[HyperDB] Any advantage to partitioning on a single database server?

[Jim McQuillan]

I've been doing more research into scaling a WordPress multi-site
installation, and I've been under the assumption that partitioning the
tables into multiple databases would be beneficial for a large installation
(hypothetically 50,000 blogs).

But then I came across this quote from the HyperDB
FAQ<http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/hyperdb/faq/>
:
Is there any advantage to using HyperDB with just one database server?
None that has been measured.


Does that still apply even if partitioning is used?

I know that using multiple database server would definitely bring a
performance enhancement, but we're starting with one... so is it even worth
it to implement partitioning at all right now?

Thanks!
-Jim