The Power Value Index (PVI)
A transparent, six-factor scoring model ranking IBM Power8 through Power11 on performance, capacity, remaining useful life, software economics, market price, and value retention.
This is an independently developed analytical framework, not IBM official pricing or an IBM-endorsed metric. Inputs sourced from IBM public documentation and named third-party pricing/reseller data are cited per generation below. Inputs without a citable public source are labeled "Krisada Estimate" and describe the modeling assumption used, so the number can be checked and challenged rather than taken on faith.
Generation Rankings
PVI = (Performance x 0.25) + (Capacity x 0.15) + (Remaining Useful Life x 0.20) + (Software Economics x 0.15) + (Market Price x 0.15) + (Value Retention x 0.10)
Power8 — 40/100
Power8 is past standard IBM service. It scores lowest overall because remaining useful life and value retention are near zero, even though it is the cheapest hardware to acquire today.
Value-zone / short-window refresh candidatePower9 — 54/100
Power9 just exited standard support as of this writing (Jan 2026), which caps its RUL score even though it remains a strong price/performance buy on the secondary market for a defined, shorter runway.
Best current value / secondary market forming nowPower10 — 76/100
Power10 is the standout PVI value pick right now: near-current performance and capacity, a genuine multi-year support runway, and pricing that is actively softening as it transitions off IBM's new-build price list.
Highest overall index / full lifecycle aheadPower11 — 86/100
Power11 tops the index on every input except price, because it is the only generation carrying zero acquisition discount. Its PVI score answers "best hardware," not "best deal" -- see Upgrade Economics for when that gap matters.
The Six Weighted Components
| Component | Weight | What It Measures | Data Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance | 25% | Per-core CPW (IBM i) and rPerf (AIX/Linux) throughput, indexed against the newest generation. | IBM-published CPW and rPerf figures where available (S1012/S1112 entry comparison, S914/S924 Power9 figures from IBM's Power Performance Report), interpolated across the generation where a direct figure was not publicly available. |
| Capacity | 15% | Maximum scale-out headroom: cores, memory, and I/O ceiling available across the generation's model range. | IBM product documentation and Redbooks maximum-configuration figures per generation. |
| Remaining Useful Life (RUL) | 20% | Years of standard IBM support remaining as of today, relative to a full Power hardware lifecycle. | IBM end-of-service and end-of-marketing announcements where published. Power10 and Power11 have no announced end-of-service date, so their RUL is modeled from the historical ~8-10 year GA-to-EOS pattern set by Power8 and Power9, and is clearly flagged below as an estimate, not an IBM date. |
| Software Economics | 15% | How much IBM i software tier cost (P05-P50, $/core/year) a buyer pays to reach a given amount of usable performance on this generation. Newer generations generally need fewer cores or a lower tier to hit the same CPW, lowering the effective $/CPW-year software burden even though the published per-core tier price is roughly flat across generations. | IBM i P05-P30 subscription and perpetual pricing as reported by IT Jungle (2024-2025), applied against each generation's per-core CPW. |
| Market (Acquisition) Price | 15% | Cost efficiency of acquiring the generation today: capacity delivered per acquisition dollar, blending new-list and secondary-market (used/refurbished) pricing. | Secondary-market listing patterns observed across Alta Technologies, Spectra Logic, Flagship Technologies, EssentialTech, and eBay completed listings, and IBM's own quote-only new pricing model for current hardware. |
| Value Retention | 10% | How well the generation is holding resale value on the active secondary market right now, relative to its original cost. | Krisada Estimate: modeled from observed secondary-market dealer activity and listing volume, not a vendor-published resale index. IBM does not publish resale value data. |
Full Subscore Breakdown
| Generation | Performance | Capacity | Remaining Useful Life | Software Economics | Market Price | Value Retention | PVI Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power8 | 45 | 50 | 5 | 40 | 80 | 20 | 40 |
| Power9 | 64 | 62 | 10 | 55 | 88 | 55 | 54 |
| Power10 | 88 | 85 | 55 | 80 | 70 | 75 | 76 |
| Power11 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 90 | 40 | 60 | 86 |
Scale: 0-100 per component, 100 = best-in-class among Power8-Power11 on that input. See each generation's directory profile for the sourcing basis behind every subscore.
Sources
- https://www.itjungle.com/2025/11/17/stacking-up-power10-and-power11-systems-price-performance/
- https://www.ibm.com/new/announcements/ibm-power8-end-of-service
- https://community.ibm.com/community/user/discussion/power-9-reminder-end-of-standard-service-is-31-january-2026
- https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp5728.pdf
- https://www.midlandinfosys.com/power-10-pricing-guide