The Dell PowerEdge R770 server achieves a 65% increase in performance per watt with Intel® 6th Gen P-Core processors.
Review
As power and cooling costs become an increasingly important part of IT budgets, IT organizations looking to minimize total cost of ownership (TCO) are making energy efficiency a priority when selecting server hardware. This white paper examines the energy efficiency of the Dell PowerEdge R770 server. The Dell PowerEdge R770 is a 2U, two-socket rack server designed for high-performance computing with optimal energy efficiency and balanced performance to improve your data center productivity. It combines advanced computing power with innovative design efficiencies, maximizing rack space and minimizing power consumption.
This white paper presents and analyzes energy efficiency results for several current-generation Dell PowerEdge Rack servers and illustrates how these results compare across various parameters to the previous-generation Dell R760 server.
Main conclusions
Performance per watt
The new Dell PowerEdge R770 delivers improved performance and reduced power consumption compared to the previous generation R760 with Emerald Rapids processor, delivering 32% higher performance per watt. It also delivers 65% higher performance per watt than the R760 with Sapphire Rapids processor. [1]
Idle power (competitive advantage)
Even with a higher memory configuration, the 2U Dell PowerEdge R770 consumes 34% less power at idle compared to the 2U HPE DL380 Gen 12 server. The Dell PowerEdge R770 with the Intel 6th Gen Xeon SP 6787P processor (86 cores) consumes 164 watts at idle compared to the HPE ProLiant Compute DL380 Gen12 with the same 6th Gen 6787P processor (2U and 2 sockets) which consumes 220 watts at idle. [2]
Productivity
The Dell PowerEdge R770, powered by Intel's 6th Gen Xeon SP 6787P (86 cores), achieved the highest ssj_ops score with SPECpower_ssj2008. On March 10, 2025, it achieved 24,658,201 ssj_ops, making it the best performing 2U, 2-socket rack server. [3]
Hardware configuration
For the purpose of testing generations, we tested the Dell PowerEdge R760 based on Intel 4th and 5th generation processors and compared it to the Dell PowerEdge R770 based on Intel 6th generation Xeon Scalable processors.
|
Component |
Details |
||
|
SUTs |
Dell PowerEdge R770 |
Dell PowerEdge R760 |
Dell PowerEdge R760 |
|
CPU |
Intel Xeon 6787P- 86 core Processor (Granite Rapids) |
Intel Xeon 8592+ Processor (Emerald Rapids) |
Intel Xeon 8480+ Processor (Sapphire Rapids) |
|
CPUs enabled |
172 cores, 2 chips |
128 cores, 2 chips |
112 cores, 2 chips |
|
Memory |
16x 32GB DIMMS |
16x 16GB DIMMS |
16x 16GB DIMMS |
|
Power supply |
1x 1500W |
1x 1400W |
1x 1400W |
|
Operating system |
Windows Server 2022 Standard |
Windows Server 2022 Standard |
Windows Server 2022 Standard |
Benchmarking Overview: SPECPower_ssj2008
The SPECPower benchmark, introduced in 2008, measures the performance and power consumption of servers. The “ssj” workload stands for “Server-Side Java (SSJ).” This benchmark determines the load on a target server while also measuring its power consumption.
Although the test can use a variety of Java Virtual Machines (JVMs), the Oracle JVM is used almost exclusively for testing. The results document the processor and memory configuration, and also report additional measurements such as SSL operations at 100% CPU load, average power consumption at 100%, and average idle power consumption. The result is the total number of SSJ operations divided by watts consumed.
The test is run at 10 different loads, from 10% to 100% in 10% increments. Although the SPECPower results table only shows 100% results, the SPECPower “score” value is the average of all ten tests.
Results
When comparing the results of Intel Xeon 4th and 5th generation processors with the Intel Xeon SP 6th generation, the Dell PowerEdge R770 with the Intel 6th generation Xeon SP 6787P (86 cores) showed a total performance of 21,232 W/W. In comparison, the Dell PowerEdge R760 with the Intel Xeon SP 2x8592+ 5th generation processor has a total performance of 16,137, and the Intel Xeon SP 2x8480+ 4th generation processor has a total performance of 12,864. The higher performance and lower power consumption of the latest Dell PowerEdge R770 compared to the previous generation R760 with the Emerald Rapids processor provided 32% higher performance per watt and 65% higher performance per watt than the R760 with the Sapphire Rapids processor.
Dell PowerEdge R770 sets world record for highest ssj_ops with SPECpower_ssj2008. On March 10, 2025, the Dell PowerEdge R770 with Intel's 6th Generation Xeon SP 6787P processor (86 cores) achieved 24,658,201 ssj_ops, making it the best performance among all existing 2U and 2-socket rack server applications.
Figure 2 below shows the power consumption of the 2U Dell PowerEdge R770 and 2U HPE DL380 Gen 12 servers during the active idle phase of the SPECpower_ssj2008 test. Equipped with the same memory configuration, the 2U Dell PowerEdge R770 server consumed 40% less power in idle mode compared to the 2U HPE DL380 Gen 12 server. The Dell R770 and HPE DL380 have a 256 GB memory configuration.
Conclusion
The SPECpower test remains an important resource for researchers, manufacturers, and IT professionals looking to optimize the energy efficiency of their systems and contribute to a more sustainable future. Analysis of SPECpower results over the past few years has shown significant improvements in energy efficiency, driven by advances in processor technology, including the transition from Intel’s 4th and 5th generation processors to Intel’s 6th generation processors, as well as improvements in power management and system design. These improvements not only reduce operating costs, but also contribute to environmental sustainability by reducing the carbon footprint of data centers.
The Dell PowerEdge R770 is available in rear I/O (hot aisle) and front I/O (cold aisle) configurations. The front I/O cold aisle improves serviceability, reduces service time, and increases efficiency, reliability, and uptime, supporting your sustainability goals by optimizing cooling and energy usage. It also features Dell Smart Power and Cooling technology, optimized for air cooling, which significantly reduces energy consumption and helps save money in the long run.