Opteron Still Losing Out to Intel ‘Woodcrest’ Processors

AMD launched its Opteron line of processors for workstations and servers Tuesday, but Digit Magazine’s tests show that the dual-processor model is still significantly less powerful than Intel’s latest rival Xeon chip. Using near-identical workstations from Armari, our tests show that the “Woodcrest” Xeon 5100 can be up to 35 percent faster than an equivalent “Socket F” Opteron 2000.

Using the latest version of Autodesk’s 3-D suite Maya, we rendered highly detailed still scenes. Though this creates a representation of a 3-D image, rendering using Maya’s own software renderer or the Mental Ray engine is performed in the CPU (or CPUs)—providing an excellent indication of the power of processors.

The chips are also compared with the previous fastest processor setup for creative applications, the Power PC G5 chips found within Apple’s Power Mac G5 Quad 2.5GHz. The Intel Xeon 5150 is the model used in the standard configuration of the new Apple Mac Pro.

The review can be read here.

The Opteron 2000 was launched on Tuesday alongside the 1000 model for single processor systems and the 8000 model for four- and eight-chip servers, which all use the Socket F connection to the motherboard. All support virtualization and DDR2 memory.

-Digit staff, Digit Magazine UK

Related Link:

• AMD Releases ‘Rev F’ Opteron Server Chip

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