Pentium Silver N5000 vs Xeon E3-1231 v3
Aggregate performance score
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by a whopping 189% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in performance ranking | 1241 | 2019 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 2.51 | no data |
| Market segment | Server | Laptop |
| Series | Xeon (Desktop) | Intel Pentium Silver |
| Architecture codename | Haswell-WS (2013) | Gemini Lake (2019) |
| Release date | 11 May 2014 (10 years ago) | 11 December 2017 (6 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $240 | $161 |
| Current price | $210 (0.9x MSRP) | $358 (2.2x MSRP) |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Detailed specifications
Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000 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 | 4 (Quad-Core) | 4 (Quad-Core) |
| Threads | 8 | 4 |
| Base clock speed | 3.4 GHz | 1.1 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 3.8 GHz | 2.7 GHz |
| L1 cache | 64K (per core) | 224 KB |
| L2 cache | 256K (per core) | 4 MB |
| L3 cache | 8 MB (shared) | 4 MB |
| Chip lithography | 22 nm | 14 nm |
| Die size | 160 mm2 | no data |
| Maximum core temperature | no data | 105 °C |
| Number of transistors | 1,400 million | no data |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | + |
| Unlocked multiplier | No | No |
Compatibility
Information on Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000 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 | 1 | 1 |
| Socket | FCLGA1150 | FCBGA1090 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 80 Watt | 6 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2 | Intel® SSE4.2 |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| AVX | + | no data |
| vPro | + | no data |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | + |
| Speed Shift | no data | - |
| My WiFi | - | no data |
| Turbo Boost Technology | 2.0 | - |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | - |
| TSX | + | no data |
| Idle States | + | + |
| Thermal Monitoring | + | + |
| Flex Memory Access | + | no data |
| SIPP | + | no data |
| Smart Response | no data | - |
| GPIO | no data | + |
| Turbo Boost Max 3.0 | no data | - |
| Fast Memory Access | + | no data |
| Status | Discontinued | Discontinued |
Security technologies
Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | no data |
| EDB | + | + |
| Secure Key | + | + |
| MPX | no data | + |
| Identity Protection | + | + |
| SGX | no data | Yes with Intel® ME |
| OS Guard | + | + |
| Anti-Theft | + | - |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000 are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | + | no data |
| VT-d | + | + |
| VT-x | + | + |
| EPT | + | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3 | DDR4 |
| Maximum memory size | 32 GB | 8 GB |
| Max memory channels | 2 | 2 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 25.6 GB/s | 38.397 GB/s |
| ECC memory support | + | - |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | no data | Intel UHD Graphics 605 |
| Max video memory | no data | 8 GB |
| Quick Sync Video | no data | + |
| Graphics max frequency | no data | 750 MHz |
| Execution Units | no data | 18 |
Graphics interfaces
Available interfaces and connections of Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000 integrated GPUs.
| Number of displays supported | no data | 3 |
| eDP | no data | + |
| DisplayPort | no data | + |
| HDMI | no data | + |
| MIPI-DSI | no data | + |
Graphics image quality
Maximum display resolutions supported by Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000 integrated GPUs, including resolutions over different interfaces.
| 4K resolution support | no data | + |
Graphics API support
APIs supported by Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000 integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.
| DirectX | no data | 12 |
| OpenGL | no data | 4.4 |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000.
| PCIe version | 3.0 | 2.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 16 | 6 |
| USB revision | no data | 2.0/3.0 |
| Total number of SATA ports | no data | 2 |
| Max number of SATA 6 Gb/s Ports | no data | 2 |
| Number of USB ports | no data | 8 |
| Integrated LAN | no data | - |
| UART | no data | + |
Synthetic benchmark performance
Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.
Combined synthetic benchmark score
This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 189% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Passmark
Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.
Benchmark coverage: 68%
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 189% in Passmark.
GeekBench 5 Single-Core
GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.
Benchmark coverage: 42%
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 241% in GeekBench 5 Single-Core.
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.
Benchmark coverage: 42%
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 339% in GeekBench 5 Multi-Core.
Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core
Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.
Benchmark coverage: 20%
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 146% in Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core.
Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core
Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.
Benchmark coverage: 19%
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 222% in Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core.
Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core
Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.
Benchmark coverage: 17%
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 183% in Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core.
Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core
Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.
Benchmark coverage: 15%
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 210% in Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core.
Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core
Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.
Benchmark coverage: 15%
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 95% in Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core.
Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core
Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.
Benchmark coverage: 14%
Xeon E3-1231 v3 outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by 81% in Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 4.56 | 1.58 |
| Recency | 11 May 2014 | 11 December 2017 |
| Threads | 8 | 4 |
| Cost | $240 | $161 |
| Chip lithography | 22 nm | 14 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 80 Watt | 6 Watt |
The Xeon E3-1231 v3 is our recommended choice as it beats the Pentium Silver N5000 in performance tests.
Be aware that Xeon E3-1231 v3 is a server/workstation processor while Pentium Silver N5000 is a notebook one.
Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon E3-1231 v3 and Pentium Silver N5000, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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