E5-2650 vs X5550

[Ascendo]

Hi everyone

I'm hoping someone can help out regarding virtualisation performance of the aforementioned processors.

I have a very heavy SQL VM which is maxing out 16 virtual cores running on a Hyper-V (3.0) host (dual X5550). I am planning on buying a new server to replace it - will a dual E5-2650 also running 16 virtual cores perform better or worse? Due to software licensing I cannot increase the number of cores in the VM. Would disabling HT be of any benefit here?

I would not like to go up to E5-2690 due to power consumption and cost.

Thanks

A

 

[Zstream]

No, removing HT would not improve your throughput. You'll need to upgrade to a bigger box I'm afraid. The box you plan on purchasing will not be faster in the CPU sector. The only benefit is higher L3 cache which can increase throughput but it depends on what the SQL server is doing.

http://sqlstrategy.blogspot.com/2012/05/to-hyper-thread-or-not-to-hyper-thread.html

The above link might help.

 

[Ascendo]

Thanks, which processor would you recommend so that I can get ~30% improvement? Would dual X5690 (3.46 GHz) perhaps be a better option?

 

[Zstream]

It all depends on the workload but you should be getting 20-25% increase going from a 4c/8ht to a 6c/12ht. The faster CPU should give you a few more percentage points. It's a good upgrade.

 

[Ascendo]

Thanks for the reply. Supplier is giving me a dual E5-2690 to test. The dual X5690 is actually not much cheaper.

 

[Zstream]

Thanks for the reply. Supplier is giving me a dual E5-2690 to test. The dual X5690 is actually not much cheaper.

Any update? I'm curious.