[Libre-soc-dev] maybe get ryzen 7950x for faster compilation and avx512

[Timothy Pearson]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jacob Lifshay" <programmerjake at gmail.com>
> To: "Timothy Pearson" <tpearson at raptorengineering.com>
> Cc: "Libre-Soc General Development" <libre-soc-dev at lists.libre-soc.org>
> Sent: Monday, September 26, 2022 12:24:51 PM
> Subject: Re: [Libre-soc-dev] maybe get ryzen 7950x for faster compilation and avx512

> On Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 10:00 Timothy Pearson <tpearson at raptorengineering.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> > because cloud providers generally use server hardware which has much
>> lower
>> > clock rates than the 7950x (up to 5.7GHz vs. around 2-3GHz) which causes
>> a
>> > very substantial single-threaded performance gap of 2x. also, cloud
>> > providers are often pretty expensive for nearly daily use of a powerful
>> > server.
>>
>> I think I'd want to see the numbers on that...
> 
> 
> here's performance numbers between the 7950x, a modern dual-socket intel
> server, and a POWER9:
> https://openbenchmarking.org/vs/Processor/2%20x%20Intel%20Xeon%20Platinum%208380,AMD%20Ryzen%209%207950X%2016-Core,POWER9%2044-Core
> 
> as you can see, some tests (presumably more single-threaded) give the 7950x
> a approximately 2x advantage over both the POWER9 and intel server.
> 
> I don't have cloud price numbers right now...
> 
> Jacob

Right, I was talking about the cloud pricing.  A quick glance at Alibaba shows ~$60/mo. for four cores of 3.8Ghz x86, and I think you'd have to justify the cost savings of having the AMD system under your desk vs. just using an inexpensive lease from Alibaba.  Even if you used the cloud service 24/7 for a year, that would leave over $1000 left over could be put diretly toward new development for LibreSoC, and when you get to the 1 year or longer level they offer even further pricing discounts.

If this was a question of true ownership vs. leasing I'd go toward ownership, but with AMD you're still only leasing parts of the CPU so that doesn't even enter into the equation sadly.