A Principled Technologies report: Hands-on testing. Real-world results.
Propel your business into the future by refreshing with new one-socket Dell PowerEdge
R7715 servers with 32-core AMD EPYC 9355 processors
Moving from older Dell PowerEdge R740xd servers to the latest Dell servers can speed
data analysis and offer CPU resources for growth while also supporting company web traffic
The server clusters you currently rely on to run your company website and collect and analyze
customer data have been serving you well for the last several years. Deciding when it’s the right time to invest
in newer technology can be tricky for any business, especially without concrete data about how the new tech can
solve business problems and set you up for smart decisions in the future.
To help IT decision makers weigh these options, we compared the performance of a multipurpose
server cluster of three legacy Dell™ PowerEdge™ R740xd servers with 16-core Intel® Xeon® Gold 6130 processors to two configurations of a cluster of three new Dell
PowerEdge R7715 servers powered by the 32-core AMD EPYC™ 9355 processors. We
used these clusters to run a simultaneous mixed workload that reflects the priorities of many small and medium
businesses: data analytics and web hosting performance.
We found that the new Dell PowerEdge R7715 servers with AMD EPYC™ 9355 processors offered superior data analysis performance while supporting
higher levels of website usage. Both configurations could help you get quicker insights from customer data and
assist you in helping customers make smarter purchasing choices that also boost your sales. The first
configuration ran the same number of WordPress and SQL VMs as the R740xd servers, but left us with CPU headroom
to expand. Thus, for our second R7715 configuration, we increased from 9 to 15 SQL VMs while retaining our three
WordPress VMs.
A significant benefit of the performance increases is the potential for server consolidation.
Moving to a new Dell PowerEdge R7715 cluster means you can consolidate five older clusters onto one newer
cluster, which can save on licensing and rack space and also give you the potential for lower IT management
costs and other savings.
How we tested
Because we wanted to assess performance for small and medium organizations that host their own
websites and seek to harness the benefits that analyzing their data can provide, we compared performance when
simultaneously running virtualized data analysis and WordPress applications on three-node Windows Server 2025
Hyper-V clusters with Storage Spaces Direct. We used the TPROC-H workload from the HammerDB benchmark suite to
perform database queries and the Siege benchmark to test the web server. We recorded performance statistics from
these tests for the following clusters:
Three legacy dual-socket Dell PowerEdge R740xd servers, each with two 16-core Intel® Xeon® Gold 6130 processors, running 9 SQL
Server VMs and 3 WordPress VMs
Each server had 128 GB of DDR4 memory, two 240GB SSDs, and 20 400GB SAS SSDs
Three current-gen, single socket Dell PowerEdge R7715 servers, each with one 32-core AMD
EPYC™ 9355 processor, running 3 WordPress VMs and either 9 or 15 SQL Server
VMs
Each server had 384 GB of DDR5 memory, two 1.92TB SSDs, and six 3.2TB SSDs
We then used this data to determine how many older clusters a business could consolidate onto one
newer cluster so that they might reap the benefits of savings in licensing, space, and more. To learn more about
the configurations we tested and see step-by-step details for completing testing, please see the science behind the report.
About the Dell PowerEdge R7715
From the latest generation of the PowerEdge server portfolio comes the Dell PowerEdge R7715, a single-socket,
2U rack server powered by a new 5th generation AMD EPYC™ processor.
The PowerEdge R7715 supports:
Up to 24 DDR5 DIMM slots for 6TB max memory
Up to 8 PCIe® Gen5 slots
SmartCooling configuration that enhances cooling to allow most configurations to be air-cooled1
Windows Server 2025 became widely available in November 2024, offering organizations updated features,
including “security advancements and new hybrid cloud capabilities in a high-performance, AI-capable platform.”
*As new software versions become available, older software versions reach end-of-life, which means that support
and patching is no longer available. Service expiry for your current hardware-and-software solutions could make
now the perfect time to refresh your data center to take full advantage of new features in Windows Server 2025.
Get better data analysis performance plus room to grow
Small and medium businesses use data analysis to gain insights that drive business decisions. With
a server cluster that completes sets of queries more efficiently, companies benefit in several ways. They can
obtain insights and get them into the hands of decision makers earlier, run more queries at once, and
consolidate their workloads onto fewer servers.
Figure 1 and table 1 show the results of the HammerDB TPROC-H benchmark when we ran it
simultaneously with the Siege test tool for WordPress.
Data analysis performance of the two test clusters on the TPROC-H benchmark. Smaller numbers, reflecting less
time to complete queries, are better. Source: Principled Technologies.
About HammerDB TPROC-H
Per HammerDB, the creator of this workload and the harness we use to run it, TPROC-H “represents the typical
workload of a retailer running analytical queries about their operations.”3 Results from TPROC-H are, however,
useful outside of retail environments. Any organization, from finance to healthcare and beyond, that runs data
analytics or decision support workloads might find value in these test results.
TPROC-H outputs results in terms of how long a system takes to complete sets of 22 queries against each
database. HammerDB derived this workload from the TPC-H benchmark specifications, but it is not a full
implementation of official TPC-H standards. Consequently, TPROC-H results are not directly comparable to
published TPC-H results.
About the AMD EPYC™ 9355 processor
The latest in processor technology, the 5th Gen AMD EPYC™ family offers performance that can meet the
demands of many workloads. The AMD EPYC™ 9355 processor that we used in testing features 32 cores, 64
threads, and has max boost clock speeds up to 4.4 GHz. It supports AMD Infinity Guard and AMD Infinity
Architecture and is targeted for workloads such as analytics, media streaming VM density, and more. Small and
medium businesses may find this processor to be a cost-effective option that provides enough compute power and
cores to run multiple virtualized workloads.2
When running an equal workload, the newer Dell and AMD cluster completed the queries faster and
more efficiently, allowing for room to grow to 15 VMs without losing performance. By using more of its available
CPU (averaging 92 percent utilization), the newer cluster running 15 SQL Server VMs outperformed the legacy
cluster with Intel Xeon processors, running 9 SQL Server VMs, by a factor of 3.08.
Table 1: Times better performance of the current-gen Dell PowerEdge R7715 cluster (with 9 and 15 VMs) vs. the legacy solution and CPU utilization for all three solutions. Source: Principled Technologies.
Cluster
Dell PowerEdge R740xd server cluster with Intel Xeon Gold 6130 processors(9 VMs)
Dell PowerEdge R7715 server cluster with AMD EPYC 9355 processors (9 VMs)
Dell PowerEdge R7715 server cluster with AMD EPYC 9355 processors (15 VMs)
Times better performance vs. legacy cluster with 9 VMs
––––
3.18
3.08
CPU utilization (lower is better)
87%
62%
92%
We also found that the cluster with AMD EPYC processors running 15 workloads can complete 5.13
times as many query sets per hour as the legacy cluster with Intel Xeon processors running 9 workloads (see
Figure 2). To calculate the number of query sets per hour for each solution, we divided the number of seconds in
an hour (3,600) by the solution’s time to complete all VM query sets. We then multiplied that quotient by the
number of SQL Server VMs.
Calculated data analysis query sets per hour for the two clusters using the TPROC-H benchmark. Higher numbers
are better. Source: Principled Technologies.
About the Siege test tool for WordPress
To test WordPress workload performance, we used Siege, a benchmarking tool that simulates connections to a web
server to measure performance. According to creator Liquid Web, “It allows an admin or server owner to simulate
hits or connections to a web server with a preconfigured number of concurrent connections from simulated
users.”4
Siege measures performance in transaction rate, throughput, amount of info transferred, and more. For our
study, we report transactions per second to evaluate WordPress performance.
Support regular web traffic at the same time
Many organizations use WordPress to host their company websites. A server cluster that delivers
more WordPress transactions per second can support more simultaneous connections to your websites, which means
supporting more customers or users.
We ran the Siege benchmark simultaneously during our data analysis workload testing to demonstrate
how well each cluster could handle running both analytics and WordPress workloads. Table 1 shows that both the
9-VM and 15-VM configurations of the Dell PowerEdge R7715 cluster with AMD EPYC processors supported more
WordPress transactions per second (TPS) than the legacy cluster. According to a 2023 HubSpot survey, 46 percent
of respondents claimed their business website receives 1,001 to 15K monthly visitors, and 19 percent reported
15,001 to 50K monthly visitors.5 If 50K monthly visitors translates to a little more than 1,600 visitors a
day and if we consider each TPS represents one concurrent website visitor action, then both VM configurations of
the Dell and AMD cluster can handle the monthly site traffic for two-thirds of U.S. business websites with
capacity to support a growing visitor base.
Table 2: Average WordPress transactions per second for each server
cluster solution. Higher is better. Source: Principled Technologies.
How improved performance leads to consolidation and savings
Based on the data analytics performance differences between the two clusters, small and medium
businesses can potentially save by requiring fewer servers to run their workloads. For example, imagine a
company that has accumulated a cluster of five legacy servers over the years to satisfactorily handle their data
analysis and web server workloads. By upgrading to current-gen Dell PowerEdge R7715 servers with 32-core AMD
EPYC 9355 processors, they could replace this cluster with one server (see Figure 3.) We based this
consolidation estimate on the previously discussed query-sets-per-hour metric, with the newer Dell and AMD
cluster supporting up to 5.13 times as many query sets per hour as the legacy cluster with Intel Xeon
processors.
This consolidation could allow our fictitious company to save up to 80 percent on licensing and
rack space,* with the potential to save on additional costs, such as admin time to perform routine maintenance
and management, power, and cooling.
The consolidation potential of upgrading to Dell PowerEdge R7715 servers. Source: Principled Technologies.
Refreshing your servers can bring new possibilities to your business. Our test results show that
the new Dell PowerEdge R7715 server powered by the latest 32-core AMD EPYC 9355 processor speeds up data
analytics workloads and strengthens web-hosting performance. In addition, the solution has CPU availability to
run even more workloads. This means that by moving to the PowerEdge R7715, your company can support more
customers. Faster analysis speeds improve your ability to make suggestions to customers quickly, which can have
a big impact on revenues.
Don’t hold onto your aging servers. Instead, meet today’s business needs and prepare for the
future by investing in the new Dell PowerEdge R7715—a move that can also reduce licensing costs by cutting down
the number of servers you need to run data analysis and WordPress workloads.
This project was commissioned by Dell Technologies.
May 2025
Principled Technologies is a registered trademark of Principled Technologies, Inc.
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Principled Technologies disclaimer
Principled Technologies is a registered trademark of Principled Technologies, Inc. All other product names are the trademarks of their respective owners.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: Principled Technologies, Inc. has made reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and validity of its testing, however, Principled Technologies, Inc. specifically disclaims any warranty, expressed or implied, relating to the test results and analysis, their accuracy, completeness or quality, including any implied warranty of fitness for any particular purpose. All persons or entities relying on the results of any testing do so at their own risk, and agree that Principled Technologies, Inc., its employees and its subcontractors shall have no liability whatsoever from any claim of loss or damage on account of any alleged error or defect in any testing procedure or result.
In no event shall Principled Technologies, Inc. be liable for indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages in connection with its testing, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall Principled Technologies, Inc.’s liability, including for direct damages, exceed the amounts paid in connection with Principled Technologies, Inc.’s testing. Customer’s sole and exclusive remedies are as set forth herein.
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