Comparison of X5570 and X7450 Xeons

I am trying to work out which is more suitable for an SQL Server 2008 installation:

Two six core X7460 clocked at 2.66Ghz
or
Two Quad core X5570 clocked at 2.93Ghz.

Ideally, I'd like to know which is faster overall - bearing in mind that the X5570 is Nehalem/Gainestown and the X7460 is Dunnington.

Any advice would be appreciated!

From serverfault PCurd

• The answer, like so many "what is the best setup?" questions, depends on your specific workload.

  Some numbers:

  • 2 x X7460@2.66 = 31.92GHz
  • 2 x X5570@2.93 = 23.44GHz

  Obviously, the hexcores are faster overall. However:

  • Is your workload parallelizable? Maybe fewer, faster cores makes sense.
  • Is your workload CPU-bound? Is it disk-bound? Memory-bound?

  If you have a parallel, CPU-bound workload that accesses a smaller set of memory, I think the X7460s may be better.

  However, you may find that the new Nehalem architecture gives you better performance on your particular workload (faster RAM & IO).

  There is no right answer - it depends.

  All other things being equal, I would recommend going with the Nehalem, as you can always upgrade to the hex-cores when Intel decides to release them :)

  PCurd : Thanks for the input!
  From MikeyB

• I just recently went through the same eval process myself. I found this thread, which kicked me firmly into the Nehalem camp:

  communities.vmware.com/thread/202280 (can't post a hyperlink because I'm a new user)

  Essentially, the results indicate that for memory-intesive applications, 8 Nehalem cores will typically outperform up to 16 of the previous generation Xeons, or Opterons for that matter.

  Poke around on anandtech.com and you'll find similar benchmarks.

  JFV : Clock-speed is still king, even if there are more cores at a lower clock-speed. I agree with adamico, go with the Nehalem procs.

  PCurd : Thanks for the input - the VMWare thread was useful! I am confident that the efficiency of the Nehalem will more than make up for the lack of cores.
  From Adam D'Amico

• You are best off with the Nehalem processors they are nearly 2 times as fast as the previous generation of intel processors. I would certainly suggest the nehalem over the older generation of processor.

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