What's Most Important for me to Consider when Running a Virtualized Environment?
If you want to run a virtualized environment, you should put the emphasis on more (as in, several) rather than big (as in, powerful or fast).
In other words, more cores are better than big/fast cores. Likewise, more Random Access Memory (RAM) is preferable to better/faster RAM. Therefore, more cache is better than a higher clock speed.
What's the reason for it?
When dealing with virtual machines (VMs), you'll assign cores and gigabytes (GBs) of RAM. This designation is less likely to get a bottleneck by raw speed/power at the cores level.
Alternatively, a larger processor cache size (L2 cache) will allow more storage and therefore improved performance. This will lessen the frequency of input/output operations per second (IOPS) to disk or main memory.
Where do I go for more information?
Refer to the Should we go with a CPU with a higher core count? What is the impact of core count versus frequency? section (page 9) of the How Processor Core Count Impacts Virtualization Performance and Scalability white paper.
| Related topics |
| How Processor Core Count Impacts Virtualization Performance and Scalability |
| Does My Processor Support Intel® Virtualization Technology? |
| Intel® Virtualization Technology Requirements |
