# CPU performance improvements have stagnated on a cost-adjusted basis

DevFeed: [CPU performance improvements have stagnated on a cost-adjusted basis](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-great-cpu-stagnation-25083.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://databasearchitects.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-great-cpu-stagnation.html>)

Author: Viktor Leis (noreply@blogger.com)

Published: 2023-04-09T12:08:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Database Architects](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/database-architects.md>)

Topics: [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cpu.md>), [x86](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/x86.md>), [Hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/hardware.md>), [.NET 9](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/net-9.md>)

Tags: [amd](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/amd.md>), [cost](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cost.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cpu.md>), [intel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/intel.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [server-cpus](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/server-cpus.md>), [x86](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/x86.md>)

## AI overview

The article examines the slowdown of CPU improvements after Dennard scaling faltered around 2005. Using AMD Epyc data and comparisons with Intel CPUs in EC2, it argues that cost-adjusted gains in cores, performance, and logic transistor counts have largely stagnated, although newer cores still offer better performance.

## Source excerpt

For at least five decades, Moore's law consistently delivered increasing numbers of transistors. Equally significant, Dennard scaling led to each transistor using less energy, enabling higher clock frequencies. This was great, as higher clock frequencies enhanced existing software performance automatically, without necessitating any code rewrite. However, around 2005, Dennard scaling began to falter, and clock frequencies have largely plateaued since then. Despite this, Moore's law continued to advance, with the additional available transistors being channeled into creating more cores per chip. The following graph displays the number of cores for the largest available x86 CPU at the time: Notice the logarithmic scale: this represents the exponential trend we had become accustomed to, with core counts doubling roughly every three years. Regrettably, when considering cost per core, this impressive trend appears to have stalled, ushering in an era of CPU stagnation. To demonstrate this stagnation, I gathered data from wikichip.org on AMD's Epyc single-socket CPU lineup, introduced in 2017 and now in its fourth generation (Naples, Rome, Milan, Genoa): Model Gen Launch Cores GHz IPC Price 7351P Naples 06/2017 16 2.4 1.00 $750 7401P Naples 06/2017 24 2.0 1.00 $1,075 7551P Naples 06/2017 32 2.0 1.00 $2,100 7302P Rome 08/2019 16 3.0 1.15 $825 7402P Rome 08/2019 24 2.8 1.15 $1,250 7502P Rome 08/2019 32 2.5 1.15 $2,300 7702P Rome 08/2019 64 2.0 1.15 $4,425 7313P Milan 03/2021 16 3.0 1.37 $913 7443P Milan 03/2021 24 2.9 1.37 $1,337 7543P Milan 03/2021 32 2.8 1.37 $2,730 7713P Milan 03/2021 64 2.0 1.37 $5,010 9354P Genoa 11/2022 32 3.3 1.57 $2,730 9454P Genoa 11/2022 48 2.8 1.57 $4,598 9554P Genoa 11/2022 64 3.1 1.57 $7,104 9654P Genoa 11/2022 96 2.4 1.57 $10,625 Over these past six years, AMD has emerged as the x86 performance per dollar leader. Examining these numbers should provide insight into the state of server CPUs. Let's first observe CPU cores per dollar: This deviates