Xeon Gold 6538N vs Gold 5420+

Place in performance ranking	87	154
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Server	Server
Architecture codename	Sapphire Rapids (2023)	Emerald Rapids (2023)
Release date	10 January 2023 (1 year ago)	14 December 2023 (less than a year ago)

Detailed specifications

Xeon Gold 5420+ and Xeon Gold 6538N 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	28 (Octacosa-Core)	32 (Dotriaconta-Core)
Threads	56	64
Base clock speed	2 GHz	2.1 GHz
Boost clock speed	4.1 GHz	4.1 GHz
L1 cache	80K (per core)	80 KB (per core)
L2 cache	2 MB (per core)	2 MB (per core)
L3 cache	52.5 MB	60 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	10 nm	Intel 7 nm
Die size	no data	2x 763 mm²
Maximum case temperature (TCase)	84 °C	85 °C
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	+	no data

Compatibility

Information on Xeon Gold 5420+ and Xeon Gold 6538N 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	2
Socket	4677	FCLGA4677
Power consumption (TDP)	205 Watt	205 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon Gold 5420+ and Xeon Gold 6538N. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	no data	Intel® AMX, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX, Intel® AVX2, Intel® AVX-512
AES-NI	+	+
AVX	+	+
vPro	+	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	+
Speed Shift	no data	+
Turbo Boost Technology	no data	2.0
Hyper-Threading Technology	no data	+
TSX	+	+
Status	no data	Launched
Deep Learning Boost	-	+

Security technologies

Xeon Gold 5420+ and Xeon Gold 6538N technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	+
EDB	no data	+
SGX	no data	Yes with Intel® SPS
OS Guard	no data	+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon Gold 5420+ and Xeon Gold 6538N are enumerated here.

VT-d	+	+
VT-x	+	+
EPT	no data	+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon Gold 5420+ and Xeon Gold 6538N. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR5-4400	DDR5-5200
Maximum memory size	no data	4 TB
Max memory channels	no data	8
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 5420+ and Xeon Gold 6538N.

PCIe version	5.0	5.0
PCI Express lanes	80	80

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 Gold 5420+ 37.63
+29.6%

Xeon Gold 6538N 29.03

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.

Xeon Gold 5420+ 58209
+29.7%

Xeon Gold 6538N 44895