Intel Xeon Processor 6226 and 6226R

[huangwentao]

Hi,

I would like to figure out the difference between CPU with or without suffix "R".

I am aware that the "R" CPU supports more running threads, but not sure that if "R" will bring other benefits.

I have a project and it is very sensitive to multithreading performance. So I am wondering will "R" CPU lead to any unexpected, or inconsistent results, compared to ones without R.

Thanks, for the help.

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

Thank you for joining the community.

I understand that you'd like to know if there will be any unexpected, or inconsistent results between the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6226R Processor and the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6226 Processor.

The new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Gold processors are labeled with an "R" but this does not mean that there is any missing features or anything that will cause any unexpected results, the new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Gold processors deliver an average of 1.36-times higher estimated performance and 1.42-times better-estimated performance-per-dollar compared with the 1st Gen Intel Xeon Gold processors.

You can read more in the following article:

• https://newsroom.intel.com/news/xeon-scalable-5g-network-portfolio-launch/#gs.fax9a2

Please let me know if there are any other questions. I will be waiting for your response, in case we do not hear from you, we are going to follow-up on this thread on 11/09th if you have any response prior to this email feel free to contact us back.  

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

We would like to follow up on your inquiry. We would like to know if you need further assistance. In case you do, we would highly appreciate if you would let us know.    

I will be waiting for your response, in case we do not hear from you, we are going to follow-up on this case on 11/11th if you have any response prior to this email feel free to contact us back.       

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[huangwentao]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply.

I know these are the basic improvements of 2nd scalable Xeon processors. But I still can not figure out the difference between processor with or without suffix "R" (apart from "R" supports more running cores/threads). However, in my multi-threading application, I find different performances with Xeon 6226R. To be more specific, the same multithreading codes on Xeon 6230 can not yield a competitive performance as Xeon 6226R. This is very weird because 6230 is supposed to be better. Meanwhile, my multithreading application is compared to another multithreading baseline (more cache-friendly). Since the performance on 6230 is not that good as 6226R, the comparison between mya application and the baseline are totally different. These two processors have the same cache and TLB size. Therefore, I wonder if there are some differences between processors with or without the suffix "R".

Regards,

Wentao

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

I hope you are doing great, thank you for the information provided, the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6230 Processor should have better performance if we compare them with the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6226 Processor and the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6226R Processor. Please allow me to investigate further on this scenario to give you more details, in the meantime, could you tell us a little bit more about the project/application that you are working on?

I will be waiting for your response, in case we do not hear from you, we are going to follow up on this case on 11/11th if you have any response prior to this email feel free to contact us back.  

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

Thank you for your patience and time, the information available is what I have already shared with you, I investigated a little bit more and I found the following information that may solve your inquiry:

As you can see in the following link the refresh version (R) is just an improvement of the previous same numbering CPU.

• https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000059657.html

In the following link, we can see that the Intel® Xeon® Gold 6226 Processor is optimized for the highest per-core performance, while the Intel Xeon Gold 6230 Processor is optimized for balanced energy-efficient performance per watt which may be why you get better performance with the other CPU

• https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/platforms/details/cascade-lake.html

Please let me know if there is anything else that we can do for you. I will be waiting for your response, in case we do not hear from you, we are going to follow up on this thread on 11/15th if you have any response prior to this email feel free to contact us back. 

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[huangwentao]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for following up. 

Could you please explain more about the difference between "optimized for the highest per-core performance" and "optimized for balanced energy-efficient performance per watt" ? I know they are different literally but have no idea that how different they are.

Thanks.

Best,

Wentao

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

We would like to follow up on your inquiry. We would like to know if you need further assistance, in case we do not hear from you, we are going to mark this thread as close on 11/17th if you have any response prior to this email feel free to contact us back.       

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

Thank you for your patience and time,  we would like to review this internally with the corresponding team. It might take some time for a response, I will provide an update within a week.

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[huangwentao]

Hi Paul,

Any updates from your side?

Regards,

Wentao

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

Thank you for your patience and time, we are still working on this, validating the information with the engineering team and we will provide feedback next week.

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[JoseH_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

We have some updates about your questions. For the first statement: "the same multithreading codes on Xeon 6230 can not yield a competitive performance as Xeon 6226R." please look for the following clarification:

• When you state competitive performance, where is this being based off? Was this done on a testing cycle & if yes, do we have that data that they can share so we know what they are referring to as an acceptable "yield in the context of performance"?

• About your second question related to the difference between "optimized for the highest per-core performance" and "optimized for balanced energy-efficient performance per watt" and how different they are." is still under investigation, we are waiting for our engineering team.

• Also, we want to confirm the question we asked previously: Could you please tell us a little bit more about the project/application that you are working on? so we can have more data on what we are trying to find out?

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

We would like to follow up on your inquiry. We would like to know if you need further assistance, in case we do not hear from you, we are going to mark this thread as close on 12/13th if you have any response prior to this email feel free to contact us back.       

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[huangwentao]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your reply.

1) By mentioning "competitive performance", I refer to the runtime, or to put in another way, CPU cycles.

2) I still would like to know the difference between "optimized for the highest per-core performance" and "optimized for balanced energy-efficient performance per watt".

3) Unfortunately, I can not reveal much about my application due to some confidential protocols.

Look forward to your reply.

Best,

Wentao

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

Thank you for your patience and time, I appreciate the information provided, we will investigate further. I will provide an update within a week.

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

Thank you for your patience and time, after our investigation I would like to share the following information:

 We expect the 6226R to execute more instructions than the 6226 based on the following calculations (assuming an application can use all available cores and those cores run at the base frequency and there are no other impacts on performance by other platform factors, e.g. BIOS settings, CPU utilization, no memory bandwidth being a bottleneck, etc.):

Using the 6226 SKU, 12 cores each running at 2.7GHz = 12 * 2.7 = 32.4GHz worth of execution

Using the 6226R SKU, 16 cores each running at 2.9GHz = 16 * 2.9 = 46.4GHz worth of execution

In regards to the difference between "optimized for the highest per-core performance" and "optimized for balanced energy-efficient performance per watt", Engineering has provided the following response:

Typically the highest performance per core represents higher frequency parts where users can push TDP limits and get the best performance possible.

For energy efficiency, an user typically needs to fit a specific TDP and so we would squeeze in as many mores as possible to get the maximum performance even if the frequency is lower but still stay within that TDP.

Please note that the 6226 and 6226R SKUs are high-frequency performance per core parts.

Please let us know if there is anything else that we can help you with. I will be waiting for your response, in case we do not hear from you, we are going to follow up on this case on 12/16th.

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[huangwentao]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for the reply.

Can I rephrase in this way:

"highest per-core performance" sets no limit on TDP while "energy-efficient performance" does so. 

Therefore, at times, a "highest per-core performance" CPU (xeon gold 6226R in my case) can outperform a "balanced energy-efficient performance per watt" CPU (xeon gold 6230 in my case) for 6226R's maximum performance costs more watts than 6230.

Best,

Wentao

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

That is correct, but note that the 6226 and 6226R SKUs are both high-frequency performance per core parts.

I am glad that the information provided helped answer your inquiry

Please let us know if there is anything else that we can help you with. I will be waiting for your response, in case we do not hear from you, we are going to follow up on this case on 12/16th.

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios 

[huangwentao]

Hi Paul,

Thanks. I think that's enough for now.

Best,

Wentao

[Paul_R_Intel]

Hello huangwentao, 

I am glad to hear that the information provided has answered your questions, we will proceed to mark the thread as resolved, if any other questions do not hesitate to contact us back. Thank you for choosing Intel.

Regards 

Paul R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

For firmware updates and troubleshooting tips, visit: 

https://intel.com/support/serverbios