Feature Articles

Intel Xeon 5130 and 5160 (2-way SMP) Performance Review

By Vijay Anand - 30 Oct 2006

Results - Futuremark 3DMark06

Results - Futuremark 3DMark06

3DMark06 was fortunately able to scale based on processing core(s) availability and the CPU-based rending scores really showed us how a well-threaded application can give rise to great performance leaps. Back to 3DMark06's usual graphics performance scores, there was a small improvement, but it's not of a real concern as that directly scales with the power of the graphics subsystem. Still, the small boost is a nod towards the influence of a better overall platform and CPU.


Closing Remarks

To answer the initial question if one should consider a DP Xeon platform versus the top of the line consumer uni-processor for the same cost envelope, our results have shown that there are ups and downs to adopting one, but if your applications are highly threaded and you wish to have even further scalability later on the same platform to eight processing cores, the dual Xeon processor combo has shown that it's a strong contender. The primary reason that would make or break the decision lies with the kind of applications used as those that aren't multi-threading friendly, will face a penalty. Of course we've yet to delve in to true engineering or workstation workloads to paint the ideal picture, but we will work upon that in time to come. However, we used more commonly known applications to find out the state of quad-core processing influence and we hope that with this article, we've shown you what to expect from upcoming launch of such processors in the consumer space by both Intel and AMD. Also from testing the highest spec'd Xeon DP pair, the 5160, we have also established the performance expectations of the forthcoming quad-core processors. The CPU space has never been as exciting as it has been in recent times with multitude of advancements in a very short span of time, so stay tuned to our reviews channel as we step up to the next evolutionary step in processing coming shortly.

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