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AMD vs. Intel (specs better for COMSOL?)
Posted May 17, 2012, 2:15 p.m. EDT Version 4.3 1 Reply
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We run a muli-user lab and run COMSOL on 3-4 machines. All of them are PC's with 8 cores and 24GB of memory or there abouts. We are seeing increased use of COMSOL and our users are running into slow simulation times on some of their COMSOL projects, so we are budgeting a new server class PC. We are wondering AMD vs. Intel.
We are aware of this knowledge base thread but are looking for more detail: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/866/.
PC #1: HP ProLiant DL585 G7 Server
(4x) AMD Opteron 6272 (16 core 2.1GHz) (total of 64 cores)
256GB PC3-12800R Memory
(4GB of mem per 2.1GHz core)
PC#2: HP ProLiant DL580 G7 Server
(4x) Xeon E7-4850 (10 core 2.0GHz) (total of 40 cores)
256GB PC3-10600R Memory
(6.4GB of mem per 2.0GHz core)
PC#3: just like PC#1, except with 512GB of PC3-12800R Memory
(8GB of mem per 2.1GHz core)
Either system would have an Nvidia Quadro 6000 card in it.
An interesting note is that the above AMD system is much more ecconomical than the Intel. The cost of the 512GB AMD server is about the same as the 256GB Intel. Are Intel chips just that much faster? Or is the faster bus speed of AMD (12800R) more important?
I'm not sure which modules in COMSOL are most important to our users although I could find out. However, we definitely need to be flexible because users/researchers come in and out of our labs so we may need to use many different modules from time to time.
Thanks for any tips!
Alex
We are aware of this knowledge base thread but are looking for more detail: www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/866/.
PC #1: HP ProLiant DL585 G7 Server
(4x) AMD Opteron 6272 (16 core 2.1GHz) (total of 64 cores)
256GB PC3-12800R Memory
(4GB of mem per 2.1GHz core)
PC#2: HP ProLiant DL580 G7 Server
(4x) Xeon E7-4850 (10 core 2.0GHz) (total of 40 cores)
256GB PC3-10600R Memory
(6.4GB of mem per 2.0GHz core)
PC#3: just like PC#1, except with 512GB of PC3-12800R Memory
(8GB of mem per 2.1GHz core)
Either system would have an Nvidia Quadro 6000 card in it.
An interesting note is that the above AMD system is much more ecconomical than the Intel. The cost of the 512GB AMD server is about the same as the 256GB Intel. Are Intel chips just that much faster? Or is the faster bus speed of AMD (12800R) more important?
I'm not sure which modules in COMSOL are most important to our users although I could find out. However, we definitely need to be flexible because users/researchers come in and out of our labs so we may need to use many different modules from time to time.
Thanks for any tips!
Alex
1 Reply Last Post May 17, 2012, 2:56 p.m. EDT
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Posted:
1 decade ago
I think the answer would really depend on particular FEM problem. Sometimes you care about the maximum size of your problem, then max RAM is important. Sometimes you need speed for really simple problem, then RAM frequency is very important. And overall number of cores + CPU freq. also affect speed.
For a general use lab, I'd definitely go to PC3 not PC2 because of RAM speed, total RAM and RAM per core.
For a general use lab, I'd definitely go to PC3 not PC2 because of RAM speed, total RAM and RAM per core.