Xeon E5-2650 v4 vs Gold 5120
Aggregate performance score
Xeon Gold 5120 outperforms Xeon E5-2650 v4 by a substantial 37% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E5-2650 v4 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 675 | 897 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 5.05 | 2.60 |
| Market segment | Server | Server |
| Series | Intel Xeon Gold | Intel Xeon E5 |
| Power efficiency | 10.47 | 7.67 |
| Architecture codename | Skylake (server) (2017−2018) | Broadwell-EP (2016) |
| Release date | 11 July 2017 (7 years ago) | 16 March 2016 (8 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $1,555 | $1,166 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Xeon Gold 5120 has 94% better value for money than Xeon E5-2650 v4.
Detailed specifications
Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E5-2650 v4 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) | 12 (Dodeca-Core) |
| Threads | 28 | 24 |
| Base clock speed | 2.2 GHz | 2.2 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 3.2 GHz | 2.9 GHz |
| Bus type | no data | QPI |
| Bus rate | no data | 2 × 9.6 GT/s |
| Multiplier | 22 | 22 |
| L1 cache | 896 KB | 64 KB (per core) |
| L2 cache | 14 MB | 256 KB (per core) |
| L3 cache | 19.25 MB | 30 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 14 nm | 14 nm |
| Die size | no data | 306.18 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | 81 °C | 80 °C |
| Number of transistors | no data | 3,400 million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | + | - |
Compatibility
Information on Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E5-2650 v4 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) | 2 (Multiprocessor) |
| Socket | FCLGA3647 | FCLGA2011 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 105 Watt | 105 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E5-2650 v4. 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® AVX2 |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| AVX | + | + |
| vPro | + | + |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | + |
| Speed Shift | + | no data |
| Turbo Boost Technology | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | + |
| TSX | + | + |
| Idle States | no data | + |
| Thermal Monitoring | - | + |
| Flex Memory Access | no data | - |
| Demand Based Switching | no data | + |
| PAE | no data | 46 Bit |
| Turbo Boost Max 3.0 | - | no data |
Security technologies
Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E5-2650 v4 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | + |
| EDB | + | + |
| Secure Key | no data | + |
| OS Guard | no data | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E5-2650 v4 are enumerated here.
| VT-d | + | + |
| VT-x | + | + |
| EPT | + | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E5-2650 v4. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR4-2400 | DDR4-1600, DDR4-1866, DDR4-2133, DDR4-2400 |
| Maximum memory size | 768 GB | 1.5 TB |
| Max memory channels | 6 | 4 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 115.212 GB/s | 76.8 GB/s |
| ECC memory support | + | + |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | no data | N/A |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E5-2650 v4.
| PCIe version | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 48 | 40 |
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.
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.
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.
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 11.62 | 8.51 |
| Recency | 11 July 2017 | 16 March 2016 |
| Physical cores | 14 | 12 |
| Threads | 28 | 24 |
Xeon Gold 5120 has a 36.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, and 16.7% more physical cores and 16.7% more threads.
The Xeon Gold 5120 is our recommended choice as it beats the Xeon E5-2650 v4 in performance tests.
Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon Gold 5120 and Xeon E5-2650 v4, 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.
