Reap Greater CPU Integer and Floating Point Performance by Selecting Google Cloud N2 Instances Featuring 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors

SPEC® CPU 2017

  • Achieve up to 43% more est. SPECrate®2017_fp_base performance with N2 instances featuring 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors vs. N2 instances with previous-gen processors.

  • Achieve up to 19% more est. SPECrate®2017_int_base performance with N2 instances featuring 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors vs. N2 instances with previous-gen processors.

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These Instances Achieved Better Estimated SPECrate®2017_int_base and SPECrate®2017_fp_base Scores Than N2 Instances with 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors

If your organization is moving complex workloads to the cloud, deciding which instances will deliver the best performance is important. The results of industry-standard benchmarks such as SPECrate®2017 Integer and SPECrate®2017 Floating Point can help you understand the capabilities of the many options available.

In Intel testing on Google Cloud at multiple instance sizes, N2 instances offered strong performance; with 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, they delivered higher estimated SPECrate®2017_int_base performance. They also had higher estimated SPECrate®2017_fp_base performance than N2 instances with 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors.

Better Floating Point Performance

Some workloads—including large-scale scientific modeling and rendering—rely on floating-point calculations, which are resource intensive. To gauge how certain Google instances handle this type of performance, Intel performed tests with the SPECrate®2017 Floating Point suite of benchmarks. A higher estimated SPECrate®2017_fp_base performance score indicates a solution's ability to handle more floating point computations in a given time period.

Figure 1 shows the SPECrate®2017_fp_base performance for four pairs of Google Cloud N2 instances, with sizes ranging from 4 to 64 CPUs. At every size, the N2 instance featuring 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors outperformed the instance with the older processor, delivering up to 43% more estimated integer performance.

Figure 1. Relative estimated SPECrate®2017_fp_base performance of four sizes of N2 instances. Higher numbers are better.

Better Integer Performance

For many applications—both on-premises and in the cloud—strong integer performance is a requirement. The SPECrate®2017 Integer benchmark measures integer performance, with higher scores representing greater throughput.

Figure 2 shows the SPECrate®2017_int_base performance for four pairs of Google Cloud N2 instances, with sizes ranging from 4 to 64 CPUs. While both types of instances offered strong performance, at every size, the N2 instances featuring 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors outperformed the instances with the older processor. As Figure 2 shows, they achieved up to 19% more estimated integer performance.

Figure 2. Relative estimated SPECrate®2017_int_base performance of four sizes of N2 instances. Higher numbers are better.

Conclusion

For organizations seeking the best cloud platforms for their CPU-intensive workloads, Google Cloud N2 instances offer strong performance. At each of the four sizes Intel tested, Google Cloud N2 instances enabled by 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors delivered higher estimated SPECrate®2017_fp_base performance and higher estimated SPECrate®2017_int_base performance than N2 instances with older processors.

Learn More

To get started running your CPU-intensive workloads on Google Cloud N2 instances enabled by 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, visit https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/general-purpose-machines#n2_machines.

Tests by Intel completed February 16, 2022. All tests on GCP us-central1-a with Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS kernel 5.11.0-1023-gcp, FOR-OEMS-confidential-cpu2017-1.1.8-ic2021.4-binaries-20210904_beta.tar.xz, c2021.4, cpu2017-1.1.5.iso. Instance details: n2-standard-4: Intel® Xeon® CLX CPU @ 2.80GHz, 4 vCPU, 16GB RAM; n2-standard-4: Intel® Xeon® ICX CPU @ 2.60GHz, 4 vCPU, 16GB RAM; n2-standard-8: Intel® Xeon® CLX CPU @ 2.80GHz, 8 vCPU, 32GB RAM; n2-standard-8: Intel® Xeon® ICX CPU @ 2.60GHz, 8 vCPU, 32GB RAM; n2-standard-16: Intel® Xeon® CLX CPU @ 2.80GHz, 16 vCPU, 64GB RAM; n2-standard-16: Intel® Xeon® ICX CPU @ 2.60GHz, 16 vCPU, 64GB RAM; n2-standard-64: Intel® Xeon® CLX CPU @ 2.80GHz, 64 vCPU, 256GB RAM; n2-standard-64: Intel® Xeon® ICX CPU @ 2.60GHz, 64 vCPU, 256GB RAM.