Recommended System Requirements | ||
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Game | Core i9-10900X 10-Core 3.7GHz | Xeon E7-8890 v2 |
Cyberpunk 2077 | 64% | 64% |
Assassins Creed: Valhalla | 51% | 51% |
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | 65% | 65% |
FIFA 21 | 66% | 66% |
Grand Theft Auto VI | 40% | 40% |
Far Cry 6 | 43% | 43% |
Genshin Impact | 72% | 73% |
Hitman 3 | 51% | 51% |
Watch Dogs Legion | 51% | 51% |
Mafia: Definitive Edition | 61% | 61% |
In terms of overall gaming performance, the Intel Xeon E7-8890 v2 is marginally better than the Intel Core i9-10900X 10-Core 3.7GHz when it comes to running the latest games. This also means it will be less likely to bottleneck more powerful GPUs, allowing them to achieve more of their gaming performance potential.
The Core i9-10900X 10-Core was released over three years more recently than the Xeon E7-8890 v2, and so the Core i9-10900X 10-Core is likely to have far better levels of support, and will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the Xeon E7-8890 v2 when running the latest games.
Both CPUs exhibit very powerful performance, so it probably isn't worth upgrading from one to the other, as both are capable of running even the most demanding games at the highest settings (assuming they are accompanied by equivalently powerful GPUs).
The Xeon E7-8890 v2 has 5 more cores than the Core i9-10900X 10-Core. 15 cores is probably excessive if you mean to just run the latest games, as games are not yet able to harness this many cores. The cores in the Core i9-10900X 10-Core is more than enough for gaming purposes. However, if you intend on running a server with the Xeon E7-8890 v2, it would seem to be a decent choice.
The Xeon E7-8890 v2 has 10 more threads than the Core i9-10900X 10-Core. Both the Core i9-10900X 10-Core and the Xeon E7-8890 v2 use hyperthreading. The Core i9-10900X 10-Core has 2 logical threads per physical core and the Xeon E7-8890 v2 has 2.
Multiple threads are useful for improving the performance of multi-threaded applications. Additional cores and their accompanying thread will always be beneficial for multi-threaded applications. Hyperthreading will be beneficial for applications optimized for it, but it may slow others down. For games, the number of threads is largely irrelevant, as long as you have at least 2 cores (preferably 4), and hyperthreading can sometimes even hit performance.
More important for gaming than the number of cores and threads is the clock rate. Problematically, unless the two CPUs are from the same family, this can only serve as a general guide and nothing like an exact comparison, because the clock cycles per instruction (CPI) will vary so much.
The Core i9-10900X 10-Core and Xeon E7-8890 v2 are not from the same family of CPUs, so their clock speeds are by no means directly comparable. Bear in mind, then, that while the Core i9-10900X 10-Core has a 0.9 GHz faster frequency, this is not always an indicator that it will be superior in performance, despite frequency being crucial when trying to avoid GPU bottlenecking. In this case, however, the difference is probably a good indicator that the Xeon E7-8890 v2 is superior.
Aside from the clock rate, the next-most important CPU features for PC game performance are L2 and L3 cache size. Faster than RAM, the more cache available, the more data that can be stored for lightning-fast retrieval. L1 Cache is not usually an issue anymore for gaming, with most high-end CPUs eking out about the same L1 performance, and L2 is more important than L3 - but L3 is still important if you want to reach the highest levels of performance. Bear in mind that although it is better to have a larger cache, the larger it is, the higher the latency, so a balance has to be struck.
The maximum Thermal Design Power is the power in Watts that the CPU will consume in the worst case scenario. The lithography is the semiconductor manufacturing technology being used to create the CPU - the smaller this is, the more transistors that can be fit into the CPU, and the closer the connections. For both the lithography and the TDP, it is the lower the better, because a lower number means a lower amount of power is necessary to run the CPU, and consequently a lower amount of heat is produced.
The Xeon E7-8890 v2 has a 10 Watt lower Maximum TDP than the Core i9-10900X 10-Core. However, the Core i9-10900X 10-Core was created with a 8 nm smaller manufacturing technology. Overall, by taking both into account, the Core i9-10900X 10-Core is likely the CPU with the lower heat production and power requirements, but there really isn't much in it.
CPU Codename | Cascade Lake-X | Ivy Bridge | |||
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MoBo Socket | Socket 2066 | LGA 2011/Socket R | |||
Notebook CPU | no | no | |||
Release Date | 30 Nov 2019 | 18 Feb 2014 | |||
CPU Link | GD Link | GD Link | |||
Approved | ![]() | ![]() |
CPU Cores | 10 | vs | ![]() | 15 | |
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CPU Threads | 20 | vs | ![]() | 30 | |
Clock Speed | 3.7 GHz | ![]() | vs | 2.8 GHz | |
Turbo Frequency | 4.7 GHz | ![]() | vs | 3.4 GHz | |
Max TDP | 165 W | vs | ![]() | 155 W | |
Lithography | 14 nm | ![]() | vs | 22 nm | |
Bit Width | 64 Bit | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 64 Bit |
Max Temperature | - | vs | ![]() | 77°C | |
Virtualization Technology | no | vs | no | ||
Comparison |
L1 Cache Size | - | vs | ![]() | 960 KB | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
L2 Cache Size | - | vs | ![]() | 3840 KB | |
L3 Cache Size | 19.25 MB | vs | ![]() | 37.5 MB | |
Max Memory Size | - | ![]() | vs | - | |
Memory Channels | - | ![]() | vs | - | |
ECC Memory Support | no | vs | no | ||
Comparison |
Graphics | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Base GPU Frequency | - | vs | - | ||
Max GPU Frequency | - | vs | - | ||
DirectX | - | vs | - | ||
Displays Supported | - | vs | - | ||
Comparison |
Package Size | - | vs | - | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Revision | - | vs | - | ||
PCIe Revision | - | vs | - | ||
PCIe Configurations | - | vs | - |
Performance Value | ![]() |
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Mini Review | The Intel Core i9-10900X 10-Core 3.7GHz is a high-end desktop (HEDT) CPU based on a refinement of the 14nm++ Cascade Lake-X microarchitecture. It is competing against AMD's 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper processors. It offers 10 physical cores (20 logical), initially clocked at 3.7GHz, which may go up to 4.7GHz using 4 cores with Turbo Boost 3.0. All core boost clock speeds of 4.3 GHz are possible across all 10 Cores simultaneously. The i9-10900X has 19.25MB of L3 Cache. Among its many features, HyperThreading, Turbo Boost 3.0, and Virtualization are activated. As an 'Extreme' variant, this processor has its multiplier unlocked and overclocking is possible. This Intel Core i9-10900X 10-Core 3.7GHz CPU offers fast gaming performance and will not be the bottleneck in any modern gaming PC. It will be able to play all modern games comfortably on ultra graphics performance at any supported resolution without being a hindrance to the accompanying GPU. | Xeon E7-8890 v2 is a server processor based on the Ivy Bridge architecture. It offers 15 Ivy Bridge-EX Cores (30 logical, clocked at 2.8GHz that go up to 3.4GHz, in Turbo Mode. It also offers over 37MB of L3 Cache and may consume up to 155 Watts. Its performance, just like its price, is outstanding and though not meant for gaming, the processor easily beats any Core i7 processor. |
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