Xeon Gold 5120 vs Gold 6242
Aggregate performance score
Xeon Gold 6242 outperforms Xeon Gold 5120 by a considerable 45% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Xeon Gold 6242 and Xeon Gold 5120 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 392 | 684 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 9.82 | 5.08 |
| Market segment | Server | Server |
| Series | Intel Xeon Gold | Intel Xeon Gold |
| Power efficiency | 10.44 | 10.27 |
| Architecture codename | Cascade Lake (2019−2020) | Skylake (server) (2017−2018) |
| Release date | 2 April 2019 (5 years ago) | 11 July 2017 (7 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $2,529 | $1,555 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Xeon Gold 6242 has 93% better value for money than Xeon Gold 5120.
Detailed specifications
Xeon Gold 6242 and Xeon Gold 5120 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 | 16 (Hexadeca-Core) | 14 (Tetradeca-Core) |
| Threads | 32 | 28 |
| Base clock speed | 2.8 GHz | 2.2 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 3.9 GHz | 3.2 GHz |
| Bus type | DMI 3.0 | no data |
| Bus rate | 4 × 8 GT/s | no data |
| Multiplier | 28 | 22 |
| L1 cache | 1 MB | 896 KB |
| L2 cache | 16 MB | 14 MB |
| L3 cache | 22 MB | 19.25 MB |
| Chip lithography | 14 nm | 14 nm |
| Maximum core temperature | 85 °C | 81 °C |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | + | + |
Compatibility
Information on Xeon Gold 6242 and Xeon Gold 5120 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) | 4 (Multiprocessor) |
| Socket | FCLGA3647 | FCLGA3647 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 150 Watt | 105 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon Gold 6242 and Xeon Gold 5120. 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® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX, Intel® AVX2, Intel® AVX-512 |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| AVX | + | + |
| vPro | + | + |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | + |
| Speed Shift | + | + |
| Turbo Boost Technology | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | + |
| TSX | + | + |
| Turbo Boost Max 3.0 | - | - |
| Deep Learning Boost | + | - |
Security technologies
Xeon Gold 6242 and Xeon Gold 5120 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | + |
| EDB | + | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon Gold 6242 and Xeon Gold 5120 are enumerated here.
| VT-d | + | + |
| VT-x | + | + |
| EPT | + | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon Gold 6242 and Xeon Gold 5120. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR4-2933 | DDR4-2400 |
| Maximum memory size | 1 TB | 768 GB |
| Max memory channels | 6 | 6 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 140.8 GB/s | 115.212 GB/s |
| ECC memory support | + | + |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon Gold 6242 and Xeon Gold 5120.
| PCIe version | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 48 | 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 | 16.55 | 11.40 |
| Recency | 2 April 2019 | 11 July 2017 |
| Physical cores | 16 | 14 |
| Threads | 32 | 28 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 150 Watt | 105 Watt |
Xeon Gold 6242 has a 45.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, and 14.3% more physical cores and 14.3% more threads.
Xeon Gold 5120, on the other hand, has 42.9% lower power consumption.
The Xeon Gold 6242 is our recommended choice as it beats the Xeon Gold 5120 in performance tests.
Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon Gold 6242 and Xeon Gold 5120, 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.
