Benchmarks: Amazon EC2 C5ad Instances Launch For AMD EPYC Rome With Local NVMe Storage

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Benchmarks: Amazon EC2 C5ad Instances Launch For AMD EPYC Rome With Local NVMe Storage

Complementing Amazon's recently launched EPYC 7002 "Rome" CPUs in the EC2 cloud, the "c5a" series has now been extended with the "c5ad" line-up of AMD EPYC Rome processors that now have local NVMe-based solid-state storage directly attached. Initial tests of the Amazon EC2 C5ad instances are promising and indeed offering better value than the comparable Intel Xeon instances.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=29450

[tildearrow]

Given Amazon's advertised use-cases for the C5ad line-up of media workloads and more, those were among the workloads focused on for benchmarking.

Missing: SVT-VP9, SVT-HEVC, x264, x265, dav1d, FFmpeg, rav1e, libgav1, aom-av1

[Michael]

Missing: SVT-VP9, SVT-HEVC, x264, x265, dav1d, FFmpeg, rav1e, libgav1, aom-av1

When paying per hour in the cloud and struggling to make ends right now on web adverts, unfortunately not feasible running every possible benchmark.

[tildearrow]

When paying per hour in the cloud and struggling to make ends right now on web adverts, unfortunately not feasible running every possible benchmark.

Don't worry, it's fine.

[Hibbelharry]

I just recently started to integrate some AMD Rome boxes into our server structure at work, so far it's a very nice ride. It's nice to see AMD gaining some ground in other server landscapes, too. They earn it.

[olivier]

I just recently started to integrate some AMD Rome boxes into our server structure at work, so far it's a very nice ride. It's nice to see AMD gaining some ground in other server landscapes, too. They earn it.

Did the same here, we simply got 3 times increase from our previous infrastructure performance over (older) Intel CPUs, for a VERY reasonable cost (less then 4k€ per machine, 3x Dell R6515 with 1x EPYC 7302P each). Here is a recap here: https://xcp-ng.org/blog/2020/08/13/xcp-ng-at-vates/

[Hibbelharry]

Did the same here, we simply got 3 times increase from our previous infrastructure performance over (older) Intel CPUs, for a VERY reasonable cost (less then 4k€ per machine, 3x Dell R6515 with 1x EPYC 7302P each). Here is a recap here: https://xcp-ng.org/blog/2020/08/13/xcp-ng-at-vates/

Yeah, cool stuff. Keep going

Concerning intel you're right, it got really annoying trying to keep security maintained. We've had quite some performance hits in our usecases after patching all of the security holes, so beating the older boxes is not that kind of hard, and it's happening. And after having all boxes patched, you never know when the next security bulletins arrive, the intel architecture seems to be really badly broken. I can't see intel competing again in the foreseeable future, even if they go cheap. They've fallen behind massively and this will last for a while.

I also see you're into xcp-ng, so basically Xen, haven't touched that in a while. I did use Xen when I started diving into virtualization 15 years ago. At that time it hasn't been ready and plagued me with quite some unpredictable errors... I remember doing ssh sessions from my nokia cellphone (pita!), being at the CeBit Fair, trying to diagnose why some services stopped working, not being able to get them started again(even more pita!)... so I was very glad when kvm became a thing. Nowadays we're still heavy users of kvm and added some thousands of docker containers into the mix. We're also clients at Hetzner, which so far did a good job of not letting us down

[GreenByte]

I read every single C5ad as Chad. To be fair, Rome servers are pretty Chad.

[msroadkill612]

I just recently started to integrate some AMD Rome boxes into our server structure at work, so far it's a very nice ride. It's nice to see AMD gaining some ground in other server landscapes, too. They earn it.

OTOH, its not just a case of giving amd a try... its becoming very hard to choose intel in many situations. It has to be a very strong legacy tie to compensate for lack of pcie 4 to a data center e.g.

Dunno, but it seems that the cloud era ushers in an easy try before you buy option, so much of the impact of FUD is lost on once more fearful customers.

It seems much of Intel's powerful sales force's effect has been lost - Amd only need to focus on getting cloud business from the ~big 7, & the in house installs will follow.

if u believe the Intel moats have been very effective, then you must also believe there will be an exponential surge in amd sales when they inevitably fade away.

[msroadkill612]

I heard a quote from an HP server exec, saying their epyc line of servers had halved the cost per VM.