Athlon II X4 640 vs Xeon E5-2420 v2

Primary details

Comparing Xeon E5-2420 v2 and Athlon II X4 640 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking	1414	2199
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	1.26	2.92
Market segment	Server	Desktop processor
Power efficiency	4.73	1.40
Architecture codename	Ivy Bridge-EN (2013−2014)	Propus (2009−2011)
Release date	1 September 2013 (11 years ago)	11 May 2010 (14 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$480	$80

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Athlon II X4 640 has 132% better value for money than Xeon E5-2420 v2.

Detailed specifications

Xeon E5-2420 v2 and Athlon II X4 640 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	6 (Hexa-Core)	4 (Quad-Core)
Threads	12	4
Base clock speed	2.2 GHz	3 GHz
Boost clock speed	2.7 GHz	3 GHz
Bus rate	7.2 GT/s	no data
L1 cache	64 KB (per core)	128 KB (per core)
L2 cache	256 KB (per core)	512 KB (per core)
L3 cache	15 MB (shared)	0 KB
Chip lithography	22 nm	45 nm
Die size	160 mm2	169 mm2
Maximum core temperature	76 °C	no data
Number of transistors	1,400 million	300 million
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-

Compatibility

Information on Xeon E5-2420 v2 and Athlon II X4 640 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	1
Socket	FCLGA1356	AM3
Power consumption (TDP)	80 Watt	95 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon E5-2420 v2 and Athlon II X4 640. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® AVX	no data
AES-NI	+	-
AVX	+	-
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	2.0	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Thermal Monitoring	+	-
Flex Memory Access	-	no data
Demand Based Switching	+	no data
PAE	46 Bit	no data

Security technologies

Xeon E5-2420 v2 and Athlon II X4 640 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	no data
EDB	+	no data
Secure Key	+	no data
OS Guard	+	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon E5-2420 v2 and Athlon II X4 640 are enumerated here.

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

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon E5-2420 v2 and Athlon II X4 640. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR3
Maximum memory size	384 GB	no data
Max memory channels	3	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	38.4 GB/s	no data
ECC memory support	+	-

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon E5-2420 v2 and Athlon II X4 640.

PCIe version	3.0	2.0
PCI Express lanes	24	no data

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	4.00	1.41
Recency	1 September 2013	11 May 2010
Physical cores	6	4
Threads	12	4
Chip lithography	22 nm	45 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	80 Watt	95 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon E5-2420 v2 and Athlon II X4 640, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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