I set up a server board with my gaming hardware and gathered some info. Don't ask me to run any more tests because the server hardware is heading off to my server site.

Testing system:
AMD Opteron 6278, 16 Core at 2.4Ghz
Supermicro H8SGL-F
32 GB DDR3-1333 ECC Memory, Quad Channel
AMD R9 285 Strix
SP550 SSD
750W PSU
Linux Mint 17.3, fglrx (Crimson 15.12)

Performance for high end 3D gaming was

Spoiler, click me

TERRIBLE

but there were a few factors at play here. First, I couldn't get turbo core working. I tried playing around with a bunch of settings but the Opteron refused to exceed base clock (2.4 Ghz). Also, I'm still stuck using the old fglrx proprietary driver and the PCIe interface on this board limited the GPU to gen 2 x8 electrical, so basically PCIe 1.1. Lastly, the SSD was constricted by the old Sata II interface which probably affected real time assets loading in games.


This album compares CPU usage between my A10-7870K and the Opteron 6278. It was hardly a scientific comparison but hopefully enough to amuse. OpenShot video editor LOVED having 16 cores and gobs of memory but the other stuff is mostly single threaded (or main process on one thread and a specific job on another).

Here is a system benchmark I took with a great cross-platform tool called Headline Benchmark. One of the guys over on Tom's Hardware introduced me to it. There is a dropdown to compare it against other systems people have uploaded.

Obligatory gameplay video:
View video on youtube.com

I cannot recommend the 16 core bulldozer CPUs even to Windows gamers. That single core performance just obliterates any semblance of 3D performance your system might have had. Maybe Vulkan would have made it more palatable but sadly, my OS just wasn't ready for Vulkan in time.