Xeon Gold 6542Y vs Silver 4208

Primary details

Comparing Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon Gold 6542Y processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking	991	not rated
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	18.52	no data
Market segment	Server	Server
Series	Intel Xeon Silver	no data
Power efficiency	7.88	no data
Architecture codename	Cascade Lake (2019−2020)	Emerald Rapids (2023)
Release date	2 April 2019 (5 years ago)	14 December 2023 (less than a year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$417	$2,878

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon Gold 6542Y 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)	24 (Tetracosa-Core)
Threads	16	48
Base clock speed	2.1 GHz	2.9 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.2 GHz	4.1 GHz
Multiplier	21	no data
L1 cache	512 KB	80 KB (per core)
L2 cache	8 MB	2 MB (per core)
L3 cache	11 MB	60 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	14 nm	Intel 7 nm
Die size	no data	2x 763 mm2
Maximum core temperature	78 °C	no data
Maximum case temperature (TCase)	no data	83 °C
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	+	no data

Compatibility

Information on Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon Gold 6542Y 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)	2
Socket	FCLGA3647	FCLGA4677
Power consumption (TDP)	85 Watt	250 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon Gold 6542Y. 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® AMX, 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	-	no data
Deep Learning Boost	+	+

Security technologies

Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon Gold 6542Y technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

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

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon Gold 6542Y 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 Gold 6542Y. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR4-2400	DDR5-5200
Maximum memory size	1 TB	4 TB
Max memory channels	6	8
Maximum memory bandwidth	115.212 GB/s	no data
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 Silver 4208 and Xeon Gold 6542Y.

PCIe version	3.0	5.0
PCI Express lanes	48	80

Pros & cons summary

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Recency	2 April 2019	14 December 2023
Physical cores	8	24
Threads	16	48
Power consumption (TDP)	85 Watt	250 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon Silver 4208 and Xeon Gold 6542Y, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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