Xeon E3-1220 v5 vs Silver 4208

Primary details

Comparing Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking	1003	1497
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	18.11	2.69
Market segment	Server	Server
Series	Intel Xeon Silver	Intel Xeon E3
Power efficiency	7.87	4.34
Architecture codename	Cascade Lake (2019−2020)	Skylake-DT (2015)
Release date	2 April 2019 (5 years ago)	19 October 2015 (9 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$417	$203

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Xeon Silver 4208 has 573% better value for money than Xeon E3-1220 v5.

Detailed specifications

Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5 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	8 (Octa-Core)	4 (Quad-Core)
Threads	16	4
Base clock speed	2.1 GHz	3 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.2 GHz	3.5 GHz
Bus type	no data	DMI 3.0
Bus rate	no data	4 × 8 GT/s
Multiplier	21	30
L1 cache	512 KB	64 KB (per core)
L2 cache	8 MB	256 KB (per core)
L3 cache	11 MB	8 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	14 nm	14 nm
Die size	no data	122 mm2
Maximum core temperature	78 °C	no data
Number of transistors	no data	1,750 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	+	-

Compatibility

Information on Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5 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 (Multiprocessor)	1 (Uniprocessor)
Socket	FCLGA3647	FCLGA1151
Power consumption (TDP)	85 Watt	80 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5. 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
Turbo Boost Technology	2.0	2.0
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	-
TSX	+	+
Idle States	no data	+
Thermal Monitoring	-	+
Turbo Boost Max 3.0	-	no data
Deep Learning Boost	+	-

Security technologies

Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	+
EDB	+	+
Secure Key	no data	+
MPX	-	+
SGX	no data	Yes with both Intel® SPS and Intel® ME
OS Guard	no data	+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5 are enumerated here.

VT-d	+	+
VT-x	+	+
EPT	+	+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR4-2400	DDR4-1866/2133, DDR3L-1333/1600
Maximum memory size	1 TB	64 GB
Max memory channels	6	2
Maximum memory bandwidth	115.212 GB/s	34.134 GB/s
ECC memory support	+	+

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card

no data

N/A

Graphics image quality

Maximum display resolutions supported by Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5 integrated GPUs, including resolutions over different interfaces.

Max resolution over HDMI 1.4	no data	N/A
Max resolution over eDP	no data	N/A
Max resolution over DisplayPort	no data	N/A
Max resolution over VGA	no data	N/A

Graphics API support

APIs supported by Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5 integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.

DirectX	no data	N/A
OpenGL	no data	N/A

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5.

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	7.06	3.67
Recency	2 April 2019	19 October 2015
Physical cores	8	4
Threads	16	4
Power consumption (TDP)	85 Watt	80 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon E3-1220 v5, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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