It's been a number of years since I've compared computer systems running PSpice and a few other benchmarks.
PSpice Sim Sim time Mflop Computer (seconds) at 1 GHz Mflop at 1 GHz =============== ========== ======== ===== ======== Xeon, 2.33GHz 100 233 3145 1351 Opteron, 1.8GHz 130 233 1980 1104
Xeon (Intel) system, brand spanking new: Dual processor (8 cores total) CPU: Intel E5345 running at 2.3275 GHz, quad-core Memory: DDR2, 667 MHz (read: 3.2 GB/s, write: 2.0 GB/s) Motherboard: Tyan S2696 OS: Win XP
Opteron (AMD) system, 2 years old: Dual processor (2 cores total) CPU: AMD Opteron 244 running at 1.793 GHz Memory: DDR, 400 MHz (read: 2.6 GB/s, write: 1.8 GB/s) Motherboard: Tyan S2875A OS: Win 2k
Programs: PSpice 10.5, running a benchmark simulation from Jim Thompson. Mflop is an in-house benchmark using a 30-tap FIR filter.
Comments: Both processors are 64-bit units running on 32-bit operating systems.
PSpice is a boring program. It's single threaded and uses mundane instructions. Memory speed doesn't affect PSpice much. New Xeon and two year old Opteron run PSpice with the same processing efficiency.
Mflop shows that the Xeon has 22% better processing efficiency than the Opteron.
Memory speed tests uses 32MB transfers so L1 and L2 caches are out of the picture.
Looks like the new Intel Xeon is a winner. Programs that are multi-threaded really rip when all 8 cores are running!
Do not confuse the new multi-core Xeons with the Xeon of 3 years ago. The old Xeon sucked just like the P4.
Note that this only used two different programs to benchmark the processors. Your milage may vary depending on your application.
On a historical note, results from 2001 using PSpice 9.?:
PSpice Sim Sim time Computer (seconds) at 1 GHz ============ ========== ======== P2, 266 MHz 1800 479 (Mark/Win95) P2, 440 MHz 1082 476 (Jim/NT4.0) P3, 800 MHz 510 408 (Jim/Win2K) P3, 1000 MHz 420 420 (Mark/Win2k) P4, 1500 MHz 413 620 (Roy/Win2k) ATH TB 1200 MHz 270 324 (Malcolm/WinME old system) ATH TB 1200 MHz 244 293 (Mark/Win2k A7A266, PC2100) ATH TB 1200 MHz 244 293 (Mark/Win2k A7A266, PC133) ATH TB 1400 MHz 210 294 (Bud/Win2k A7A266, PC2100) ATH XP 1467 MHz 210 308 (Mark/Win2k A7M266, PC2100)