Apple M2 Pro vs Xeon Gold 5218
Aggregate performance score
Primary details
Comparing Xeon Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 539 | 536 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 14.93 | no data |
| Market segment | Server | Laptop |
| Series | Intel Xeon Gold | Apple Apple M-Series |
| Power efficiency | 10.32 | no data |
| Architecture codename | Cascade Lake (2019−2020) | no data |
| Release date | 2 April 2019 (5 years ago) | 17 January 2023 (1 year ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $1,273 | no data |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance per price, higher is better.
Detailed specifications
Xeon Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro 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) | 12 (Dodeca-Core) |
| Threads | 32 | 12 |
| Base clock speed | 2.3 GHz | 2.424 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 3.9 GHz | 3.5 GHz |
| Bus type | DMI 3.0 | no data |
| Bus rate | 4 × 8 GT/s | no data |
| Multiplier | 23 | no data |
| L1 cache | 1 MB | 3.3 MB |
| L2 cache | 16 MB | 36 MB |
| L3 cache | 22 MB | 24 MB |
| Chip lithography | 14 nm | 5 nm |
| Maximum core temperature | 87 °C | no data |
| Number of transistors | no data | 40000 Million |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | + | no data |
Compatibility
Information on Xeon Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro 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) | no data |
| Socket | FCLGA3647 | no data |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 125 Watt | 2424 ‑ 3504 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro. 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 | no data |
| AES-NI | + | - |
| AVX | + | - |
| vPro | + | no data |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | no data |
| Speed Shift | + | no data |
| Turbo Boost Technology | 2.0 | no data |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | no data |
| TSX | + | - |
| Turbo Boost Max 3.0 | - | no data |
| Deep Learning Boost | + | - |
Security technologies
Xeon Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | + | no data |
| EDB | + | no data |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro 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 Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR4-2667 | no data |
| Maximum memory size | 1 TB | no data |
| Max memory channels | 6 | no data |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 128.001 GB/s | no data |
| ECC memory support | + | - |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | no data | Apple M2 Pro 19-Core GPU |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro.
| PCIe version | 3.0 | no data |
| PCI Express lanes | 48 | 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.
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 | 14.15 | 14.20 |
| Recency | 2 April 2019 | 17 January 2023 |
| Physical cores | 16 | 12 |
| Threads | 32 | 12 |
| Chip lithography | 14 nm | 5 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 125 Watt | 2424 Watt |
Xeon Gold 5218 has 33.3% more physical cores and 166.7% more threads, and 1839.2% lower power consumption.
Apple M2 Pro, on the other hand, has a 0.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, and a 180% more advanced lithography process.
Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between Xeon Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro.
Be aware that Xeon Gold 5218 is a server/workstation processor while Apple M2 Pro is a notebook one.
Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon Gold 5218 and Apple M2 Pro, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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