AMD EPYC 9655 Benchmarks Show The Terrific Generational Gains With 5th Gen EPYC
Looking at the AMD EPYC 9755 and EPYC 9965 benchmarks are great for seeing the top-end potential of the Turin classic and dense cores, respectively. Now with having hands on with the EPYC 9655 is an interesting look at how the 96-core Turin classic core processor compares to the prior-gen EPYC 9654 as what was the flagship Genoa processor.
With the geo mean across more than 100 benchmarks, the AMD EPYC 9655 was delivering around 1.4x the performance of the EPYC 9654 in both single and dual socket runs. The single 96-core EPYC 9655 Turin processor was also often running similar or only slightly behind the 128-core Xeon 6980P Granite Rapids processors. The case for Granite Rapids continues to be most compelling just for workloads able to make use of AMX or the rather niche workloads able to make use of the Intel accelerators and then for the very memory bandwidth intensive workloads where the MRDIMM-8800 support can provide robust benefits.
The consistent ~1.4x uplift from the EPYC 9654 to EPYC 9655 was all the more impressive when finding that the average CPU power use only increased by about ~5% on average and only an 11% increase to the default/peak TDP. The 5th Gen AMD EPYC processors continue to impress not only for their raw performance over prior generation AMD EPYC processors but also for the impactful power efficiency improvements out of Zen 5.
In addition to the compelling generational performance and power efficiency improvements with 5th Gen EPYC as shown in this 96-core Zen 4 vs. Zen 5 showdown, the EPYC 9005 series is all the more enticing in that it retains compatibility with existing Socket SP5 servers/motherboards to make for a logical upgrade path to maximize TCO and being able to enjoy the robust selection of SP5 motherboards already broadly available. For maximum generational performance gains you'll also want to upgrade to DDR5-6000/DDR5-6400 memory too: for that perspective I previously carried out some Turin DDR5-4800 vs. DDR5-6000 benchmarks to help quantify the impact of the faster memory.
Another reason for making the EPYC 9655 an interesting candidate for its performance characteristics too is that if upgrading from a Genoa/Bergamo motherboard/server, many of the existing Socket SP5 motherboards in the market have a 400 Watt power limit. So not all existing motherboards can accommodate the EPYC 9755 and EPYC 9965 with their default 500 Watt TDP but the EPYC 9655 aligns with those motherboards having a 400 Watt TDP limit. Plus for those pursuing the Genoa to Turin upgrade path, the 400 Watt CPUs may be desirable due to power/cooling constraints of existing data center infrastructure.
Nearly one month since AMD launched the EPYC 9005 "Turin" processors, the performance of these new processors continue to impress in the lab. For those that missed any of my other 5th Gen EPYC benchmarks of the past few weeks, see this EPYC 9005 article search for more detailed benchmark data in different areas. I still have some additional follow-up tests in the works to look at the EPYC 9005 power/performance determinism, power profiles, looking at the Genoa to Turin upgrade story for a Supermicro 1P retail motherboard, and more. Phoronix readers can always chime in via X or the Phoronix Forums for any other interesting benchmark requests.
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