VMware Horizon Community
hotpotatosoup
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-07-2021 02:37 PM

EPYC vs Xeon

Hey Guys,

Just a quick question on going on Intel Processors or AMD processors for an upcoming Horizon Project.

looking for about 150-200 users only a few with the GPU loaded. 2-4 CPU's per VM.

  • AMD Epyc is offering more cores and better performance why would we not choose to go with this route?
  • In the memory world we become memory locked before CPU, so its really down to which platform works best.
  • Do you guys have any personal experiences with AMD build vs Intel builds?
  • AMD with HPE NVIDIA Tesla T4 16GB cards a problem?
  • Intel Xeon are the safe option but AMD seems to have more of everything, but does it use it better?
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2 Replies
bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion
‎04-07-2021 04:52 PM

Just my two cents,

It is better to find out if the end users are using and/or plan to use software that has dependencies on Intel only instructions (such as AVX-512, DL which seems likely now and in the next few years with machine learning/deep learning) and/or will perform better with Intel CPUs (e.g. VMs with disk/network I/O intensive workloads as AMD CPUs don't have the PCID feature and INVPCID instruction) rather than simply choosing EPYC just because they seem cost effective on paper and appear to be better on benchmarks. But benchmarks are not your real workloads.

An old post in a similar vein except this is for GPU scenario of choosing AMD over Nvidia.
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Horizon-Desktops-and-Apps/Horizon-View-AMD-FirePro-Testing/m-p/501...

 

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hotpotatosoup
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-07-2021 05:27 PM

Absolutely!

I agree work load is a huge part, but whatever work load you throw at it wouldn't you want the best chainsaw to rip through it? The GPU will help and should take a lot of the load away from it all anyway. 

Basic work load on these VM's nothing heavy duty.

Link below is just a little more insight what I am talking about. Sorry, not really trying to start a debate on whos better, just seeing if anyone else has some thoughts or input on the matter. 

https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/amd-epyc-is-still-the-virtualization-king-despite-vm...

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