SuperMicro i7 (UP) - very slow performance
Jeremy Chadwick
freebsd at jdc.parodius.com
Thu Sep 23 04:51:02 UTC 2010
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 05:54:46PM -0700, Bryce wrote:
> On Sep 22, 3:43 am, free... at jdc.parodius.com (Jeremy Chadwick) wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 03:30:33AM -0500, Adam Vande More wrote:
> > > On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 3:12 AM, Peter Jeremy <peterjer... at acm.org> wrote:
> >
> > > > I think something is badly wrong here. That's less than 1/2 the speed
> > > > of my Athlon 4850e (2.5GHz) and only 60% more than my Atom N270. None
> > > > of the other figures you posted look anomolous. Are you sure the CPU
> > > > is actually running at full speed and you haven't done something like
> > > > disable the caches in BIOS?
> >
> > > FWIW:
> >
> > > FreeBSD galacticdominator.com 8.1-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 8.1-PRERELEASE #1: Sun
> > > Jun 20 21:05:37 CDT 2010
> > > a... at galacticdominator.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
> > > amd64
> > > CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 870 @ 2.93GHz (2940.64-MHz K8-class
> > > CPU)
> >
> > > MD5 time trial. Digesting 100000 10000-byte blocks ... done
> > > Digest = 766a2bb5d24bddae466c572bcabca3ee
> > > Time = 2.012719 seconds
> > > Speed = 496840352.000000 bytes/second
> >
> > > vmstat
> > > -i
> >
> > > interrupt total
> > > rate
> >
> > > irq16: vgapci0+ 10720642 54
> > > irq18: fwohci0 2 0
> > > irq23: ehci1 623712 3
> > > cpu0: timer 393496151 1996
> > > irq256: hdac0 8063581 40
> > > irq257: re0 4136265 20
> > > irq259: ahci1 1925783 9
> > > cpu1: timer 393494902 1996
> > > cpu6: timer 393494606 1996
> > > cpu5: timer 393494653 1996
> > > cpu7: timer 393494701 1996
> > > cpu4: timer 393494785 1996
> > > cpu3: timer 393494732 1996
> > > cpu2: timer 393494404 1996
> > > Total 3173428919 16102
> >
> > > His interrupts seem high compared to this setup, but I don't what expected
> > > values should be.
> >
> > How are his interrupt rates "higher" than yours? If you're focused on
> > the cpuX entries, don't be.
> >
> > To the OP:
> >
> > 1) I don't see how/why USB Legacy support would have anything to do with
> > your problem (meaning: you stated that things "improved a little" if you
> > disabled USB Legacy support in the BIOS, which makes no sense given what
> > that option does).
>
> The machine runs *MUCH* slower if Legacy BIOS is not disabled. Just
> booting up is excruciating, and takes forever.
I'm not sure what "Legacy BIOS" is (you mention it twice in your mail),
but I think it's just a typo for "Legacy USB" or "USB Legacy".
Regarding "the machine runs much slower", can you provide something as
simple as "md5 -t" both with the option enabled and with the option
disabled? System boot time increasing due to this option wouldn't
surprise me; I've battled Supermicro in the past over USB-related issues
during or after BIOS POST (though they were specific to booting from USB
flash drives):
http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/supermicro-pdsmi-bios-bugs/
http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/supermicro-pdsmi-bios-bugs-finale/
I've run into other BIOS bugs as well:
http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/supermicro-x7sba-and-ecc-ram-part-1/
http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/supermicro-x7sba-and-ecc-ram-finale/
I hate defaulting to this kind of response, but I assume you're running
the latest available BIOS for your mainboard?
> > 2) There's been a discussion on -stable about FreeBSD incorrectly
> > determining different kinds of CPU characteristics on newer processors
> > like the i7, with HTT in use. I can dig up the thread if you'd like.
> > It does include a patch.
>
> Yes, I'd like that. In case this helps:
>
> kern.sched.topology_spec: <groups>
> <group level="1" cache-level="0">
> <cpu count="8" mask="0xff">0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7</cpu>
> <children>
> <group level="3" cache-level="2">
> <cpu count="8" mask="0xff">0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7</cpu>
> <children>
> <group level="5" cache-level="1">
> <cpu count="2" mask="0x3">0, 1</cpu>
> <flags><flag name="THREAD">THREAD group</flag><flag
> name="SMT">SMT group</flag></flags>
> </group>
> <group level="5" cache-level="1">
> <cpu count="2" mask="0xc">2, 3</cpu>
> <flags><flag name="THREAD">THREAD group</flag><flag
> name="SMT">SMT group</flag></flags>
> </group>
> <group level="5" cache-level="1">
> <cpu count="2" mask="0x30">4, 5</cpu>
> <flags><flag name="THREAD">THREAD group</flag><flag
> name="SMT">SMT group</flag></flags>
> </group>
> <group level="5" cache-level="1">
> <cpu count="2" mask="0xc0">6, 7</cpu>
> <flags><flag name="THREAD">THREAD group</flag><flag
> name="SMT">SMT group</flag></flags>
> </group>
> </children>
> </group>
> </children>
> </group>
> </groups>
Worth reading -- apparently you're not the only one. Not sure if your
boards or setups are identical though:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-May/056591.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-May/056607.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-May/thread.html#56591
As for the Intel processor topology patch:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-September/058668.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-September/thread.html#58668
> > 3) Reset the BIOS settings to Factory Defaults ("Load Setup Defaults"
> > or the like), and then write down whatever you change, then post the
> > changes here.
>
> After resetting BIOS, I make the following changes:
>
> - Disable Legacy BIOS
> - Change drive controller from enhanced mode to AHCI
>
> and for your #4, the temp is almost always between 49-60 degrees C
> and the cpu freq is always 2801.
>
> I am not running powerd as I saw odd behavior and wanted to get a know
> good before introducing other variables.
I think your core temperatures are fine -- they look about right for
Core i7 CPUs (a few Celsius on the high side, but that's going to vary
from environment to environment).
--
| Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |
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