These E7 processors also use much lower base and turbo clock speeds than current Xeon E5 v2 processors, which also hurts their single-threaded processor performance. They do have higher overall concurrent load capacity due to higher total memory capacity and more total processor cores, but the individual processor cores in most four-socket servers have been much slower than what you find in a modern two-socket server. Simply put, bigger servers are not faster servers. It is like comparing an eighteen wheeler truck to a Tesla Model S.

Now, that old assessment is going to change somewhat, with the release of the 22nm Intel Xeon E7 Processor v2 Family (Ivy Bridge-EX), and new model servers from the major server vendors that have even higher memory capacity, PCI-E 3.0 support, and 12Gbps SAS/SATA support, along with much faster RAID controllers. These processors are a substantial improvement over the previous generation 32nm Intel Xeon E7 processors (Westmere-EX) that have been available since early 2011.

It will still be possible to configure a new two-socket server, such as a Dell PowerEdge R720, with an appropriate 22nm Intel Xeon E5-2600 Processor v2 Family (Ivy Bridge-EP) processor that will have better single-threaded performance than a new four-socket server such as a Dell PowerEdge R920, but the gap will not be nearly as large as it once was.

The actual good news here for a database professional is the fact that you will be able to have a four-socket server that has as much load capacity as a previous generation, eight-socket server, that also performs nearly as well as a current two-socket server, while paying 25% less for your SQL Server 2012/2014 license costs (compared to a previous generation eight-socket server). This is a pretty big gift from Intel!

A more pessimistic view is that your SQL Server 2012/2014 license costs could rise by 50% as you move from an existing server equipped with four, ten-core Xeon E7-4870 processors (with a total of forty physical cores) to a new server with four, fifteen-core Xeon E7-4890 v2 processors (with a total of of sixty physical cores). For reasons known only to Intel, the lower core count SKUs in the Xeon E7-48xx v2 product family are not “frequency optimized”, meaning they do not have higher clock speeds than the high-end, E7-4890 v2 processor. The base and turbo clock speeds of the best lower core-count SKUs in the E7- 48xx v2 family actually drop off pretty quickly as the core counts go down. The shared-L3 cache sizes also drop off very quickly, as does the processor price, as you can see in Table 1.

Table 1: Selected Intel E7-48xx v2 Processors

With the Xeon E4-48xx v2 product family, you are going to want to choose either the E7-4890 v2 or the E7-4860 v2 model processors in most situations, since the lower core count processors are giving up a substantial amount of performance due to their lower clock speeds and smaller L3 cache sizes. If you really want to reduce your core counts to reduce your SQL Server 2012/2014 license costs, you would be better off with the Intel Xeon E5-26xx v2 product family processors that are used in two socket servers. Another alternative is the upcoming Intel Xeon E5-46xx v2 product family processors that are used in four-socket servers.

Either of those choices would be better than one of the lower core count processors in the E7-48xx v2 product family, at least from a pure processor performance perspective.

Intel also has refreshed the E7-88xx v2 product family that is meant for eight-socket and larger servers. For some reason (probably for HPC use), Intel does have “frequency-optimized”, lower core-count models in this product family, as you can see in Table 2.

Table 2: Selected Intel E7-88xx v2 Processors

I could see some scenarios where you might want to get an eight-socket server with the six-core E7-8893 v2, so that you could have the same physical core count, while having double the memory capacity and much better single-threaded processor performance than a four-socket server with the twelve-core E7-4860 v2. The hardware cost would be significantly higher, since you would be buying eight processors for $6,841.00 each instead of four processors at $3,838.00 each, but for many organizations, that would not be a major issue.

Some server vendors may offer the Xeon E7-88xx v2 processors in their four-socket server models, since they are pin-compatible, which would give us a lot more flexibility as far as processor selection goes. I really wish Intel had “frequency-optimized” models in their Xeon E7-48xx v2 product family, to make this even easier.

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In most cases you would not actually want to do a processor upgrade on an existing server for economic reasons, but you could if you wanted to. Having socket and chipset compatibility just means that the server vendors will be able to offer the new processor as soon as they get a supply of them from Intel.

The E5-2600 v2 series is aimed at two-socket servers, and will have at least 18 different “Ivy Bridge-EP” SKUs, ranging from the entry-level E5-2603 v2 up to the twelve-core E5-2697 v2. The 22nm processors have up to 12 physical cores, which allows them to have 24 logical cores with hyper-threading enabled.  The second series, the E5-1600 v2, works only in single-socket systems, and is going to initially have three models, the E5-1620 v2, E5-1650 v2, and E5-1660 v2. Both families will work with the Intel C600 series chipsets, and both use Socket 2011.

The second generation 22nm Intel Xeon E7 family, (which includes the Xeon E7-2800 v2, E7-4800, and E7-8800 v2) is aimed at larger, multi-processor servers, and it will be delayed until at least Q1 2014. Previous reports indicated these Ivy Bridge-EX processors would be available in Q4 2013. These processors will have triple the memory capacity of the current 32nm Westmere-EX processors, and they will require new server models from the server vendors. They will also finally have PCI-E 3.0 support, so overall they will be a huge upgrade from the current Westmere-EX.

Also in Q1 2014, Intel is going to release the 22nm Xeon E5-4600 v2 and E5-2400 v2 processors. The E5-4600 v2 will work in four-socket servers, and they use Socket 2011. The E5-2400 v2 (Ivy Bridge-EN) are for two-socket servers, have up to 10 cores, and will use Socket 1356. These Ivy Bridge-EN processors will NOT a good choice for SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 OLTP workloads compared to higher performance Ivy Bridge-EP processors.

I really hate to see Intel slip their release schedule like this. I think a big part of why this happened is due to a lack of viable competition from AMD. After all, why should Intel rush to push out new technology when they are absolutely dominant from a performance perspective? They can continue to sell the current processors for a little longer with no real consequences.

Given the apparent delay for the Ivy Bridge-EX, a twelve-core Ivy Bridge-EP processor will be the hot ticket for a lot of people who are looking at new database servers over the next six to nine months. A new two-socket Ivy Bridge-EP system with Windows Server 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2014 will be the way to go in the near future.

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The two-socket Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 family (Ivy Bridge-EP) is due to be released in Q3 of 2013. They will have up to twelve physical cores (24 logical cores), with L3 cache sizes of up to 30MB. They will have two Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) 1.1 links and four DDR3 memory channels and along with 40 lanes of PCI-E 3.0. They will also support DDR3-1866 memory, along with Intel Secure Key and OS Guard features.

This is a 50% increase in physical core counts compared to the current Intel Xeon E5-2600 family. This would represent a significant increase in your SQL Server 2012 core-based licensing costs, so you may want to consider a lower core count model in some situations. We may also see a 50% increase in the maximum memory allowed in a two socket server compared to the current Xeon E5-2600 family, taking us up to 576GB with 16GB DIMMs, but that is just a guess on my part.

The single-socket Intel Xeon E5-1600 v2 family (Ivy Bridge-EP) is also due to be released in Q3 of 2013. It will have up to six physical cores (12 logical cores). This could be a good solution for an entry-level, single-socket server.

The two, four and eight-socket Intel Xeon E7-2800, E7-4800 and E7-8800 v2 families (Ivy Bridge-EX) are due to be released in Q4 of 2013. They are supposed to have up to fifteen physical cores (30 logical cores), with L3 cache sizes of up to 37.5MB. They will have three Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) 1.1 links and four DDR3 memory channels and along with 32 lanes of PCI-E 3.0. These processors will use the C602J chipset, and will utilize up to four C102/C104 scalable memory buffers per socket. Each scalable memory buffer will support up to three DDR3-1600 DIMMS, so the maximum number of DIMMS per processor is going to be 24. This means that you could have up to 3TB of RAM in a four-socket server (with expensive 32GB DIMMs). More realistically, you would be economically limited to 1.5TB of RAM in a four-socket server with 16GB DIMMs. They will also have Intel Secure Key and OS Guard features, along with VT-x, VT-d and VT-c virtualization support.

This is also a 50% increase in physical core counts compared to the current Intel Xeon E7 family. This would represent a significant increase in your SQL Server 2012 core-based licensing costs, so you may want to consider a lower core count model in some situations. On the positive side, this will be a jump from the somewhat elderly Westmere-EX all the way to the Ivy Bridge-EX (skipping the Sandy Bridge). This will give PCI-E 3.0 support to larger form factor servers and should give a very nice boost to overall system performance.

The lower-end, two-socket Intel Xeon E5-2400 v2 family (Ivy Bridge-EN) is due to be released in Q1 of 2014 will have up to ten physical cores (24 logical cores). I think you should avoid this family for use in two-socket database servers, since the E5-2600 v2 will offer much better performance per physical core.

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