Athlon Gold 20 vs Xeon 6960P
Contents
Primary details
Comparing processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 17 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Server | Laptop |
| Power efficiency | 6.29 | no data |
| Designer | Intel | AMD |
| Manufacturer | Intel | TSMC |
| Architecture codename | Granite Rapids (2024−2025) | Mendocino (2025) |
| Release date | 24 September 2024 (1 year ago) | 1 October 2025 (less than a year ago) |
Detailed specifications
Xeon 6960P and Athlon Gold 20 basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.
| Physical cores | 72 (Doheptaconta-Core) | 2 (Dual-core) |
| Threads | 144 | 4 |
| Base clock speed | 2.7 GHz | 2.4 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 3.9 GHz | 3.7 GHz |
| L1 cache | 112 KB (per core) | 64 KB (per core) |
| L2 cache | 2 MB (per core) | 512 KB (per core) |
| L3 cache | 432 MB (shared) | 4 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | Intel 3 nm | 6 nm |
| Die size | no data | 100 mm2 |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | 80 °C | no data |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
Compatibility
Information on Xeon 6960P and Athlon Gold 20 compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.
| Number of CPUs in a configuration | 2 | 1 |
| Socket | FCLGA7529 | FT6 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 500 Watt | 15 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon 6960P and Athlon Gold 20. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® AMX, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX, Intel® AVX2, Intel® AVX-512 | no data |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| AVX | + | + |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | no data |
| Speed Shift | + | no data |
| Turbo Boost Technology | 2.0 | no data |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | no data |
| TSX | + | - |
| Deep Learning Boost | + | - |
Security technologies
Xeon 6960P and Athlon Gold 20 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | no data |
| EDB | + | no data |
| SGX | + | no data |
| OS Guard | + | no data |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon 6960P and Athlon Gold 20 are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | - | + |
| VT-d | + | no data |
| VT-x | + | no data |
| EPT | + | no data |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon 6960P and Athlon Gold 20. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR5(6400MT/s), MRDIMM(8800MT/s) | LPDDR5 |
| Maximum memory size | 3 TB | no data |
| Max memory channels | 12 | no data |
| ECC memory support | + | - |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | N/A | AMD Radeon 610M |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon 6960P and Athlon Gold 20.
| PCIe version | 5.0 | 3.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 96 | 4 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 24 September 2024 | 1 October 2025 |
| Physical cores | 72 | 2 |
| Threads | 144 | 4 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 500 Watt | 15 Watt |
Xeon 6960P has 3500% more physical cores and 3500% more threads.
Athlon Gold 20, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, and 3233.3% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Intel Xeon 6960P and AMD Athlon Gold 20. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Xeon 6960P is a server/workstation processor while Athlon Gold 20 is a notebook one.
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