At 08:29 PM 1/15/2009, Bruce Potter wrote: >Howdy, >Quick (but I'm sure not simple) question regarding processor choice. >I've been running some TF2 servers (and now L4D servers as well) on an >AMD-based server with CentOS for a while. Currently have 2 x dual >core 2.8GHz previous-gen Opterons in the box. FYI, the machine is on >a 100Mbps connection in a datacenter with way more connectivity than >that so I'm not at all bandwidth constrained.
>After much tuning, I'm still not happy with the overall performance. >On TF2 every user takes up about 5% CPU on a core. After 12-14 users >(depending on the map) I start to use enough CPU (50-80%) that I get >nervous about choke and other performance issues. 20 or so would >probably be the limit on this hardware. It's not a very popular >server so we've never hit the limit. ;) >I'm looking at building a second box for more TF2 servers. I've heard >anecdotally that Intel systems run SRCDS _much_ better than AMD >hardware. At this point I have to believe it b/c while this Opteron >system isn't top of the line, it's plenty quick for other purposes >I've thrown at the same hardware (database, web, etc). So I'm going >to give a run at Intel hardware. Opterons have NUMA and other tricks. What hurts them is the TSC skews. Some older opterons lack HPET on Linux (AMI chipsets). >The new server I'm building isn't going to be racked, however, so I >have some flexibility in hardware options. What I'm trying to assess >at this point is the difference in performance between a core 2 duo, >an i7, and a xeon proc when it comes to SRCDS. >I'm hoping to do a head to head on all these setups in a bit (I've got >access to a lot of systems) but I don't have time to test them out >right now. Any advice on # of TF2 slots on various hardware ppl have >would be very much appreciated. Turn OFF hires timers. Set HZ back to 250, because the game doesn't require ultra accurate timers at all. That should reduce CPU usage for you. IIRC TF2 only requires a 30hz clock, so 250 is better overall. Lowering HZ also reduces cacheline ping pongs, timer interrupt overhead, and a few other things.. _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
