Xeon Gold 5120 vs E5 1680 v4
Aggregate performance score
Xeon Gold 5120 outperforms Xeon E5 1680 v4 by a substantial 30% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Xeon E5-1680 v4 and Xeon Gold 5120 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 865 | 675 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 1.95 | 5.06 |
| Market segment | Server | Server |
| Series | Intel Xeon E5 | Intel Xeon Gold |
| Power efficiency | 6.05 | 10.47 |
| Architecture codename | Broadwell-EP (2016) | Skylake (server) (2017−2018) |
| Release date | 20 June 2016 (8 years ago) | 11 July 2017 (7 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $1,723 | $1,555 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Xeon Gold 5120 has 159% better value for money than Xeon E5 1680 v4.
Detailed specifications
Xeon E5-1680 v4 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 | 8 (Octa-Core) | 14 (Tetradeca-Core) |
| Threads | 16 | 28 |
| Base clock speed | 3.4 GHz | 2.2 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 4 GHz | 3.2 GHz |
| Bus type | DMI 2.0 | no data |
| Bus rate | 5 GT/s | no data |
| Multiplier | 34 | 22 |
| L1 cache | 64K (per core) | 896 KB |
| L2 cache | 256K (per core) | 14 MB |
| L3 cache | 20 MB (shared) | 19.25 MB |
| Chip lithography | 14 nm | 14 nm |
| Die size | 246.24 mm2 | no data |
| Maximum core temperature | no data | 81 °C |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | 70 °C | no data |
| Number of transistors | 3,400 million | no data |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | + |
Compatibility
Information on Xeon E5-1680 v4 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 | 1 (Uniprocessor) | 4 (Multiprocessor) |
| Socket | FCLGA2011 | FCLGA3647 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 140 Watt | 105 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon E5-1680 v4 and Xeon Gold 5120. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® AVX2 | Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX, Intel® AVX2, Intel® AVX-512 |
| 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 | 46 Bit | no data |
| Turbo Boost Max 3.0 | + | - |
Security technologies
Xeon E5-1680 v4 and Xeon Gold 5120 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | + |
| EDB | + | + |
| Secure Key | + | no data |
| Identity Protection | + | - |
| OS Guard | + | no data |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon E5-1680 v4 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 E5-1680 v4 and Xeon Gold 5120. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR4-1600, DDR4-1866, DDR4-2133, DDR4-2400 | DDR4-2400 |
| Maximum memory size | 1.5 TB | 768 GB |
| Max memory channels | 4 | 6 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 76.8 GB/s | 115.212 GB/s |
| ECC memory support | + | + |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon E5-1680 v4 and Xeon Gold 5120.
| PCIe version | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 40 | 48 |
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 8.95 | 11.62 |
| Recency | 20 June 2016 | 11 July 2017 |
| Physical cores | 8 | 14 |
| Threads | 16 | 28 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 140 Watt | 105 Watt |
Xeon Gold 5120 has a 29.8% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, 75% more physical cores and 75% more threads, and 33.3% lower power consumption.
The Xeon Gold 5120 is our recommended choice as it beats the Xeon E5 1680 v4 in performance tests.
Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon E5 1680 v4 and Xeon Gold 5120, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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