OpenSSL Performance
OpenSSL is widely used to secure communications between servers. This is an important protocol in many server stacks. We first look at our sign tests:
Here are the verify results:
OpenSSL is a workload that we see quite often in the embedded space as a component of a larger application. Performance is still above the Intel Xeon Silver 4108 8-core mainstream part. That is impressive since the AMD EPYC 3251 has a lower TDP and is a significantly more compact package.
UnixBench Dhrystone 2 and Whetstone Benchmarks
Some of the longest-running tests at STH are the venerable UnixBench 5.1.3 Dhrystone 2 and Whetstone results. They are certainly aging, however, we constantly get requests for them, and many angry notes when we leave them out. UnixBench is widely used so we are including it in this data set. Here are the Dhrystone 2 results:
And the whetstone results:
One will hopefully see a pattern on these benchmarks which is the key takeaway. The AMD Zen architecture underpinning the AMD EPYC 3251 is extremely competitive with Intel Broadwell and Skylake generations in performance. AMD is not entering the market with a second-rate design, this 55W TDP part is competitive with much more expensive Intel chips.
GROMACS STH Small AVX2/ AVX-512 Enabled
We have a small GROMACS molecule simulation we previewed in the first AMD EPYC 7601 Linux benchmarks piece. In Linux-Bench2 we are using a “small” test for single and dual socket capable machines. Our medium test is more appropriate for higher-end dual and quad socket machines. Our GROMACS test will use the AVX-512 and AVX2 extensions if available.
The AMD EPYC 3251 performance is solid compared to the Intel Xeon Silver line. These findings in the AVX-512 enabled GROMACS again confirm that Intel is “sandbagging” performance specs of the Xeon D-2100 series. We were the first to report in our piece Intel Xeon D-2183IT Benchmarks and Review 16C SoC an AVX-512 Monster that the math units in the D-2100 series are more like the Intel Xeon Gold 6100 series than the Xeon Gold 5100, Silver, and Bronze CPUs. As a result, the AMD EPYC 3251 is more akin to the single FMS AVX-512 Intel competition.
Chess Benchmarking
Chess is an interesting use case since it has almost unlimited complexity. Over the years, we have received a number of requests to bring back chess benchmarking. We have been profiling systems and are ready to start sharing results:
Here one can see that the performance is grouped with our other 8 core CPU results. The AMD EPYC 3251 notches a small victory over the more expensive Intel Xeon Silver 4110 8-core mainstream CPU which is certainly an accomplishment.
The bottom line is this. If you are looking for an 8 core embedded CPU, the AMD EPYC 3251 is right with the Intel alternatives in terms of performance. That is doubly impressive since the memory bandwidth with dual DDR4 channels is more akin to the Intel Xeon D-1500 series, which it easily outpaces core for core.
Next, we are going to look at the power consumption of the chip. We are going to follow that with a discussion of the chip in relation to other chips in the market. We will end with our final thoughts on the AMD EPYC 3251.
Do ya’ll have the 16 core one?
I’m going to ask our PM team if their fixin’ to make up our appliance with embedded 3000 EPYC.
I’ll read the rest later, but you’re right on the need for an Intel alternative. These side channel attacks and the embedded clock bugs show a need in the market for a second x86 supplier.
Can someone make a damn mini ITX motherboard with these, 4 DIMM slits and some NVMe headers?
Are the single die parts way cheaper? The higher core counts looked like huge cost savings but I’m not seeing any on AMD’s site. Only 4 SKUs there https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/embedded/8161
Model: AMD EPYC™ Embedded 3251
Product Type: SOC
Family: AMD EPYC™ Embedded Processors
Line: EPYC Embedded SOC
OPN: PE3251BGR88AF
TDP: 55W
CPU Type: Zen
CPU Base Freq.: 2.5GHz
CPU Max Freq.: 3.1GHz
# of CPU Cores: 8
# of Threads: 16
GPU Support: No
Security Processor: Yes
Total L2 Cache: 4MB
Total L3 Cache: 16MB
System Memory Type: DDR4
DDR4 Rate (Max): 2666 MHz
Memory Controller: Dual Channel
ECC: Yes
USB 2.0: 0
USB 3.0: 4
USB 3.1 Gen1: 0
USB 3.1 Gen2: 0
SATA: 8
Low Speed Interfaces: EMMC, eSPI, GPIO, I2C, LPC, SMBus, SPI, UART
# of PCI controllers: 8
Gen3: 32
Gen2/3: 0
Gen2: 0
Ambient Temp Range: 0-105°C
Enhanced Temp Support: Extended Temp (0-105°C)
Infrastructure: SP4
Last Time Buy: 2028
Recommended for new designs: Yes
Unless I missed something, but who makes the NIC? The lspci output showed the NIC as an AMD network card, but who did AMD license the NIC from? What network driver is it the chip using? That could provide some clues.
RC it’s on the first page showing as an AMD network device so that’s AMD NIC IP.
I’m just surprised AMD building their own NIC IP. I suspect they licensed it as many others do. E.g. Asmedia makes the chipsets.
Great review.
RC it’s a SoC.
Hi Misha, I understand it is an SoC. Typically what you do as part of SoC designs is license IP (in chip design IP means a blob of VHDL / Verilog code), so let’s say I design an ARM SoC, I get an ARM core from ARM, I may get a video core IP from Imigation, a flash controller IP from someone else. Yes, you can design pieces in-house too. Something like networking is so complicated and I don’t recall AMD having any experience in there, I doubt they started from scratch and just licensed IP from a Marvell or some other company. I’m curious what IP it is unless it is truly their own design.
I found the answer to the AMD NIC question. I noticed the screenshot showed ‘amd-xgbe’ driver, so I looked at the Linux kernel source. Based on the code AMD licensed “Synopsys DWC ETHER XGMAC”, see https://www.synopsys.com/dw/ipdir.php?ds=dwc_ether_xgmac. I don’t know how much this IP does as it provides a MAC layer, so AMD likely had to build some parts themselves, but I’m not sure.
Finally, Patrick, thanks.
I would assume that’s $315 USD in bulk lots of 1000 for the chip? Wholesaler price?
So could we assume at least $550 / $600 US motherboards using this?
I’d still strongly consider it, it certainly seems to perform. I’d prefer perhaps something 15w lighter and $100 lighter, but we’ll have to wait for more boards.
As I posted on the forums, incredibly hugely disappointing that AsRock, SuperMicro, Tyan all either told me “nope, no interest in this!” or flat out didn’t respond!
These would make a monster FreeNAS machine, especially the 3201 model with 8c/8t at only 30Watts!
Patrick, do you know if this problem impacts the Epyc 7xxx or 3xxx series?
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=196683
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/ryzen-stability-on-11-0-u4.59017/
$315 is the tray pricing. Anyone buying these embedded parts is likely buying quantities for motherboard runs.
I believe that kernel bug is for Ryzen users and has not been confirmed on EPYC.
what do you think, is Intel any part of delaying the go-to-market for these chips?
@kpin:
I hadn’t thought of that, it seems unlikely but I wouldn’t put it past them to try that.
I did contact SuperMicro, Tyan and AsRock about this CPU multiple times since Feb and have either had no response or an outright “no” from them, which was disapointing.
However, SuperMicro already do some AMD Epyc stuff, so they aren’t ‘frightened’ of Intel, to my knowledge.
We need a competitive board to the likes of SMCI’s x11sdv-*c-tlnf8 boards. (I hope I got the model name right from memory.)
Would be great if we could get the same treats the Intel line currently has.
Anyone know of a board coming out with the dual 10 Gb option? the supermicro boards which just came out are all 1 Gb.
@Nathan
Asrock Rack EPYC3251D4I-2T supports dual 10 GbE NIC speed (and M.2 slot supports 22110 which is unique to my understanding).
See https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EPYC3251D4I-2T#Specifications
cpu socket ???
norbi31 – no CPU socket. These are embedded parts.
Any sign of the higher level SKU 3451, 3401, 3351,3301? that is not COM Express Type 7? And they seem vaporware as well.
https://www.amd.com/system/files/documents/3000-family-product-brief.pdf
Steve! Yes. Stay tuned in a few weeks to STH.
Any updates. This platform looks very cool, and I would like to use it for routers and small appliances, but I can’t find any consumer motherboard or system that actually exposes the built in 10Gbps NICs as SFP+. I did found some boards from Supermicro and ASRock Rack, but they all use Intel NICs for their 10Gbps and 1Gbps ports. Weird. Would be great to see native 4x SFP+ and 2x SFP (via external controller), and this SoC can do it quite well and cost competitively, yet I can’t find products doing that. Weird.
Some information about idle power use to someone like me who uses the platform in residential setting where the system is running 24/7, workload is bursty and idle power use is very important.
With the following configuration I’m getting 22.3W at idle.
M11SDV-8C-LN4F with EPYC 3251.
Stock fan replaced with Revoltec RL036 (mostly due to noise reduction, but likely it helps power use too).
64GB DDR4-2400 RAM (2x32GB HMA84GR7MFR4N-UH)
WD SN750 1TB NVME SSD
Only single gigabit network cable is connected. BMC is left unconnected.
PSU is 120W 12V power brick (Chieftec CDP-120ITX).
VGA is disabled via jumper (saves 1W)
“powertop –auto-tune” has been run (saves 0.2W if VGA is enabled, 1.1W if VGA is disabled)
The measurement has been made on console login screen of stock Debian 11 that had powertop installed. The power meter is not calibrated.