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The max all-core turbo frequency of Intel's flagship 60-core Sapphire Rapids model is 2.60 GHz. It costs $17,000. The equivalent AMD 9554P processor has 64 cor

The max all-core turbo frequency of Intel's flagship 60-core Sapphire Rapids model is 2.60 GHz. It costs $17,000. The equivalent AMD 9554P processor has 64 cores, and has a base clock of 3.10 GHz for just $7,100. The AMD processor's boost clock is 3.75 GHz, which means it is about 50% faster if you factor in the extra 4 cores and assume that both processors have roughly the same IPC. The price/performance difference is just staggering.

wmf 4y ago
Sapphire Rapids was supposed to compete against Milan where it would have had a chance (with massive discount). It was delayed so long that it's now pointless.
- jiggawatts 4y ago
  The public clouds will still buy it, mainly because AMD cannot manufacture enough 9004 series processors to meet their demand. Large orgs also like to have two sources for each component to prevent excessive lock-in, price gouging, and other counterparty risks.
  - jeffbee 4y ago
    There aren't any genoa in public clouds, so if sapphire rapids arrives in general production soon it will indeed by head-to-head against milan. And in my experience even ice lake beats milan.
    - re-thc 4y ago
      Performance depends on which SKU the clouds run, which can differ depending on what they optimize for. In the past, most clouds have offered AMD as a "cheaper option" to Intel and so that's how it's been spec-ed. As this changes things might look a bit different.
    - jiggawatts 4y ago
      Azure has 176 vCPU instances as private preview, but only in the "HPC" sizes: https://azure.microsoft.com/es-es/blog/do-more-with-less-using-new-azure-hx-and-hbv4-virtual-machines-for-hpc/ https://azure.microsoft.com/es-es/blog/do-more-with-less-usi... Apparently they're waiting for the v-cache enabled version to be available and they will buy those in bulk. I heard they'll be deploying them this month.
      - re-thc 4y ago
        Genoa is delayed due to issues with its memory controller: https://semiaccurate.com/2023/03/13/a-bit-more-on-amds-genoa-memory-issues/ https://semiaccurate.com/2023/03/13/a-bit-more-on-amds-genoa... Most clouds do want huge instances.
  - wmf 4y ago
    (If Intel charges $17K when they're losing, imagine what they would charge without competition.)

wmf 4y ago

Sapphire Rapids was supposed to compete against Milan where it would have had a chance (with massive discount). It was delayed so long that it's now pointless.

jiggawatts 4y ago
The public clouds will still buy it, mainly because AMD cannot manufacture enough 9004 series processors to meet their demand. Large orgs also like to have two sources for each component to prevent excessive lock-in, price gouging, and other counterparty risks.
- jeffbee 4y ago
  There aren't any genoa in public clouds, so if sapphire rapids arrives in general production soon it will indeed by head-to-head against milan. And in my experience even ice lake beats milan.
  - re-thc 4y ago
    Performance depends on which SKU the clouds run, which can differ depending on what they optimize for. In the past, most clouds have offered AMD as a "cheaper option" to Intel and so that's how it's been spec-ed. As this changes things might look a bit different.
  - jiggawatts 4y ago
    Azure has 176 vCPU instances as private preview, but only in the "HPC" sizes: https://azure.microsoft.com/es-es/blog/do-more-with-less-using-new-azure-hx-and-hbv4-virtual-machines-for-hpc/ https://azure.microsoft.com/es-es/blog/do-more-with-less-usi... Apparently they're waiting for the v-cache enabled version to be available and they will buy those in bulk. I heard they'll be deploying them this month.
    - re-thc 4y ago
      Genoa is delayed due to issues with its memory controller: https://semiaccurate.com/2023/03/13/a-bit-more-on-amds-genoa-memory-issues/ https://semiaccurate.com/2023/03/13/a-bit-more-on-amds-genoa... Most clouds do want huge instances.
- wmf 4y ago
  (If Intel charges $17K when they're losing, imagine what they would charge without competition.)