16 Core AMD CPU for Less Than $100?

Everyone knows using old Intel Xeon server CPU's is a good way to get good performance on a budget. But what of AMD's server offerings from days past? Today we investigate the Opteron 6276, a 16 core AMD server CPU from the Bulldozer days. Strap in because its going to be a bumpy ride!
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[@json868]

My entire hame lab rack is AMD Opteron based servers, besides a few ARM boxes and one SPARC server. I regret nothing.

[@smegger68]

The issue is not the CPU as much as it is the motherboard. It only employs a single RAM channel which means that 3 out of 4 memory operations are crossing cores inside the proessor on the internal fabric. The chip works MUCH better on a proper motherboard with 4 loaded memory channels, though I agree it's not an ideal platform for gaming because of the low clock speeds and IPC. Where it does shine is in numerous lightly threaded tasks where it's huge cache and 16 (ok, 8) cores can shine.

[@suli687]

5:30 This is normal, we all know that Opterons are based off the bulldozer core, which was a total scam from AMD back in the day. Those 16 cores are sharing way too many components inside the package, and it normally underperforms due to lack of cache.

[@obsoletepowercorrupts]

The CPU is not bad but rather it has a different purpose. The bundle does not seem to suit your personal use case though. It does however provide a MBoard to test the CPU before slotting it into a server blade (or similar) MBoard with other CPU opterons. The cooler is a cooler to get things running in a limited situations. The CPU is not intended for that but for heat dissipation when all 16 cores are used with the instruction-set it has available such as AVX, and as such more likely with specific mathematics such as using R in coding. The shared cache per module shows it has increased likelihood of uses with the FPU, and as such a maths library, and some examples could include matrices. Nice to learn coding on if a specific goal is in mind. As an aside, it is not mean to overclock but, in the original server MBoards, boost to 3200Mhz. It would be interesting to see if that mboard supports SLAT or VMDq or SR-IOV for ethernet/NICs. My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love.

[@RMDTech]

Crazy to think you could get an i5 4th gen bundle on eBay for the exact same price. That would be a muuuuuuuuch better choice for gamers.

[@TechTested]

It really would. Honestly almost anything would be better for gaming. Its such a shame they don't have any overclocking features. I really think a higher clock speed could save the reputation of this CPU.

[@beavatatlan]

@@TechTested Some supermicro boards can be modified to overclock. There are also enginering samples with unlocked multipliers.

[@ToxicwasteProductions]

To be honest this cpu fits best inside a server. Something that just sits at desktop most of the time and doing things like being a file server with some decent performance. However the power consumption is not really that great but with support for ecc it makes it allot better then non ecc memory. So actually not bad for like plex and stuff. But gaming was never a workload that was intended for this Cpu.

[@jonathanmarshall3974]

Cool video but I have to disagree on one point about 2 sticks only not being a big deal. These CPU's already struggle with RAM bandwidth and they really only make sense in configurations with full quad channel RAM. The topology of the processor package means only one of the dies is getting direct access to these two channels and the other die has to fetch data over Hypertransport (Infinity Fabrics predecessor). Already low performance tanks as a result. As for boosting, these AliExpress boards have a locked boost functionality. You need to find it in BIOS and enable it so that single core boost can work. These boards are cool for educational purposes but they're fundamentally a way for AliExpress to recycle e-waste G34 Opterons and chipsets.

[@CopperPopperComputers]

Philcomputerlab made a video on this with a 6386se processor.. and it performs amazing in almost all games 50-70fps

[@HoodedStatue]

My family computer had a very old pc a athlon x64 dual core. And damnn it is slow good thing I built a new pc with a i5 3470 and boy what a upgrade it is, Also it was my first pc build. Enjoying the content btw

[@TechTested]

Yeah the athlon 64 x2 is a bit dated

[@jari2018]

the old amd cpu is perrfect for games ut2004 which has a online player base even today and a nvidia 710 class gpu would be the card used to play the game -anything faster would max the graphics

[@jari2018]

lowest for the game are actually a nvidia tnt2 32mb - you can play in 320x240 low and get 12 fps. .Nvidia 5200 which sucks greatly will get you 640x480 low in onslaught -Ati 9800 pro recommended wthich a nvidia 710 are basicilly but with hugely bigger vram

[@chomper720]

Cores uber alles!!! O3O

[@c1apifi3dgames6]

Shame that these boards don't support overclocking, that bios looks nasty. Perhaps setFSB would work, I have no idea what clock generator that board would have though?

[@TechTested]

I can have a look at some point, but I am not aware of setfsb working on anything other than Intel platforms

[@Harpuia455]

Is this cpu a good choice for a Minecraft server?

[@freanz3000]

no overclocking?? Phenom msr tweaker

[@SkysTrains]

Hm yes, it’s bad... ILL TAKE YOUR ENTIRE STOCK

[@EirikrTinkerTries]

This CPU NEEDS quad channel RAM to ACTUALLY perform… and even then the 63xx series is the later FX-CPU revisions so would be better. Honestly because of one NUMA node not being fed it’s own RAM channels hecka lots of performance is being lost. Can you find a Tyan board with enough actual channels of RAM for these?

[@blackpete]

Is it Matt....or MAD? :D

[@TechTested]

I was certainly frustrated testing this thing lol

[@jetrho55]

This Motherboard is horrible, don't does even dual channel.

[@riklaunim]

My test of that thing, with "better" Opteron: rk.edu.pl/en/testing-old-16-core-opteron-6386-se-jingsha-x89-motherboard/

[@TechTested]

This is incredible! Not only did you do a great test, but you tested my favorite game (starcraft 2). Very impressive!

[@devl547]

The ugliest thing is SINGLE channel RAM on this motherboard.

[@HardWhereHero]

It's bulldozer or pile o shit driver. All of the early 2000s amd architecture is GARBAGE!! Yea, I was too poor for Intel when I was younger, so I was a huge fan of AMD and literally hated Intel for being this snobby elitist company for PC hardware snobs. After realizing the monumental difference in gaming on one VS the other I was able to see why they were able to get away with charging so much money at the time.