Intel xeon ddr3: IBM Intel Xeon Processor E5540 (2.53 GHz 8MB L3 Cache 80 Watts DDR3-1066 : Electronics

Test bench configuration
CPU	Intel Xeon E5-2670 @2.6GHz
Motherboard	G218A-V1.1a
RAM	Samsung M393B1K70DH0-YK0 DDR3-1600, 2 × 8 GB
ROM	Samsung 850 Pro
Video card	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB
Power supply	Corsair AX1500i, 1500W
CPU cooling system	Noctua NH-D9DX
Housing	Lian Li PC-T60A
Monitor	NEC EA244UHD
Operating system	Windows 10 Pro x64
Video card software
NVIDIA	GeForce Game Ready Driver 378. 78
Additional software
Remove drivers	Display Driver Uninstaller 17.0.6.1
FPS measurement	Fraps 3.5.99
	Action! 2.3.0
Overclocking and monitoring	GPU-Z 1.18.0
	SetFSB 2.3.178.134
	MSI Afterburner 4.3.0
Accessories
Thermal imager	Fluke Ti400
Sound level meter	Mastech MS6708
Wattmeter	watts up? PRO

Compare Xeon E5-2670 in terms of performance with Core i3-6100, Core i5-7400 and Core i7-6400T processors. The first two chips act as an alternative in terms of price. We can easily buy these CPUs at any computer store. And the Core i7-6400T is another “hello from China”. We have studied the capabilities of this processor in detail in this article. The author has an engineering version marked QHQG (L501C679) at a voltage of 1.375 V, it accelerates to a stable 4008 MHz (the BCLK frequency was increased from the nominal 100 to 167 MHz. To achieve this result, we had to use a very efficient cooling — the Noctua NH-D15 cooler. and Core i7-7700.Taking into account the fact that overclocking the Core i7-6400T via the bus does not lead to a decrease in performance in applications using AVX instructions, in my opinion, a fairly clear picture is formed.0003

The ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING motherboard and Kingston HyperX Fury HX421C14FB2K2/16 (DDR4-2133, 14-14-14-35) dual-channel memory kit were used with Skylake and Kaby Lake processors.

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Games
		API	Graphic quality	FSAA
				1920 × 1080 / 2560 × 1440
1	Crysis 3 mission Safeties off	DirectX 11	Max. quality	4 x MSAA
2	The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Novigrad		Max. quality, NVIDIA HairWorks incl.	AA
3	GTA V, built-in benchmark		Max. quality	4 × MSAA + FXAA
4	Fallout 4, Commonwealth		Max. quality, high resolution textures, bullet fragments off. nine0016	TAA
5	Watch_Dogs 2		Ultra	SMAA
6	Far Cry 4		Max. quality	4 x MSAA
7	Rise of the Tomb Raider, Soviet Base	DirectX 12	Max. quality	SMAA
8	HITMAN, built-in benchmark		Max. quality	SMAA
9	Total War: WARHAMMER, built-in benchmark		Max. quality	4 x MSAA
10	Battlefield 1 Cape Helles		Ultra	TAA
11	Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, built-in benchmark		Ultra	4 x MSAA

Game graphics settings are shown in the table, testing was carried out in Full HD and WQHD resolutions, since these formats are the most suitable for a GeForce GTX 1070 level video card. Computational performance was measured using the following software:

• WinRAR 5.40. Archiving a folder of 11 GB with various data in RAR5 format and with the maximum degree of compression.
• Blender 2.76. Determining the speed of the final rendering in one of the popular free packages for creating three-dimensional graphics. The duration of building the final model from Blender Cycles Benchmark rev4 is measured.
• x265 HD benchmark. Testing the speed of video transcoding to the promising H.265/HEVC format.
• CINEBENCH R15. Measuring the performance of photorealistic 3D rendering in the CINEMA 4D animation package. nine0712
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.9. Performance testing when exporting 200 RAW photos at 5184 x 3456 pixels to JPEG at 1620 x 1080 at maximum quality.
• Adobe After Effects CC 2017 Rendering a project to 1920×1080 @60 FPS.
• SONY Vegas Movie Studio Platinum v13. Project rendering in 1920 × 1080 @30 FPS with various effects applied.

⇡#Performance in applications and benchmarks

With competitors for Xeon E5-2670 decided. But first, let’s see how the server processor is positioned relative to modern and expensive Kaby Lake and Broadwell-E chips — just for fun.

Performance of Intel Xeon E5-2670 in CINEBENCH R15

Well, Xeon E5-2670 is clearly not lost against more modern models. In CINEBENCH R15, it is located exactly between the Core i7-7700K and Core i7-6800K. Eight cores and 16 threads do the trick.

The Xeon E5-2670 is great for content creation. Especially taking into account the fact that dual-core Pentium and Core i3 are its competitors in terms of price. When rendering 3D graphics, encoding video, and archiving data, the server CPU’s 16 threads and 20 MB of L3 cache make themselves felt. Although in After Effects, the difference in performance between Sandy Bridge and Skylake architectures also affects. This time not in favor of the Xeon E5-2670. nine0003

Memory overclocking has a positive effect on performance in all cases. Even taking into account the fact that when setting the DDR3-1866 mode, delays increase.

Xeon E5-2670 is a worthy option for those who want to build the most budget PC for work. But at the same time, it should be noted that the Core i7-6400T overclocked to 4 GHz in most cases is ahead of the 8-core server «stone». Only to achieve such a subordination between processors, we need a sample that, firstly, will overclock itself to at least 3.8-4 GHz, and, secondly, a more expensive motherboard based on the Z170 Express chipset. nine0003

Intel Xeon E5-2670 performance in 3DMark Time Spy

Xeon E5-2670 overclocking and memory increased 3DMark Time Spy scores by 3%.

⇡#Gaming performance

The fact that modern games are optimized for multi-core CPUs is no secret to anyone. At the same time, another review of the Ryzen 7 1800X processor shows a different picture: the Core i7-7700K is currently considered the best solution for entertainment — a quad-core with support for Hyper-threading technology. It is inferior not only to the flagship AMD chips, but also to the more expensive models Core i7-6800K, Core i7-6900K and Core i7-6950X. So the presence of 12 and 16 threads is often superfluous in games. While superfluous.

The table below shows not only the average FPS, but also the minimum. This is an important point, as four threads are not enough for some games. The video card does not start to work at full capacity, but the most annoying thing is FPS drawdowns, which can be observed visually and spoil the whole impression. Xeon E5-2670, as we have already found out, competes with junior Intel solutions — Pentium processors, which received Hyper-threading support in the Kaby Lake generation, and Core i3. In games, the Core i3-6100, Pentium G4560, and Pentium G4600 models show similar results, because in such applications, with a few exceptions, the vector instruction set is not used, and the clock speeds of these chips do not differ much. nine0003

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As a result, the stand with the eight-core Xeon E5-2670 together with the GeForce GTX 1070 performs better than the system with the Core i3-6100. The average FPS is higher in a number of games: The Witcher 3, GTA V, Watch_Dogs 2, Rise of the Tomb Raider, HITMAN and Total War: WARHAMMER. In addition, there are applications (Fallout 4 and Battlefield 1) in which the Xeon E5-2670 and Core i3-6100 show a similar average frame rate, but the dual-core Skylake chip has a lower minimum FPS. nine0003

At WQHD resolution, CPU dependence in games is less observed, since the video card works at full capacity with the graphics quality settings we have set. The Core i3-6100 again turns out to be an outsider. We are once again convinced that a GeForce GTX 1070-level video card should be paired with at least a Core i5, since four cores are better than four threads.

In some games, overclocking Xeon E5-2670 and memory gives a noticeable increase in frames per second: in GTA V — 7%; in HITMAN — 8%; in the sixth «Civilization» — 20%. And if there is no need for «troubles» with SetFSB for the sake of an additional 100 MHz, then «flashing» the BIOS with subsequent overclocking of the memory to 1866 MHz is very, very desirable.

There are games in which the Skylake architecture is noticeably superior to Sandy Bridge. For example, in Far Cry 4 in Full HD resolution, the Xeon E5-2670 is inferior to the Core i3-6100 by no less than 33%. At the same time, we know that the DUNIA game engine is optimized for eight threads. A similar situation is observed in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. Only here the clock frequency of the processor comes first. Therefore, the Core i3-6100 is ahead of the Core i5-7400 as well. nine0003

And there are games in which the Xeon E5-2670-based system is noticeably ahead of the Core i3 stand. In HITMAN, the difference between 8-core and 2-core is 27% in Full HD resolution and 14% in WQHD. Yes, in the case of Core i3 and GeForce GTX 1070, processor dependence manifests itself even at a resolution of 2560 × 1440 pixels. In Watch_Dogs 2 — 28% in Full HD and 5% in WQHD. nine0003

If, after all these results, you are seriously thinking about building a gaming PC based on the Xeon E5-2670, then you can safely act. The processor in many games «pulls» the GeForce GTX 1070-level adapter. Sixteen gigabytes of DDR3 RAM is enough for any modern games. And it will be for quite a long time.

Comparison of Xeon E5-2670 (bottom) and Core i5-7400 (top) load in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Finally, let’s look at one situation. Above is a gluing of two screenshots from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. As you can see, the Core i5-7400 level processor is 100% loaded in some gaming locations. This leads to the fact that the maximum load on the GeForce GTX 1070 may drop — drawdowns will appear. As a result, the average number of frames for the Core i5-7400 and Xeon E5-2670 turned out to be the same — 78 FPS, but the minimum figure is higher for the 8-core: 67 versus 58 frames per second. nine0003

A similar situation, when Core i3 and Core i5 are loaded at 100%, is observed in many modern games: Battlefield 1 (and other games based on the Frostbite Engine), Watch_Dogs 2 and Total War: WARHAMMER.

⇡#Power Consumption

The Xeon E5-2670 TDP level is 115 W — not the highest figure, by the way. The eight-core processors Core i7-5960X and Core i7-6900K, which are produced according to the 22- and 14-nm process technology, respectively, according to the passport have 140 watts of maximum thermal power, and the overclocked Xeon E5-1650 has 130 watts. nine0003

Since the Xeon E5-2670 was compared with the more economical 6th and 7th generation Core models, the 8-core chip was completely outperformed by Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7.