Author:
Jimmy Leon, Engineering Manager
Compute-intensive workloads such as data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and high-volume transactional databases demand an ever-expanding amount of computing resources to meet customer needs. Many organizations find it challenging to allocate limited resources for tasks related to data protection, including data compression and data encryption to protect the integrity of data in use, in flight, and at rest. While compression and encryption make it possible to handle large files and advanced applications, these processes consume significant compute resources. Intel® QuickAssist Technology (Intel® QAT), an integrated workload acceleration feature on Intel® Xeon® processors, improves performance and achieves greater efficiencies in compute-intensive processes, including workloads in AI, analytics, application and content delivery, high-speed networking, and more.
With Intel QAT, organizations can maintain a successful business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) strategy, allowing them to safeguard data while simultaneously maximizing critical workload performance to meet both performance- and reliability-related service level agreements (SLAs). Intel® QAT offloads computationally intensive operations from the central processing units (CPUs) cores, allowing 4th and 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors, as well as Intel Xeon 6 processors, to perform other tasks more efficiently. In addition, Intel QAT delivers faster backups and restores, which protects data more quickly, improves recovery time objectives (RTOs), and further reduces any performance impact on critical workloads. Because Intel QAT is built into the CPU itself, it supports more encrypted client connections and content delivery than devices without accelerators.
Comparison: Intel QAT on Intel Xeon 6731P versus AMD EPYC 9355
A recent Principled Technologies study investigated the relative backup speeds for two systems: an Intel Xeon 6731P processor-powered server with Intel QAT enabled and an AMD EPYC 9355 processor-based server using the default software compression available in Microsoft SQL Server 2022. The tests were conducted on an identical VMware virtualized environment, running Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Datacenter and Microsoft SQL Server 2022. As Figure 1 shows, Intel QAT opens compute resources by accelerating database backup compression, freeing cores to service database order transactions.
Figure 1: Hardware acceleration with Intel QAT frees up compute resources.
The comparison analysis showed that Intel Xeon 6731P processors with Intel QAT enabled significantly faster backups than using the default software compression with AMD EPYC 9355 processors. Intel QAT can significantly reduce the maintenance windows required for production SQL Server deployments.
The first analysis compared the time it took each system to complete a Microsoft SQL Server 2022 backup while the systems were at rest, providing a baseline to gauge backup performance. Figure 2 shows how hardware acceleration with Intel QAT backed up the database in 41.5% less time than the AMD solution with software compression.
Figure 2: Intel Xeon processors took 41.5% less time than the AMD solution with software compression to complete a Microsoft SQL Server 2022 database backup while at rest.
In a more real-world scenario, the second analysis compared the time it took the systems to complete the Microsoft SQL Server 2022 database backup using the TPROC-C workload from the HammerDB benchmark, which simulates an order-entry environment with complex transactions and multiple users to measure and compare relative database performance. This test provides an example where customers need to maintain critical database processing SLAs while ensuring data recovery requirements are followed.
As Figure 3 shows, Intel Xeon 6731P processors with Intel QAT backed up data significantly faster than software-based compression on an AMD EPYC 9355 processor-based system, with Intel QAT reducing backup time by 38.5%. To learn more about the configurations used in testing, read the report.(1)
Figure 3: Intel Xeon with Intel QAT reducing backup time by 38.5%.
Intel QAT: Faster Compression and Encryption in Backups
The built-in Intel QAT accelerator boosts workload performance to handle demanding applications in the cloud, data centers, networks, large data lakes, and storage tiers by providing the following benefits:
- Reduced CPU overhead: Offload compression tasks from the main CPU to the built-in QAT hardware accelerator.
- Faster backups and restores: Significantly reduce the time required for backup and restore operations, especially for large databases.
- Storage savings: Achieve high compression ratios, leading to smaller backup file sizes.
- Minimal workload impact: Offloading compression tasks helps to minimize any negative impact to the performance of database or other workloads.
- Scalable solutions: Intel Xeon 6 processors can be configured with up to four Intel QAT accelerators on a single CPU.
Get Started by Enabling Intel QAT Today
The Intel Xeon 6 processor has Intel QAT built into its architecture, and enabling this feature is simple. To get started using Intel QAT for your backups, read this quick and easy how-to guide or learn more at intel.com/QAT.
Product and Performance Information
Hardware and Software Configurations
AMD EPYC 9355: 1-node, 1x AMD EPYC 9355 32-Core Processor, 32 cores, 280W TDP, SMT On, Boost On, Total Memory 768GB (12x64GB DDR5 6400 MT/s [6000 MT/s]), microcode 0xb002147, 2x Intel Ethernet E810-XXV 25Gb, 8x 1.6T Intel SSDPF21Q016TB, VMware vSphere 8.0.3 24677879. Test by Principled Technologies as of July 2025.
Intel Xeon 6731P: 1-node, 1x Intel(R) Xeon(R) 6731P 32-Core Processor, 32 cores, 245W TDP, HT On, Turbo On, 3 QAT devices, Total Memory 512GB (8x64GB DDR5 6400 MT/s [6400 MT/s]), microcode 0xa0000d4, 2x Intel Ethernet E810-XXV 25Gb, 8x 1.6T Intel SSDPF21Q016TB, VMware vSphere 8.0.3 24677879. Test by Principled Technologies as of July 2025.
Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Datacenter, Microsoft SQL Server 2022, HammerDB 4.12, 60vCPU/VM, 480GB memory.
Testing conducted by Principled Technologies as of July 2025. Your results may vary. Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software, or service activation.(1)
Endnotes
- Comparison conducted by Principled Technologies. Performance varies by use, configuration, and other factors. Learn more at https://facts.pt/tHW7bPg.
Notices and Disclaimers
Performance varies by use, configuration, and other factors. Learn more on the Performance Index site.
Performance results are based on testing as of the dates shown in configurations and may not reflect all publicly available updates. See backup for configuration details. No product or component can be absolutely secure.
Your costs and results may vary.
Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software, or service activation.
© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Intel contributes to the development of benchmarks by participating in, sponsoring, and/or contributing technical support to various benchmarking groups, including the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community administered by Principled Technologies.