New GPU extension of our Levante supercomputer ranks among the three most energy-efficient HPC systems in the world!

In the new Green500 list (November 2025), which—like the TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers—is updated approximately every six months, Levante's new GPU extension, which is used for energy-efficient climate simulations at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, is ranked third.

With 69.426 GigaFLOPS per watt, the system is at the top of the range along with two similar systems based on the same BullSequana XH-3000 technology from Eviden: Nvidia Grace Hopper Superchip 72C 3GHz, NVIDIA GH200 Superchip, and Quad-Rail NVIDIA InfiniBand NDR200. In the new TOP500 list, the Levante, now a good three and a half years old, ranks 164th, while the new GPU extension, which is listed as a standalone system and fits into a single rack, ranks 227th.

This ranking in the Green500 list is very good news. However, energy efficiency is measured here using the generic HPL (High Performance LINPACK) benchmark. From the perspective of the DKRZ and climate research, it is therefore particularly important that the most important models (such as the ICON climate and weather model) run as energy-efficiently as possible on the DKRZ's systems. To this end, the DKRZ has recently been working explicitly on reducing energy consumption as part of the GreenHPC initiative.