DevOps comparison · Hardware

Intel or AMD for a dedicated server: which one?

The 4hosting dedicated range has four AMD processors and three Intel processors, spread over eight configurations. The real differences have little to do with the badge. They are core type, ECC memory, memory channels, PCIe lanes and AI instructions, compared below with the vendors' own figures.

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Short answer

  1. For dense virtualisation and large databases the AMD EPYC 9454P wins, while for AI inference on the CPU the Intel Xeon 6731P wins thanks to its AMX instructions.
  2. On the smaller plans the Ryzen processors have identical cores, whereas the Core i5-13500 and Core Ultra 7 265 mix Performance cores with Efficient cores.
  3. The AMD EPYC 9454P offers 48 cores, 12 DDR5 channels and 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes, according to AMD.
  4. The Intel Xeon 6731P offers 32 cores, 8 DDR5-6400 channels, 136 PCIe 5.0 lanes, AVX-512 and AMX, according to Intel.
  5. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D carries 128 MB of L3 cache, which helps cache-sensitive workloads such as databases and game servers.
AMD EPYC 9454P
48 cores, 96 threads, 290 W TDP
Intel Xeon 6731P
32 cores, 64 threads, 245 W TDP
Memory channels
12 (EPYC) · 8 (Xeon) · 2 (desktop)
PCIe 5.0 lanes
128 (EPYC) · 136 (Xeon)

Side-by-side comparison

Intel vs AMD across the 4hosting dedicated server range, from the vendors' specifications
CriterionIntelAMD
Processors on offerCore i5-13500, Core Ultra 7 265, Xeon 6731PRyzen 5 3600, Ryzen 7 PRO 8700GE, Ryzen 9 7950X3D, EPYC 9454P
Cores on the smaller plansHybrid: P-cores plus E-coresUniform: every core identical
Cores on the top plan32 cores, 64 threads48 cores, 96 threads
Memory channels at the top8 channels, DDR5-640012 channels, DDR5-4800
PCIe 5.0 lanes at the top136 lanes128 lanes
DDR5 ECC registeredXeon 6731P, 128 or 256 GBEPYC 9454P, 256 GB
AVX-512Xeon 6731P onlyRyzen 7000/8000 and EPYC (Zen 4)
AMX for AI on CPUYes, on Xeon 6731PNo
Largest cache144 MB (Xeon 6731P)256 MB L3 (EPYC 9454P)
TDP at the top245 W290 W

When to choose each option

Choose Intel if

  • you run AI inference on the CPU and your libraries use the AMX instructions of the Xeon 6731P
  • you need four NVMe drives together with 256 GB of ECC memory, a combination only SD Intel 32/256 offers
  • your application has a few heavy threads and gains from the fast P-cores of the Core Ultra 7 265
  • your software is already tuned for Intel, for example through OpenVINO or oneAPI

Choose AMD if

  • you host many virtual machines and want identical cores, with no slower E-cores in the mix
  • your database is memory-bound and can use the 12 DDR5 channels of the EPYC 9454P
  • you want 48 cores in one socket to consolidate several older servers
  • you run a game server or another cache-sensitive workload that gains from the 128 MB of L3 on the Ryzen 9 7950X3D

Hybrid P+E cores or uniform cores

The Core i5-13500 has 14 cores: 6 Performance cores with Hyper-Threading plus 8 Efficient cores, which makes 20 threads. The Core Ultra 7 265 has 20 cores, 8 P and 12 E, without Hyper-Threading. E-cores are slower and draw less power per thread, and the operating-system scheduler decides which thread lands on which type. A hypervisor can therefore place a vCPU on an E-core, so two identical virtual machines may perform differently. Per-core software licences usually count the E-cores as well. Ryzen and EPYC cores are all identical, which keeps behaviour predictable.

  • The plan name SD Intel 6/64 counts only the P-cores; the real total is 14 cores.
  • The plan name SD Intel 8/64 counts only the P-cores; the real total is 20 cores.
  • Check the hypervisor's compatibility list before installing it on a hybrid processor.

ECC memory, channels and bandwidth

The AMD EPYC 9454P has 12 channels of DDR5-4800 and 460.8 GB/s of bandwidth per socket, according to AMD. The Intel Xeon 6731P has 8 channels of DDR5-6400, and desktop-class processors have 2. On the EPYC 9454P and the Xeon 6731P, 4hosting fits DDR5 ECC registered memory. SD AMD 6/64 and SD Intel 6/64 use DDR4 ECC. SD AMD 8/64, SD AMD 16/128 and SD Intel 8/64 use DDR5 with no ECC stated in the plan. DDR5 corrects errors inside the chip, but that does not protect the path between memory and processor. For critical databases, full ECC is the right safety net.

AVX-512, AMX, cache and power draw

The Xeon 6731P supports AVX-512 and AMX, according to Intel ARK. AMX speeds up the matrix multiplications that small AI models running on a CPU depend on. The Core i5-13500 and Core Ultra 7 265 have only AVX2. The Zen 4 architecture of the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, Ryzen 7 PRO 8700GE and EPYC 9454P supports AVX-512 but not AMX, and the Zen 2 Ryzen 5 3600 has no AVX-512 at all. On cache, the EPYC 9454P has 256 MB of L3, the Xeon 6731P has 144 MB and the 7950X3D has 128 MB. TDP is 290 W for the EPYC 9454P, 245 W for the Xeon 6731P and 120 W for the 7950X3D.

Examples from Romania

Online shop in Cluj-Napoca on PostgreSQL

A shop with a large catalogue and Black Friday peaks wants fast cores and plenty of cache. SD AMD 16/128, built on the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, gives 16 identical cores and 128 MB of L3. If the database cannot tolerate memory errors, the ECC registered step up is SD AMD 48/256.

SaaS vendor in Iasi running one environment per customer

A team that keeps a separate environment for every customer needs many identical cores and ECC memory. SD AMD 48/256, with the EPYC 9454P, offers 48 cores, 256 GB of DDR5 ECC registered memory and 12 memory channels.

Agency in Timisoara classifying documents

An agency runs small classification models on the CPU, with no GPU. The Xeon 6731P in SD Intel 32/128 has AMX, which speeds up this maths when the library supports it. For large language models, a GPU server is still the right tool.

Common mistakes

  • Treating the 14 cores of the Core i5-13500 as equal cores, when 8 of them are E-cores.
  • Comparing peak frequency only and ignoring the number of memory channels.
  • Putting a critical database on non-ECC RAM just because the processor is newer.
  • Assuming every recent processor has AVX-512; the Core i5-13500 and Core Ultra 7 265 do not.

How 4hosting helps

  • Eight dedicated server configurations, four AMD and four Intel, all with full root access and unmetered traffic.
  • 5–10 DevOps hours are included every month on dedicated servers, depending on plan, and can go on virtualisation, RAID or database tuning. You request them from the client panel; they do not carry over, and extra hours are accepted and billed separately.
  • 99.99 % SLA on dedicated servers, in a datacentre in Frankfurt.
  • Free migration from your current provider, with L3/L4 DDoS protection included and a symmetric 10 Gbps network.

Related questions

  • Do E-cores matter on a database server?

    Yes. A query thread moved to an E-core runs slower than on a P-core, so latency becomes less even. For databases that need steady response times, the uniform cores of a Ryzen or EPYC are more predictable. For a web server handling many small requests, the difference matters less.

  • Is the EPYC 9454P better than the Xeon 6731P?

    It depends on the workload. The EPYC 9454P has more cores, 48 against 32, and more memory channels, 12 against 8. The Xeon 6731P adds AMX for CPU-side AI, supports faster DDR5-6400 memory and has a lower TDP, 245 W against 290 W.

Sources

Ask for an infrastructure recommendation

AMD wins on uniform cores and memory width, Intel wins on CPU-side AI through AMX, and the only four-NVMe plan runs on a Xeon.

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