The performance study of the existing noncontiguous processor allocation strategies has been traditionally carried out by means of simulation based on a stochastic workload model to generate a stream of incoming jobs that are submitted to and run on a given message passing parallel machine for a period of time. To validate the performance of the existing allocation algorithms, there has been need to evaluate the algorithms’ performance based on a real workload trace. In this study, we evaluate the performance of several well-known processor allocation and job scheduling strategies based on a real workload trace and compare the results against those obtained from using a stochastic workload. Our results reveal that the conclusions reached on the relative performance merits of the allocation strategies when a real workload trace is used are in general compatible with those obtained when a stochastic workload is used.