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The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

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Re: The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

#11

Post by Xorlev »

Retric wrote: post #7
imtringued wrote: post #5

Server CPUs are way too cheap compared to the remaining parts of the server. Paying 10% more in exchange for software compatibility is a steal.

What software compatibility issue?

Different CPUs perform subtly different. Not to mention that server-class workloads tend to expose bugs and architectural shortfalls. Ryzen hasn't had great press in this regard, so decision makers are going to regard AMD with some skepticism to begin with. It's about risk: you know Intel chips roughly perform as they always have, just a little better each generation.

Additionally, if you rely on Intel's compiler to get more performance out of your chips, well, switching to AMD doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

AMD needs to be back in the server space for a while before they'll be trusted again.

Re: The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

#12

Post by gigatexal »

simias wrote: post #6
gigatexal wrote: post #3

In an interesting (to me at least) move intel instead of competing on price when AMD put out a competitive offering they decided to keep prices the same more or less or increase them by adding value. Faster AVX units, more cores, more SKUs (not sure about that last one). And while intel has margins to maintain AMD has put features into their chips for years. For example AES has been shipping in most every desktop and…

I could be wrong but I assume that there's enough inertia in the high-end business-to-business side of things (the part that matters for high-end server processors) that they probably can keep milking that cow for a few years more. People who have only been buying Intel CPU in the last decade won't jump ship immediately. Nobody gets fired for buying Intel CPUs, at least until very recently. You know you won't have co…

I know I hope AMD can keep up the pressure and keep iterating.

Re: The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

#13

Post by dx034 »

csdreamer7 wrote: post #8

With the concentration of server buying by AWS I am surprised Intel believes it can get away with this. AWS has the expertise and the incentive to push for supporting a competitor that offers a superior value.

While AWS is one of the largest buyers, I doubt that they have a significant share of Intel's profits. There are probably a handful of companies buying (nearly) as much and sales will be dominated by small datacentres and enterprise customers. A lot of Xeons don't end up in servers but in workstation computers.

Re: The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

#14

Post by wlesieutre »

gigatexal wrote: post #3

In an interesting (to me at least) move intel instead of competing on price when AMD put out a competitive offering they decided to keep prices the same more or less or increase them by adding value. Faster AVX units, more cores, more SKUs (not sure about that last one). And while intel has margins to maintain AMD has put features into their chips for years. For example AES has been shipping in most every desktop and…

I saw mentioned in another thread that all AMD processors support ECC RAM, provided you pick a motherboard that does it.

Re: The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

#16

Post by fish_fan »

wlesieutre wrote: post #14
gigatexal wrote: post #3

In an interesting (to me at least) move intel instead of competing on price when AMD put out a competitive offering they decided to keep prices the same more or less or increase them by adding value. Faster AVX units, more cores, more SKUs (not sure about that last one). And while intel has margins to maintain AMD has put features into their chips for years. For example AES has been shipping in most every desktop and…

I saw mentioned in another thread that all AMD processors support ECC RAM, provided you pick a motherboard that does it.

This alone could save you thousands.

Re: The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

#17

Post by douglasfshearer »

simias wrote: post #6
gigatexal wrote: post #3

In an interesting (to me at least) move intel instead of competing on price when AMD put out a competitive offering they decided to keep prices the same more or less or increase them by adding value. Faster AVX units, more cores, more SKUs (not sure about that last one). And while intel has margins to maintain AMD has put features into their chips for years. For example AES has been shipping in most every desktop and…

I could be wrong but I assume that there's enough inertia in the high-end business-to-business side of things (the part that matters for high-end server processors) that they probably can keep milking that cow for a few years more. People who have only been buying Intel CPU in the last decade won't jump ship immediately. Nobody gets fired for buying Intel CPUs, at least until very recently. You know you won't have co…

> Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.

Replace IBM with Intel for the 2010s version.

Re: The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

#18

Post by coredog64 »

Retric wrote: post #7
imtringued wrote: post #5

Server CPUs are way too cheap compared to the remaining parts of the server. Paying 10% more in exchange for software compatibility is a steal.

What software compatibility issue?

Not the OP, but maybe he's talking about the kernel panic that some users are getting during heavy-duty compilation workloads.

https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/hardware/processors-me...

Re: The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

#19

Post by frozenport »

fish_fan wrote: post #16
wlesieutre wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw mentioned in another thread that all AMD processors support ECC RAM, provided you pick a motherboard that does it.

This alone could save you thousands.

Not really. Low-end Xeons with ECC cost >$300.

Re: The Huge Premium Intel Is Charging for Skylake Xeons

#20

Post by throw2016 »

Most markets feel comfortable and safe with Intel.

AMD will have to go through the tough adoption curve of early adopters to mature markets and while this happens Intel has relatively free reign with their pricing and value.

Markets with long established leaders have the additional burden of too many vested interests, misinformation and dirty tricks. However if AMD continues to deliver the naysayers will eventually lose credibility.

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