You may have heard about rack servers in discussing how to store data and run applications with efficiency.
The demand for computing increases as the business scales and grows, and rack servers become an indispensable component of your infrastructure. This leads to a choice to be made between Intel-based servers and other types of servers such as those based on AMD processors. While Intel has a well-established brand in the server segment, new products of AMD have significant benefits that you need to take into account.
In this post, I’ll describe 10 main advantages of rack servers running on AMD so that you’ll understand that they are the best option to consider.
Increase Speed with Modern Microarchitecture Architecture
These rack server chips are developed at a 7nm manufacturing node and these are more core and thread chips with high density. This translates to system-level performance improvement of 15% per socket compared to previous generations.
For instance, going from 14-nm to 7-nm lithography enabled the number of cores per EPYC socket to be doubled from 32 to 64 cores. These are compounded by additional cores, increased cache size, and improvements made to memory latency that collectively result in significant performance increases in your most important operations.
Maximizing Customer’s Profit: More for Less
On top of this, AMD server processors offer excellent value for the money when compared to their competitors. And finally, if you compare two similar models of servers from both companies – AMD and Intel, you will find that the servers based on AMD are cheaper than those of Intel.
The huge improvement in per-socket performance discussed above, when coupled with the highly competitive pricing, makes AMD servers more of a better dollar value proposition. While pursuing infrastructure efficiency, this value advantage contributes to enhancing your financial performance while keeping agreements and applying the benefits to improvement plans.
Expand Bandwidth with PCIe Lanes
I/O performance has been in the spotlight, especially with the increase in use of data. AMD server platforms are good here too, especially when talking about EPYC processors that include a sizable number of PCIe lanes.
For instance, the current highest mainstream EPYCs from AMD have 128 native PCIe 4. 0 connections and an additional 32 PCIe 4. 0 connections from the PCH. This is significantly more than the 48 lanes that are provided by Intel equivalent chips. Additional lanes mean that a device has higher networking, storage, and accelerator I/O rates, among other benefits. For those who may be interested in connecting more devices without the problems arising from performance bottlenecks, AMD is the answer.
Improve Overall Productivity through Enhancements
Currently, the highest level of AMD EPYC CPUs is presented in a single socket with an incredible number of cores – 64. This is considerably low when compared to high-end Intel Xeons, which are currently limited to a maximum of 28 cores.
All those extra AMD cores are what give the system extra parallel processing power to take care of the more demanding tasks. For databases, analytics, virtualized workloads, and multi-threaded applications these ample AMD cores speed up the time it takes to do calculations.
Security in Build with Mores and Features
Fortunately, AMD servers have some security features that are not offered in others and are reserved for AMD only. These begin at the hardware level to application, and security, down to the silicon.
Some of them are – AMD Secure Processor, Secure Memory Encryption, and Secure Encrypted Virtualization. It is such tools that offer some degree of protection to stand as your initial line of defense against these advancing invasions. Constant technology developments guarantee that the servers of AMD have enhanced protection at all times.
Unlock and Boost Speeds with Advanced Memory Solutions
Another field, where the AMD server platforms show their advantages is memory. Their processors provide up to 8 channels of the latest DDR4 memory with a frequency reach of up to 3200 MT/s.
Moreover, some of them offer error-correcting code (ECC) memory to increase durability as a standard feature in some models. Sustaining memory bandwidth ensures the cores receive data for optimum application performance. Current AMD servers also support up to 4TB memory per socket which will also cut down on the need for new nodes. In total, the mentioned memory technologies enable the removal of constraints to allow the workloads to thrive.
Minimize Slash Latency by Implementing PCIe 4. 0
Unlike traditional server designs, support for high-speed PCIe 4. 0 is already integrated right into the AMD EPYC processors. This allows for much lower latency connections to fast NVMe solid-state drives, as well as networking adapters.
Now, in the Intel platform, we don’t have PCIe at 4. 0 speed but the maximum speed supported is PCIe 3. 0 and additional controllers are required for 4. 0 connections. With AMD your rack servers get direct access to the full bandwidth and low latency of PCIe 4. 0 for further enhancing storage and networking I/O.
Make Operations Efficient through Core Designing
There is not a lot of information on how AMD EPYC server processors offer an advantage when it comes to energy efficiency. Unlike some competitors, AMD stays true to a chipset die arrangement that incorporates modular cores.
This efficient methodology helps reduce waste and the overall cost of producing the cement thus making it cheaper. The cores are coupled with processor-level power optimizations to achieve the highest number of performances per watt.
Moreover, AMD has a series of core profiles ranging from basic to complex, which enables users to meet a given demand with corresponding functionality. Increase the efficiency even more when the AMD servers are complemented by a virtual water system.
Stretch Resources through Outstanding Scalability
Among key factors that are the most important while working with rack servers, scalability occupies one of the leading positions. The IT heads require certainty that the assurance infrastructure can escalate to another level to fit the growing needs. AMD EPYC processor platforms are excellent in terms of scalability to meet this requirement. Each of their exceptional core counts per socket has a lower acquisition for when you are starting with your brand-new set.
Software Can Be Used Across A Wide Range Of OS
AMD EPYC server processors are widely used and this has been attributed to the standardization making them popular in the market. At the time of writing, the primary host operating systems and virtualization hypervisors offer stable and optimized support for EPYC-based rack servers. Combined with a much broader OS support, these migrations become simpler and you get the extra choice of deployment in various environments. Standardization is where AMD EPYC is. Where it can be of help, it is being adopted.
Key Summary
As AMD has been further extending its performance, efficiency, and security horizons, its server solutions may be viewed as a promising direction. AMD innovation provides real-time value results that increase your infrastructural capabilities. When your compute needs are scaling, factoring in AMD servers as a part of that mix can translate to efficiency gains and lower complexity for growth. Based on the points discussed here, AMD rack servers should be on your list of top priorities when refreshing your data center.
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