Solved Intel vs Chelsio network card performance

Hi

I have been using an Intel X550-T2 NIC. As a test I switched if for a Chelsio T520-BT. I use a FreeBSD 12.0p3 firewall on a Xeon D Supermicro main board. I have over 500 firewall rules and 6 vlan:s. I have been able to push over 9 Gbit through it with just 8-10% cpu usage.

The Chelsio adapter was a real disappointment. The speed is 2 Gbit lower in the same test and the CPU i 50% over all four cores during the tests, i.e much higher CPU usage taken by interrupts. I have also tried to tune the Chelsio card according to Olivier Cochard-Labbé:s paper for tuning FreeBSD firewalls.

The intel card is simply a much better card!

I post here to ask if someone is sitting on some hidden secrets that can prove otherwise..

Thanks

/Peo
 
I have all Chelsio T-4xx boards. I use T-422 in my OPNSense router to a NetApp switch. I use T-420 in my servers.
I have not benchmarked anything but I am happy with them. They put off massive heat and use a dinky heatsink.
That is my beef. I had to add cooling for them.
I also own some Intel X520/540 and even some single port Mellanox ConnetcX3 10GBe boards.
They all inter-operate very well. I really do need to do some performance testing.

So for some worthy dialog please describe your testing methodology.
Was this bare metal to bare metal? Vitalized?
Chelsios on both ends when testing or mixed environment?
Are you using iperf for results?
 
I just do various speed tests. iperf is one of them. The chelsio performs very well. The intel is however simply a better card when it comes to speed and at the same time eat less CPU (less interrupts). I can use any of the card. They are both very good...

I just try to find knobs to make the Chelsio equal or better than the intel when it comes to performance. The only thing that Chelsio is better at, is more settings, more features and a better man page.

Any tuning tips?
 
Is started this thread. So I'll close it... Maybe the info could help others...

After all tests are finished, I take back that I said the intel is simply a much better card. I was to quick with my verdict... The intel card is not a better card.


After tuning the right stuff (well... the stuff I have found that is tuneable), the cards performance is very similar. They are so close that I have to state there is no difference at all in performance. The Chelsio card seems to have more features. Also, the Chelsio eat slightly more CPU than the intel card s at high packet rates. If you leave all features on in the Chelsio hardware, then the intel card performs better though.

So... both cards are really fantastic.
 
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