AMD EPYC 8324P / 8324PN: Impressive Performance of Siena 32-Core Linux Server

Phoronix has recently conducted a review of the AMD EPYC 8324P and 8324PN processors, part of the Siena line, to assess their performance in comparison to the Intel Xeon Scalable “Sapphire Rapids” processors. The Siena processors are part of AMD’s EPYC 8004 series, which aims to maximize power efficiency in server deployments across various environments.

The EPYC 8324P and 8324PN are both 32-core processors. The EPYC 8324P has a base frequency of 2.65GHz and a boost frequency of 3.0GHz, while the EPYC 8324PN has the same boost frequency but a lower base frequency of 2.05GHz. The TDP of the EPYC 8324P is 180 Watts, while the EPYC 8324PN has a TDP of 130 Watts. The EPYC 8324P also has a configurable TDP range from 155 to 225 Watts.

In terms of pricing, the EPYC 8324P is priced at $1895 USD, while the EPYC 8324PN is priced at $2125 USD. These prices are competitive with the Intel Xeon Gold 6421N 32-core processor, which has a list price of $2368 USD.

For testing purposes, Phoronix used the AMD Cinnabar reference server with 8 x 32GB DDR5-4800 memory and four 3.2TB Micron 7450 Max NVMe SSDs in RAID10 with EXT4 as the storage. The Intel Xeon Gold 6421N was tested in a single socket ASRockRack SPC741D8-2L2T/BCM server with four Micron 7450 Max NVMe SSDs.

The benchmarking was conducted on Ubuntu 23.10 with the Linux 6.5 kernel and GCC 13.2 compiler. Various processor configurations were tested, including different power states and TDP values. Performance-per-Watt and CPU power consumption were monitored during the tests.

In conclusion, the AMD EPYC 8324P and 8324PN processors provide competitive performance in comparison to the Intel Xeon Scalable “Sapphire Rapids” processors. With their energy efficiency and power density, they are suitable for various server deployments. The pricing of these processors is also favorable when compared to their Intel counterparts.

Source: Phoronix.