Xeon E5520 slower than a i5???

[idata]

Hi all,

I'm puzzled about an issue on processor speeds. I'd very much appreciate any suggestion from the forum.

In my research group we have a mathematical model coded in MATLAB (mostly a system of differential equations). We run it in a laptop for tests and (for heavy simulatios) in a server which is supposed to be much faster. However, we found that the laptop is actually about 25% faster than the server!! We are very surprised by this and we'd like to know if there is something obvious we may correct in the server's configuration, or if it is just like that, and the i5 is faster than a double Xeon.

The specs are:

The server: DELL, 2-processor Xeon E5520 (2.27, 2.26 GHz), 72 Gb RAM (yes, seventy-two), 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2

The "humble" laptop: Intel Core i5, 2,27 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7

Any ideas?

Thanks!

AH

[Adolfo_S_Intel2]

Since you did not provide the model number of the Intel i5 processor, I am summing that you have the i5-430M.

The only main difference I notice between both processors is the technology, since the i5-430M is based on 32 nm Technology (newer) while the Intel® Xeon® processor E5520 is based on 45 nm Technology (older).

Please check this link for a full comparison chart:

http://ark.intel.com/compare/40200,43537 http://ark.intel.com/compare/40200,43537

Newer technology can cause better performance on a processor.