[bf1942] BF2 linux server at launch

[Andreas Fredriksson]

On 5/3/05, "Einar S. Idsø" <esi at itk.ntnu.no> wrote:

> Great, thanks! I suppose that single AMD 64-boxes will have a similar
> advantage over 32-bit Pentiums?

Not that big an advantage, but the CPU is faster in itself even
without NUMA. The cache is bigger, which also helps applications with
significant memory footprint such as a game server.
 
> We're currently looking into obtaining a dual CPU box - using the
> NUMA-architecture instead of plain SMP sounds like it's definitely the
> way to go, right?

IMO, NUMA is the way to go for SMP in the future. There's much to gain
when processors are not competing for the same memory bus. I'm no
hardware designer, but I can't see how a single memory bridge would
scale to accommodate four or more CPU cores without serious
congestion.

> I've read a couple of head-to-head tests between dual
> Opteron and dual Xeon Nocona (EMT64) systems, and both CPUs seem to have
> an upper hand in differnt areas. We don't care about rendering speeds in
> Lightwave or compilation times with GCC - what we're interested in is a
> good CPU for BF2. Is there, to your knowledge, any noticeable difference
> between a dual Xeon Nocona and a dual Opteron system wrt. BF2? A
> dual-Core CPU would also be highly interesting, but I suppose there is
> very little you can say about systems based on this new architecture?

Yes, the only 64-bit architecture I had access to at DICE was the dual
Opterton machine I mentioned earlier. The only qualified guess I can
provide is that if you want to run several memory-hungry applications
on the same hardware (SMP or multi-core-SMP), shop for a system with
separate memory controllers for each CPU. This holds true for game
servers too since they usually access memory all over the place
(buffers and state are kept for each connected client in addition to
the world state, for instance).

Please note that I'm not working for DICE anymore, so I can't speak
with authority on BF2, but I try to provide helpful information when I
can. :-)

// Andreas