Opteron SSE2 performance reportedly pitiful

[arcas]

Link

One has to wonder why AMD included SSE2 support if their implementation peforms as badly as this article claims. I suppose that in the future, lack of SSE2 might be a liability but it seems a very slow implementation is just as much a liability.

Given that the among C/C++ compilers available today, the Intel compiler appears to generate the fastest-performing code for Opteron, it seems tempting for Intel to further tweak the compiler to take further advantage of SSE2 wherever possible.

It's also interesting that even with SSE2 turned off, the AthlonXP 2600+ handily beats the Opteron 242 using TMPGenc.

 

[NesuD]

I wouldn't be to quick to make generalizations on the Opterons SSE2 performance based on one application. It could very well be the applications SSE2 support that is causing the issue. I use TMPGEnc and frankly while it is a very good encoder it definately is not the most polished software i have ever used. It has lots of annoying quirks like not working with the directshow runtimes that are part of windvd. So i would reserve comment on this particular topic until such time as a definitive problem can be verified across a range of applications.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: NesuD
I wouldn't be to quick to make generalizations on the Opterons SSE2 performance based on one application. It could very well be the applications SSE2 support that is causing the issue. I use TMPGEnc and frankly while it is a very good encoder it definately is not the most polished software i have ever used. It has lots of annoying quirks like not working with the directshow runtimes that are part of windvd. So i would reserve comment on this particular topic until such time as a definitive problem can be verified across a range of applications.

I agree. It is not possible to draw a conclusion on 1 benchmark. A multitude of non-biased benchmarks must be performed and tabled to allow the general public to decide for themselves.

 

[Duvie]

In some of the more thorough reviews it showed the opteron did quite well when running sse2 programs over xp or barton w/o sse2....It didn't in many cases take over the top p4 but higher mhz of cpu may help that out eventually...