Xeon Gold 5220 vs E5-2420
Aggregate performance score
Xeon Gold 5220 outperforms Xeon E5-2420 by a whopping 380% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Xeon E5-2420 and Xeon Gold 5220 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 1604 | 457 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 0.95 | 14.22 |
| Market segment | Server | Server |
| Series | no data | Intel Xeon Gold |
| Power efficiency | 3.16 | 11.52 |
| Architecture codename | Sandy Bridge-EN (2012) | Cascade Lake (2019−2020) |
| Release date | 14 May 2012 (12 years ago) | 2 April 2019 (5 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $390 | $1,555 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Xeon Gold 5220 has 1397% better value for money than Xeon E5-2420.
Detailed specifications
Xeon E5-2420 and Xeon Gold 5220 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 | 6 (Hexa-Core) | 18 (Octadeca-Core) |
| Threads | 12 | 36 |
| Base clock speed | 1.9 GHz | 2.2 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 2.4 GHz | 3.9 GHz |
| Bus type | no data | DMI 3.0 |
| Bus rate | 7.2 GT/s | 4 × 8 GT/s |
| Multiplier | no data | 22 |
| L1 cache | 64 KB (per core) | 1.125 MB |
| L2 cache | 256 KB (per core) | 18 MB |
| L3 cache | 15360 KB (shared) | 24.75 MB |
| Chip lithography | 32 nm | 14 nm |
| Die size | 294 mm2 | no data |
| Maximum core temperature | no data | 87 °C |
| Number of transistors | 1,270 million | no data |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | + |
Compatibility
Information on Xeon E5-2420 and Xeon Gold 5220 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 | 4 (Multiprocessor) |
| Socket | FCLGA1356 | FCLGA3647 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 95 Watt | 125 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon E5-2420 and Xeon Gold 5220. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® AVX | Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX, Intel® AVX2, Intel® AVX-512 |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| AVX | + | + |
| vPro | no data | + |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | + |
| Speed Shift | no data | + |
| Turbo Boost Technology | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | + |
| TSX | - | + |
| Idle States | + | no data |
| Thermal Monitoring | + | - |
| Flex Memory Access | - | no data |
| Demand Based Switching | + | no data |
| Turbo Boost Max 3.0 | no data | - |
| Deep Learning Boost | - | + |
Security technologies
Xeon E5-2420 and Xeon Gold 5220 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | + |
| EDB | + | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon E5-2420 and Xeon Gold 5220 are enumerated here.
| VT-d | + | + |
| VT-x | + | + |
| EPT | + | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon E5-2420 and Xeon Gold 5220. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR3 | DDR4-2667 |
| Maximum memory size | 384 GB | 1 TB |
| Max memory channels | 3 | 6 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 32 GB/s | 128.001 GB/s |
| ECC memory support | + | + |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon E5-2420 and Xeon Gold 5220.
| PCIe version | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 24 | 48 |
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.
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.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 3.23 | 15.50 |
| Recency | 14 May 2012 | 2 April 2019 |
| Physical cores | 6 | 18 |
| Threads | 12 | 36 |
| Chip lithography | 32 nm | 14 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 95 Watt | 125 Watt |
Xeon E5-2420 has 31.6% lower power consumption.
Xeon Gold 5220, on the other hand, has a 379.9% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, 200% more physical cores and 200% more threads, and a 128.6% more advanced lithography process.
The Xeon Gold 5220 is our recommended choice as it beats the Xeon E5-2420 in performance tests.
Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon E5-2420 and Xeon Gold 5220, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Similar processor comparisons
We picked several similar comparisons of processors in the same market segment and performance relatively close to those reviewed on this page.
