Xeon E3-1231 v3 vs Gold 5120

Primary details

Comparing Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E3-1231 v3 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking	684	1321
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	5.06	3.36
Market segment	Server	Server
Series	Intel Xeon Gold	Xeon (Desktop)
Power efficiency	10.27	5.25
Architecture codename	Skylake (server) (2017−2018)	Haswell-WS (2013−2014)
Release date	11 July 2017 (7 years ago)	11 May 2014 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$1,555	$240

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Xeon Gold 5120 has 51% better value for money than Xeon E3-1231 v3.

Detailed specifications

Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E3-1231 v3 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	14 (Tetradeca-Core)	4 (Quad-Core)
Threads	28	8
Base clock speed	2.2 GHz	3.4 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.2 GHz	3.8 GHz
Bus rate	no data	5 GT/s
Multiplier	22	no data
L1 cache	896 KB	64K (per core)
L2 cache	14 MB	256K (per core)
L3 cache	19.25 MB	8 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	14 nm	22 nm
Die size	no data	160 mm2
Maximum core temperature	81 °C	no data
Number of transistors	no data	1,400 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	+	-

Compatibility

Information on Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E3-1231 v3 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	4 (Multiprocessor)	1
Socket	FCLGA3647	FCLGA1150
Power consumption (TDP)	105 Watt	80 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E3-1231 v3. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX, Intel® AVX2, Intel® AVX-512	Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2
AES-NI	+	+
AVX	+	+
vPro	+	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	+
Speed Shift	+	no data
My WiFi	no data	-
Turbo Boost Technology	2.0	2.0
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	+
TSX	+	+
Idle States	no data	+
Thermal Monitoring	-	+
Flex Memory Access	no data	+
SIPP	-	+
Turbo Boost Max 3.0	-	no data
Fast Memory Access	no data	+

Security technologies

Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E3-1231 v3 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	+
EDB	+	+
Secure Key	no data	+
Identity Protection	-	+
OS Guard	no data	+
Anti-Theft	no data	+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E3-1231 v3 are enumerated here.

AMD-V	-	+
VT-d	+	+
VT-x	+	+
EPT	+	+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E3-1231 v3. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR4-2400	DDR3
Maximum memory size	768 GB	32 GB
Max memory channels	6	2
Maximum memory bandwidth	115.212 GB/s	25.6 GB/s
ECC memory support	+	+

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E3-1231 v3.

PCIe version	3.0	3.0
PCI Express lanes	48	16

Synthetic benchmark performance

Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.

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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.

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Pros & cons summary

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Performance score	11.40	4.44
Recency	11 July 2017	11 May 2014
Physical cores	14	4
Threads	28	8
Chip lithography	14 nm	22 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	105 Watt	80 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E3-1231 v3, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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