G34 Opterons, huge price differences

[Daniel Meszaros]

Hi,

I am astonished about the price differences of current G34 Opterons:

- 6128, 8x 2000 MHz, 8x 512 kB L2, 2x 6144 kB L3: 248,77 ¤
- 6168, 12x 1900 MHz, 12x 512 kB L2, 2x 6144 kB L3: 681,42 ¤

This is more than 25 ¤ difference per core.

Of course, put on a dual mainboard one makes "just" 16 cores, the other
makes 24 cores possible. But are there other reasons?

Does anyone of you know performance benchmark results? I could not find any.

CU,
Mészi.

 

[AGross]

Hello Daniel,

Well, you get 50% more cores in the same package and the same TDP.

Other than that, the price might be an anomaly caused by the resellers
in your country.
For example, in Newegg, the 6128 is 300 USD and the 6168 is 759 USD.

So you get something like 150% more (independent) computation units
for 250% price. You can look at it like that, just at the CPU cost,
but, to make better sense, you can look at it from the POV of a blade/
server integrator, where you take into account the motherboard, the
space and heat exhausted, etc. If you take all those into account, the
variation of delta-cores/delta-cost isn't that bad as it might look
initially.

If you look at it as a desktop 'consumer' then, yes, the price is
skewed, but it is not meant for desktop users, but for blade
integrators where other costs factor in that you do not see just by
looking at the CPU alone.

A really simple example would be 2x G34 sk each with a 12 core Opteron
= 24 cores @ ~ 250W TDP (maximum, the real draw is far lower)
However, if you go with the 8 cores, you can put at mosty 2x 8 = 16
cores @ ~ 250W TDP and, if you want to jump to 24 you have to buy a 1S
pr 2S system with one more 8 core Opteron that draws ~ 115W more (plus
the motherboard/chipsed, drives, memory, psu efficiency etc).

You get far more in the same 'space' with the 12 core Opty than with
the 8 x one, not only as core count, but power usage, ease of
integration and management (less blades to manage) and so on.

 

[AGross]

Ooops, I should never post here in the middle of the night...

I meant you get 50% more computation units (obviously) for 150%
cost.