Can I replace 2 dual-core 2850s with 1 Dell quad 2950?

[trusted1]

For capacity/performance purposes, can I think of a Dell 2950 w/ quad core, 32GB RAM as an equivalent building block to two Dell 2850s w/ dual core, 16GB RAM?

My Dell systems consultant says the ratio isn't 1:2, but can't give me a concrete ratio. Does anyone have a ballpark ratio I could use for replacing dual core servers with equivalent quad core brothers?

Many thanks!

[glynnd1]

When discussing overall CPUs gains from quad cores with an AMD rep he put it at about 50%. Of course there are a lot more things at play.

This Dell PDF[/url] compares the 2950 with dual cores and the 2900 with quad cores and an additional 16GB of RAM. While this is not the same as comparing the 2850 with the 2950 it does reflect the gains of the additional cores.

[VirtualNoitall]

Hello,

I have heard 40-50% for dual core and 30-40% for quad core. Again, as the previous commenter pointed out as well these are not concrete and depend on workloads and other system/app factors. If you have the option, when looking at a server, go with more dual core vs fewer quad core.

[trusted1]

So you're saying I'll need 2 2950s w/quads to roughly equal the performance of 3 2850s w/ dual core?

I'll start there as a baseline when sizing our new servers and just see what happens when we start to add add VMs. Thanks for the link and the advice.

[trusted1]

I finally got to read the PDF. Sorry, but I should have marked you Correct instead of helpful.