PC Engines apu2 experiences

AndrewZ

Just started to configure APU2C4 as a replacement for my old Alix 2D13.
I'm wandering if it is possible to see the current CPU frequency in a dashboard?

edwardwong

Impressive result.
BTW, using "-evp" will force using crypto hardware, so whatever you set in GUI doesn't really matter, maybe you should try to skip this option to see the difference.

@Zebibyte:

Here is what I got trying the same command with -multi 4

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 4
evp 5582.70k 22238.25k 81301.33k 244524.47k 593181.72k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 4
evp 5615.02k 21855.49k 77674.24k 220074.67k 465368.41k

Then after setting "Cryptographic Hardware" in the GUI back to none (not sure if this does the right thing)

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 4
evp 5645.37k 19885.66k 70725.03k 217378.47k 524483.65k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 4
evp 5586.90k 21842.43k 77226.75k 219488.40k 455090.18k

@edwardwong:
Your CPU has 4 cores, can you test with "-multi 4" option to run 4 threads together? Then we can see the actual speed for this CPU.

@dugeem:
With aesni kernel module loaded:
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-128-cbc       1527.90k     5867.93k    21607.17k    65414.14k   162611.20k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc       1512.18k     5761.15k    20833.28k    58732.20k   127229.95k
With aesni kernel module unloaded (i.e. use openssl internal AES-NI support):
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-128-cbc     125586.59k   174393.26k   213315.07k   226097.49k   230883.33k

openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc     100216.39k   136148.85k   157464.49k   162677.42k   165601.28k

apollo17

@AndrewZ:

Just started to configure APU2C4 as a replacement for my old Alix 2D13.
I'm wandering if it is possible to see the current CPU frequency in a dashboard?

See my previous post in this thread (post #17).

after following the details from here https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=108262.0 the dashboard temperature readout works perfectly.

AndrewZ

@apollo17:

after following the details from here https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=108262.0 the dashboard temperature readout works perfectly.

Indeed, I've noticed that post earlier and already implemented the workaround described on my system.
My question was about frequency, not temperature.
For some reasons I was able to see the current and the maximum frequency (600 and 1000 as I recall) very briefly only 2 times during the page reload. All other time I see only the following:

CPU Type AMD GX-412TC SOC
4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)

apollo17

@AndrewZ:

@apollo17:

after following the details from here https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=108262.0 the dashboard temperature readout works perfectly.

Indeed, I've noticed that post earlier and already implemented the workaround described on my system.
My question was about frequency, not temperature.
For some reasons I was able to see the current and the maximum frequency (600 and 1000 as I recall) very briefly only 2 times during the page reload. All other time I see only the following:

CPU Type AMD GX-412TC SOC
4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)

Sorry, my mistake i misread your post. I know what you mean mine does that aswell, i'm not sure if you can change it. If you have powerd enabled you can get a realtime frequency read out using the shell command powerd -v.

I don't think the dashboard freqency readout is just amd related, it behaves the same on intel systems too.

AndrewZ

@apollo17:

I know what you mean mine does that aswell, i'm not sure if you can change it. If you have powerd enabled you can get a realtime frequency read out using the shell command powerd -v.

I don't think the dashboard freqency readout is just amd related, it behaves the same on intel systems too.

Thanks for that, good to know.

aGeekhere

What transfer speed does the apu2 get from squid's local cache?

Guest

What transfer speed does the apu2 get from squid's local cache?

This is mostly also owed to the circumstance what storage drive is used in that case!!

Stewart

I'd like to add what I've found and compare the APU1D with the APU2C4. Each test was run 5 times and the average is shown:


_______________APU1D__________Without aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-128
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc      20,150.25	   21,593.45	 22,101.23	   55,892.72	 57,108.07
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc      20,879.17	   22,096.23	 22,604.51	   22,781.61	 22,756.18
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc -multi 2
aes-128-cbc      37,715.27	   42,234.96	 43,208.21	  108,581.00	108,638.48
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 2
evp              41,202.15	   43,115.07	 43,609.43	   42,840.60	 44,048.14

_______________APU1D__________Without aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-256
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc
aes-256 cbc      14,700.73	   15,444.83	 15,733.50	   41,247.34	 41,710.94
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
aes-256-cbc      15,243.62	   15,707.42	 15,961.70	   16,126.77	 15,934.53
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc -multi 2
aes-256 cbc      23,949.23	   26,988.24	 29,858.76	   65,845.54	 64,089.45
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 2
evp              29,593.04	   26,244.35	 26,773.70	   28,397.03	 27,938.67

_______________APU1D__________With aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-128
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc
aes-128 cbc      19755.576	  21431.89	   21989.752	55771.576	 55630.234
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc      20863.098	  22093.112	   22559.898	22602.114	 22531.338
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc -multi 2
aes-128 cbc      37336.336	  38520.556	   42471.264   105237.468	99426.206
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 2
evp              36558.862	  40986.052	   42027.06	    40009.182	 41684.274

_______________APU1D__________With aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-256
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc
aes-256 cbc      14591.166	  14837.534	   14614.882	39739.044	 40290.906
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
aes-256-cbc      14994.722	  15396.05	   16006.702	16093.2	     15921.974
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc -multi 2
aes-256 cbc      24330.116	  27610.256	   26142.88	    71589.386	 70645.116
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 2
evp              25427.984	  27953.616	   26119.284	28292.242	 26312.212

_______________APU2C4__________Without aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-128
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc       14,602.14 	 15,604.71 	 16,020.81 	 41,673.96 	 42,613.15 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc      116,857.16 	 167,172.30 	 205,183.44 	 216,286.74 	 219,179.69 
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc -multi 2
aes-128-cbc       52,436.02 	 58,305.43 	 58,527.76 	 154,819.86 	 162,012.23 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 2
evp               5,339.28 	 20,562.37 	 75,235.53 	 230,458.68 	 567,333.62 

_______________APU2C4__________Without aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-256
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc
aes-256 cbc       10,657.51 	 11,205.91 	 11,310.90 	 30,765.00 	 31,377.54 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
aes-256-cbc       96,810.10 	 129,034.06 	 150,190.10 	 156,638.07 	 158,143.28 
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc -multi 2
aes-256 cbc       39,620.04 	 40,461.33 	 40,217.14 	 120,696.35 	 117,217.43 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 2
evp               5,224.40 	 21,083.67 	 73,885.68 	 201,226.44 	 442,017.98 

_______________APU2C4__________With aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-128
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc
aes-128 cbc       14,547.43 	 15,599.68 	 16,005.85 	 41,691.67 	 42,459.34 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc
aes-128-cbc       1,455.86 	 5,778.35 	 21,179.49 	 64,385.85 	 158,815.65 
openssl speed -elapsed aes-128-cbc -multi 2
aes-128 cbc       53,114.91 	 57,221.27 	 58,445.19 	 159,149.88 	 158,859.67 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-128-cbc -multi 2
evp               5,355.99 	 21,216.93 	 75,614.86 	 228,806.89 	 572,782.12 

_______________APU2C4__________With aes-ni Enabled in GUI_____AES-256
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc
aes-256 cbc       10,657.26 	 11,111.40 	 11,175.44 	 30,771.72 	 31,289.62 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc
aes-256-cbc       1,404.00 	 5,528.13 	 19,735.86 	 55,687.85 	 119,758.85 
openssl speed -elapsed aes-256-cbc -multi 2
aes-256 cbc       39,908.48 	 39,509.88 	 41,580.65 	 117,316.88 	 117,157.87 
openssl speed -elapsed -evp aes-256-cbc -multi 2
evp              5,456.64 	 20,749.14 	 70,953.42 	 207,225.20 	 456,061.90

Some things stand out fairly obvious but I'll need some help determining what is going on.
First, it's obvious that enabling aes-ni in the Advanced-Misc section does something. It seems to have a modest affect on the APU1D and a fairly detrimental affect on the APU2C4.
Second, the APU2C4 only has about 73% of the performance of the APU1D using a single core and no hardware acceleration.
Third, the APU2D4 seems to excel in some circumstances and bomb in others. I expected to see a fairly consistent trend, but the charts seem to say otherwise.

Does anyone know which number is most representative of performance when running the openssl speed test? From what I'm seeing it appears that on the APU1D with aes-ni disabled we should be able to get 108MB/s on aes-128 with an 8k block size and 65MB/s on aes-256 with an 8k block size. It also appears that with the APU2D4 we should be able to get 567MB/s on aes-128 with an 8k block size and 442MB/s on aes-256 with an 8k block size. Those don't seem right to me. Can anyone care to elaborate?

Also, I've attached a screenshot of the spreadsheet I've put together with basic heatmaps. All values are the same and "are in 1000s of bytes per second processed". I just dropped the "k" so I could run calculations. Also, the commands that were run that include the multi switch were run as "multi 2" on the APU1D and as "multi 4" on the APU2C4.

Edit: I should note that these are all run with powerd on set to hiadpative. Also, added APU2C4 numbers that were forgotten.

APU1DvsAPU2C4.jpg_thumb

Stewart

The average I get running iperf across the LAN interfaces is:
APU1D -> APU2C4 = 235Mb/s
APU2C4 -> APU1D = 218Mb/s
APU1D -> Core2Box = 121Mb/s
APU2C4 -> Core2Box = 222Mb/s

Services enabled on the APU1D and APU2C4 in case they affect things are:
Squid
SquidGuard
AV Integrated in Squid
Snort
pfBlockerNG
darkstat
LightSquid

kevindd992002

Are you guys using a full install or a nanobsd install on an msata 16gb ssd on an apu2c4?

Stewart

I'm running a full install.

kevindd992002

Without any modifications like using ramdisks for /tmp and /var? Fulll install as is?

Stewart

Yes. Using an msata ssd.

mikeboss

@Stewart:

Second, the APU2C4 only has about 73% of the performance of the APU1D using a single core and no hardware acceleration.

I saw similar results, back when I got my first APPU2. it seemed to be odd but then I re-ran the benchmark a few times and I always got more or less the same score each time…

APU1 https://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/4636493
APU2 https://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/4635680

regards,
michael

kevindd992002

Are the APU2 developers already aware of this? This issue seems to be a major one that needs addressing, right?

Qinn

I read there is a module for using the 3 front LEDs on the apu2 boards (http://pcengines.ch/howto.htm#gpio), has anyone using pfSense experience with this?

Thanks in advance,

Cheers Qinn

maglub

Hi,

I just set up two APU2C4 boxes with pfSense 2.3.2. After a bit of fiddling with the USB stick for TinyCore, I managed to get it installed. On a 1Gbit connection, I had >800Mbit down and up through the firewall. No tuning what so ever.

I am using pfSense-CE-2.3.2-RELEASE-4g-amd64-nanobsd.img.gz

j4k3

Hey Guys, I wish I was getting maglub's performance out of the box.

I just received a APU2C4 in the mail and loaded pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-2.3.2-RELEASE-amd64 on it.

It manages to boot fine, and it's fully functional, the web interface moves much quicker and more fluid than the old ALIX2D3 it had replaced.

However when I run iperf on the LAN interface from another host, I'm only getting 300Mbps or so.

I found this thread about Intel I210AT nics and am attempting their suggestions:

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/1221

I see they're playing with the buffers and queues.

My question is this, if I edit loader.conf.local after looking at some of the options some options have "Quotes" around them, and others don't.

If I directly edit loader.conf.local when I specify variables in there, must they use " for the value? Or will just the value suffice?

hw.igb.num_queues="4" or hw.igb.num_queues=4 ?

Thanks

cwagz

I always use the quotes. I have not tried it without.