port 10GE only requires two PCIe 3.0 lanes. You can't get full performance in an X1 slot.