The Incredible Performance & Power Efficiency Of AMD Zen 1 vs. Zen 4C

Written by Michael Larabel in Processors on 25 January 2024 at 03:00 PM EST. Page 4 of 7. 33 Comments.
RocksDB benchmark with settings of Test: Random Read. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
RocksDB benchmark with settings of Test: Random Read. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
RocksDB benchmark with settings of Test: Random Read. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
Redis 7.0.12 + memtier_benchmark benchmark with settings of Protocol: Redis, Clients: 100, Set To Get Ratio: 1:10. EPYC 8324P - Zen 4C was the fastest.
Redis 7.0.12 + memtier_benchmark benchmark with settings of Protocol: Redis, Clients: 100, Set To Get Ratio: 1:10. EPYC 8324P - Zen 4C was the fastest.
Redis 7.0.12 + memtier_benchmark benchmark with settings of Protocol: Redis, Clients: 100, Set To Get Ratio: 1:10. EPYC 8324P - Zen 4C was the fastest.

For anyone that may still be using an AMD EPYC Naples server, in 2024 it's certainly time for an upgrade with the performance and power efficiency possible with the EPYC 8004 series or if really wanting to maximize performance looking at the EPYC 9004 line-up.

Timed Linux Kernel Compilation benchmark with settings of Build: defconfig. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
Timed Linux Kernel Compilation benchmark with settings of Build: defconfig. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
Timed Linux Kernel Compilation benchmark with settings of Build: allmodconfig. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
Timed Linux Kernel Compilation benchmark with settings of Build: allmodconfig. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.

Even for "simple" workloads like code compilation, there is a stunning difference going from 32 cores Zen 1 to Zen 4C. There's also the memory difference going from DDR4-2666 to DDR5-4800, but also with Siena is at six memory channels compared to eight memory channels with Naples.

Timed LLVM Compilation benchmark with settings of Build System: Ninja. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
Timed LLVM Compilation benchmark with settings of Build System: Ninja. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.

Besides the power costs, there is reduced cooling needs for Siena and a big focus by AMD to maximize TCO with the EPYC 8004 series servers.

QuantLib benchmark with settings of Configuration: Multi-Threaded. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
QuantLib benchmark with settings of Configuration: Multi-Threaded. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
OpenFOAM benchmark with settings of Input: drivaerFastback, Medium Mesh Size, Execution Time. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.
OpenFOAM benchmark with settings of Input: drivaerFastback, Medium Mesh Size, Execution Time. EPYC 8534PN - Zen 4C was the fastest.

For pretty much any workload you want to toss at it, going from Zen 1 to Zen 4C is a huge difference not only to the performance but significant power savings / power efficiency advantages. During the brief moments of idle it's also worth noting the EPYC 7601 was bottoming out around 65 Watts compared to the Siena processors at 12~13 Watts.


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