Is it a bad mistake to configure a Nehalem (2 sockets quad core giving a total of 8 cores; E5520) with 16 GB RAM (4 DIMMs of 4GB each)? I know (I think) that the optimized memory for Nehalems is in banks of 6 due to the way the architecture is? I have often seen Nehalems coming with 24 GB memory as 6 DIMMs of 4 GB each.
Our code requirements dictate 2 GB / core is enough. Should I be paying for the additional RAM to make it 24 GB? Also, are there any other tips for the Nehalems in general to coax out max performance? Maybe some compiler flags or BIOS settings etc? The only thing I did so far was to put the BIOS power setting into a "max performance" mode. In the past I've gotten about 5% additional performance by changing the power profile to "performance" using cpu-freq-set on my AMD Opteron Barcelonas. Any similar gotchas for the Nehalems and HPC? -- Rahul _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
