Unlocking Performance: SingleStore’s TPC-H Benchmark on 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Processors in AWS

SingleStore conducted a TPC-H benchmark on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to assess the performance improvements across various generations of Intel Xeon processors including Cascade Lake, Ice Lake and the latest generation, Sapphire Rapids. The results showcased up to 19% performance boost from Ice Lake to Sapphire Rapids.

In the ever-evolving landscape of data-driven applications, the quest for optimal performance remains a challenge. SingleStore, a leading provider of a distributed SQL database powering real-time applications, recently embarked on a journey to evaluate the performance gains across different generations of Intel Xeon Processors.

Specifically, the SingleStore team undertook a TPC-H benchmark — hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS) — to compare the performance of Cascade Lake, Ice Lake, and the latest addition to Intel’s Xeon processors, Sapphire Rapids. The outcome was exciting, with an impressive up to 19% performance increase from Ice Lake to Sapphire Rapids, highlighting the promising potential of this cutting-edge technology for data-intensive workloads.

Join us as we dive into the details of this benchmark, revealing how SingleStore, Intel and AWS are pushing the boundaries of performance optimization.

What Is a TPC-H Benchmark?

The  TPC Benchmark™H (TPC-H) simulates a decision support system that analyzes large volumes of data. It consists of a suite of business-oriented ad-hoc queries that involve complex joins, aggregations and data transformations. These queries are designed to test the performance of a database handling analytical workloads.

The TPC-H benchmark measures the performance of a database system in terms of the execution time for each query, as well as the throughput, which represents the number of queries that can be processed per unit of time. The queries and the data populating the database were chosen to have a broad industry-wide relevance. This benchmark illustrates decision support systems that examine large volumes of data, execute queries with a high degree of complexity and give answers to critical business questions.

How Did We Perform the TPC-H Benchmark?

To ensure a thorough and reliable internal assessment, SingleStore leveraged our query optimization teams’ experience in performing regular external benchmarking tests. This has enabled us to establish an internal benchmarking process that adheres to industry standards — with an aim to provide accurate and meaningful insights into the performance capabilities of different Intel CPU Platforms.

The benchmarking process involved the execution of a selected set of 22 standard TPC-H queries. The queries were meticulously designed to replicate the complexities and demands of real-world decision support systems. By simulating various data transformations, aggregations and joins, the benchmark sought to capture the performance characteristics of the database across different configurations.

With the goal of comparing performance improvements across multiple generations of Intel Xeon processors, SingleStore performed the TPC-H benchmark on Intel Cascade Lake, Ice Lake and Sapphire Rapids. One note of particular interest was Sapphire Rapids, which was evaluated on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) R7iz instances (in private preview). AWS announced the private preview of the Amazon EC2 R7iz instances back in November 2022, claiming up to 20% higher performance over comparable high-frequency EC2 instances.

What Were the Results?

To ensure a fair comparison, SingleStore compared the results of the TPC-H benchmark with the current generation based on Ice Lake (R6i). By conducting the tests within the same region and changing only the CPU type, we were able to create an environment that allows for a direct and meaningful comparison of performance.

 The results of the benchmarking exercise were nothing short of impressive. Overall, SingleStore observed a significant up to 19% increase in performance for the TPC-H benchmark queries when comparing Sapphire Rapids to Ice Lake.  This improvement was reflected in the overall runtime for the query set, which decreased by 19%. Additionally, the geometric mean, representing the average improvement across all queries, demonstrated a 21% improvement.

These findings revealed the substantial performance gains made possible by the latest generation of Intel Xeon processors. SingleStore’s evaluation revealed the potential of this advanced technology to deliver significant improvements in processing power and efficiency.

In light of these impressive results, SingleStore expresses gratitude to Intel and AWS. Their collaboration and support were instrumental in providing SingleStore with the opportunity to test and assess the capabilities of the latest generation compute platforms.

To learn more about Intel Xeon Processors, check out SingleStore Connect.