Benchmarking the Xeon E5-2640 v4: 10 Broadwell cores in modern games and applications

Intel's 14nm Broadwell server processors for LGA 2011 v3 have recently seen rapid price drops. For instance, the Xeon E5-2640 v4 chip, once valued at $15-20 a year ago, has now more than halved its price.

In this article, we'll determine if Intel's most affordable multi-core Broadwell processor is worth considering in 2024, or if traditional Haswell chips remain the smarter choice for ultra-budget builds. First, let's take a look at our test subject.

Processor

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The test sample carries the SR2NZ marking, indicating it's a retail tray-packaged version of the server CPU.

The Intel Xeon E5-2640 v4 processor features a 10-core, 14nm M0 revision die, built on the Intel Broadwell-E architecture. This chip supports both single and dual-processor configurations, though our setup uses a single-processor configuration.

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This chip boasts 256 KB of L2 cache per core and a substantial 25 MB of shared L3 cache. Designed for LGA 2011 v3 motherboards, its nominal frequency is 2400 MHz. However, Turbo Boost can push it to 3400 MHz for a single core, or 2600 MHz for all 10 cores/20 threads. Yes, you read that correctly: users will typically see 2600 MHz in most games and software, since, unlike Haswell, Broadwell doesn't allow for turbo boost unlocking.

This chip officially has a TDP of 95 watts. However, our measurements indicate that this power consumption and heat output only occurs in highly specialized benchmarks, such as LinX using AVX2 instructions. In most real-world scenarios, the E5-2640 v4's TDP won't exceed 60-75 watts, meaning almost any cooler you have on hand should be sufficient.

The integrated memory controller (IMC) and L3 cache on the 2640 v4 — like all v3 series chips — operate independently of core frequency, using their own divider. For our sample, this runs at 2700 MHz.

As for supported RAM frequency, the 2640 v4 officially tops out at four-channel DDR4-2133 MHz. Unfortunately, there's no way to bypass this limitation through overclocking or other tweaks.

It's also worth noting that the Xeon E5-2640 v4 supports the full current set of processor instructions, including Intel TSX — a feature largely abandoned by Intel itself. Still, in certain scenarios, this technology can accelerate complex computations.

Test setup, software, and CPU settings

Resizable BAR was enabled on platforms that supported it in the BIOS.

Test setup

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• Intel processors: Core i3-10100F, Core i5-10400F, Core i7-11700K, Core i3-12100F, Core i5-12400F, Xeon E5-2630 v3, Xeon E5-2670 v3, Xeon E5-2640 v4;

• AMD processors: Ryzen 5 1600X, Ryzen 7 1800X, Ryzen 5 3600;

• CPU cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition (RR-212S-20PK-R1);

• RAM for LGA 1200, LGA 1700, and AM4: two 8 GB Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO (CMW16GX4M2C3600C18) sticks, totaling 16 GB (Micron E-Die chips);

• RAM for LGA 2011 v3: four 4 GB G.SKILL DDR4 F4-2400C15S-4GNT sticks, totaling 16 GB (Hynix MFR chips);

• LGA 1200 motherboard: GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS ELITE AC for Core i7-11700K, ASUS PRIME B560M-A for Core i3-10100F and Core i5-10400F;

• LGA 1700 motherboard: MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 (MS-7D25);

• LGA 2011 v3 motherboard: Kllisre X99-D8 (AD12) with a modified BIOS (Unlock Turbo Boost, Undervolt, and unlocked timing control);

• AM4 motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING B450M-PRO II;

• Graphics card: PALIT GAMEROCK GeForce RTX 3090 24 GB (~1900/19000 MHz, Power Limit 113%);

• Solid-state drives: two KINGSTON SUV400S37120G 120.0 GB (for AMD/Intel Windows 11), SAMSUNG 870 EVO 1 TB (for games/applications);

• Power supply: Chieftec GPS-1250C.

Software

• Operating system: Windows 11 Pro x64 with the latest updates as of February 2024. Core isolation/memory integrity disabled;

• Graphics card drivers: NVIDIA GeForce 551.23 WHQL;

• FPS measurement software: MSI Afterburner 4.6.5;

• Games: testing was performed on the latest game versions as of February 2024;

• Game settings: testing was performed at maximum graphics settings at 1080p resolution.

Tested CPU settings

• Intel processors:Core i3-10100F@3600-4300 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@2667 MHz (motherboard auto: 16-18-18-36);

• Core i3-10100F@3600-4300 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@4000 MHz (16-21-21-42), IO voltage – 1,2v, SA voltage – 1.2v, DDR4 voltage — 1.420v;

• Core i5-10400F@2900-4300 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@2667 MHz (motherboard auto: 16-18-18-36);

• Core i5-10400F@2900-4300 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@4000 MHz (16-21-21-42), IO voltage – 1,2v, SA voltage – 1.2v, DDR4 voltage — 1.420v;

• Core i7-11700K@3600-5000 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@3200 MHz (motherboard auto: 16-18-18-36);

• Core i7-11700K@4800 MHz, UnCore@4400 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@3600 MHz (16-19-19-38) GEAR 1, vCore voltage – 1.33v, mem-IO voltage – 1.2v, SA voltage – 1.23v, DDR4 voltage – 1.36v;

• Core i3-12100F@3300-4300 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@3200 MHz (motherboard auto: 18-19-19-39) GEAR 1;

• Core i3-12100F@3300-4300 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@3600 MHz (16-19-19-38) GEAR 1;

• Core i5-12400F@2500-4400 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@3200 MHz (motherboard auto:18-19-19-39) GEAR 1;

• Core i5-12400F@2500-4400 MHz, Dual Chanel DDR4@3600 MHz (16-19-19-38) GEAR 1;

• Xeon E5-2630 v3@3200 MHz (Unlock Turbo Boost (UTB in graphs)), vCore -60mv, UnCore -50mv, SA -50mv, Quad-Channel DDR4@1866 MHz (10-10-10-24);

• Xeon E5-2670 v3@3100 MHz (Unlock Turbo Boost (UTB in graphs)), vCore -50mv, UnCore -50mv, SA -50mv, Quad-Channel DDR4@2133 MHz (12-12-12-35).

• Xeon E5-2640 v4@2400-3400 MHz, Quad-Channel DDR4@2133 MHz (12-12-12-28).

AMD processors: Ryzen 5 1600X@3600-4000 MHz, Dual Channel DDR4@2667 MHz (auto-configured by the motherboard: 18-18-18-44);

Ryzen 5 1600X@4000 MHz, Dual Channel DDR4@3600 MHz (16-19-16-38), vCore voltage – 1.42v, SOC voltage — 1.075v, cLDO VDDP voltage – 0.975v, DDR4 voltage — 1.350v;

Ryzen 7 1800X@3600-4000 MHz, Dual Channel DDR4@2667 MHz (auto-configured by the motherboard: 18-18-18-44);

Ryzen 7 1800X@3900 MHz, Dual Channel DDR4@3600 MHz (16-19-16-38), vCore voltage – 1.4v, SOC voltage — 1.1v, cLDO VDDP voltage – 1.025v, DDR4 voltage — 1.350v;

Ryzen 5 3600@3600-4200 MHz, Dual Channel DDR4@3200 MHz (auto-configured by the motherboard: 22-22-22-53) Infinity Fabric@1600 MHz (1:1);

Ryzen 5 3600@4325 MHz, Dual Channel DDR4@3733 MHz (16-19-16-38) Infinity Fabric@ 1866 MHz (1:1), vCore voltage – 1.39v, SOC voltage — 1.125v, cLDO VDDP voltage – 1.075v, VDDG CCD voltage – 1.025v, VDDG IOD voltage – 1.025v, DDR4 voltage — 1.380v;

You can find more detailed information about almost all tested processors in our full-lengthmaterials, or by checking out the blogs section for shorter notes.

Let's reiterate our CPU testing methodology: each benchmark, application, or game was run five times. We then calculated the average score from these five runs and recorded it in the final results.All games and applications were installed on an SSD.

Benchmark results

Data archiving

7-zip

7-Zip, the most popular free file archiver, supports multiple compression algorithms and numerous data formats, including its proprietary 7z format with the highly efficient LZMA compression algorithm. This archiver can utilize a massive number of CPU threads and also responds well to increased RAM frequencies.

File compression

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File decompression

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3D rendering

Blender

Blender is an open-source, free, and versatile software suite for creating 3D content. It supports the entire 3D modeling pipeline, from rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, and motion tracking, all the way to video editing and game creation.

We're testing CPU rendering speed using Blender's built-in Cycles engine and the BMW scene.

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Corona 10 benchmark

The Corona 10 Benchmark is based on the Corona 10 render engine, a popular choice among professionals. This engine is available for visualizing scenes in both 3ds Max and Cinema 4D. The benchmark evaluates CPU rendering speed using its proprietary technologies.

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Cinebench R23

This is a recently outdated, yet still relevant, version of the benchmark for the highly popular Cinema 4D, a 3D animation, modeling, simulation, and rendering software.

Single-core result

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Multi-core result

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Cinebench R24

This is the latest version of the benchmark for the widely popular Cinema 4D, a software used for 3D animation, modeling, simulation, and rendering. Starting with this release, the main CPU test requires the processor to support AVX2 instruction sets.

Single-core score

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Multicore score

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V-Ray 6 Benchmark

This is the latest version of the V-Ray render engine benchmark. Various product versions are available for many platforms, including 3DS Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, Blender, and Unreal Engine.

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xNormal – texture map baking

While external texture baking software isn't as popular as it once was, tens of thousands of game developers still rely on xNormal. Its user-friendly interface and abundance of useful features are the main reasons for its continued use.

Normal Map render

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Ambient Occlusion Map render

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Overall performance

CPU-z Benchmark

The CPU-z utility benchmark doesn't offer much insight into a CPU's real-world performance; at this point, it's more of an optional test. However, we're sticking to tradition and still include benchmarks for it.

Single-core score

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Multicore score

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Geekbench 6

Geekbench 6 assesses both single-core and multi-core CPU performance across a wide range of tasks, from basic operations like checking email to more demanding ones like photo editing and music playback, or even all concurrently. Crucially, it also benchmarks performance in emerging CPU applications, including augmented reality and machine learning.

Single-core score

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Multicore score

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Video encoding

HandBrake

HandBrake is free, open-source software for converting video from virtually any format into a range of modern, widely supported codecs, such as AV1, H265, H264, and many others.

Codec – AV1

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Codec – H265

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Web browsing

JetStream 2.1

JetStream 2.1 is a suite of JavaScript and WebAssembly benchmarks designed for modern browsers and web applications. We've observed that most of its sub-tests can utilize up to four threads, which is fairly typical for web browsing scenarios.

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Speedometer 2.1

Speedometer tests the responsiveness of web applications in the browser. The benchmark simulates user actions like adding, completing, and deleting items in a to-do list, using several TodoMVC examples. Some examples directly call the DOM API from ECMAScript 5 (ES5), ECMAScript 2015 (ES6), ES6 transpiled to ES5, and Elm transpiled to ES5. Others utilize one of eleven popular JavaScript frameworks: React, React with Redux, Ember.js, Backbone.js, AngularJS, (new) Angular, Vue.js, jQuery, Preact, Inferno, and Flight.

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Kraken 1.1

Kraken is a JavaScript performance benchmark developed by Mozilla. It measures the execution speed of several different test cases, all derived from real-world applications and libraries. Its subtests cover audio processing with the DSP.js library, image filtering operations, JSON parsing, and cryptographic operations.

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In a software environment, the Xeon E5-2640 v4 processor performed quite respectably. Our research shows that for file archiving, this chip is comparable to an overclocked Ryzen 7 1800X and a stock Ryzen 5 3600. In multi-threaded rendering, the 2640 v4 performs on par with the Core i5-10400F and Core i3-12100F. However, video encoding isn't as favorable: the encoding speed on the 10-core Broadwell is similar to an overclocked Ryzen 5 1600X, the 2630 v3, and the Core i3-10100F.

While the E5-2640 v4 delivers decent performance in everyday tasks, the responsiveness of web pages and web applications on the 10-core Broadwell can still feel a bit sluggish.

Gaming, synthetic benchmarks

3DMark Time Spy

Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark designed for gaming PCs running Windows 10/11. Its custom-built engine supports all new DirectX 12 API features, including asynchronous compute, AMD Crossfire, NVIDIA SLI, and multi-threading.

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Gaming

Assassins Creed Valhalla

This is the current major installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise. The game runs on the Ubisoft Anvil engine and can fully utilize up to 12 compute threads, with partial utilization of 16-24 threads.

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Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3 stands as one of the best turn-based RPGs of our time and was last year's top game. It's built on the Divinity 4.0 Engine, which can utilize up to 16 threads, though it performs best with 12-thread CPUs. Additionally, the project features extremely high detail, leading to frequent RAM access. Consequently, Baldur's Gate 3 benefits significantly from a large L3 cache and high-frequency RAM.

Our test scene is set in the city of Baldur's Gate, which is the game's third act.

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Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt RED's latest creation, Cyberpunk 2077, runs on the REDengine 4 and can utilize over 16 CPU threads. The game also responds very positively to increased RAM frequency and reduced latency.

Ray Tracing – ON, Path Tracing – ON

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Ray Tracing – OFF, Path Tracing – OFF

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Far Cry 6

This project is built on the Dunia Engine v2. Throughout its fairly long history, since the second Far Cry, this engine has been known for its poor optimization for multi-threaded CPUs. Our observations suggest the game can work more or less adequately with eight threads. However, some chips with more than 10 cores and SMT/HT technology (simultaneous processing of two or more threads on one core) might actually see a performance decrease in this game. This doesn't apply to all existing CPUs, though.

Ray Tracing – ON

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Ray Tracing – OFF

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Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales

Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales, a former PlayStation console exclusive, is a relatively decent PC port. Insomniac Games' proprietary engine is generally capable of utilizing multi-core CPUs effectively. However, game stability on this engine often suffers significantly, leaving much to be desired.

Ray tracing – ON

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Ray tracing – OFF

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Starfield

Starfield is the new blockbuster from esteemed guru Todd Howard. The project runs on a refined version of the Creation Engine 2, the same engine used in Fallout 4. However, "refined" is the key word here, and Bethesda wasn't kidding in their statements. While the current Creation Engine certainly has its flaws (dreadful storage performance, poor optimization for modern graphics cards, and more), the developers have done a commendable job optimizing its code for multi-threaded processors.

Our test scene is set in the heart of New Atlantis, or Nova Atlantis, if you prefer. We measure FPS along a segment from the landing pad to the central square.

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The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Update 4.04

The updated version of The Witcher 3 adopted an improved REDengine 3 with ray tracing support. However, the project wasn't ready for such complex changes, resulting in a game that's far more demanding than even Cyberpunk 2077.

The Next-Gen Update is extremely CPU-dependent, yet it struggles to adequately utilize powerful CPUs with eight or more cores. The Witcher 3 runs most efficiently on 6-core, 12-thread chips. Additionally, REDengine 3 responds quite well to high-frequency RAM.

Ray tracing – ON

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Ray tracing – OFF

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Watch Dogs Legion

The third installment of the Watch Dogs franchise likely runs on an improved Disrupt 2 engine. Ever since the first game's release, titles in this series have performed quite well with multi-core CPUs. Legion is no exception: the game can comfortably utilize over 20 threads and responds positively to high-frequency memory.

Ray tracing – ON

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Ray tracing – OFF

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RPCS3, Red Dead Redemption

RPCS3 is the most popular PlayStation 3 emulator. The software excels at parallelizing shader compilation across a huge number of threads, but load distribution quality drops significantly during game emulation itself. While performance certainly depends on the specific game, our observations show that modern 6-8 core CPUs with high clock speeds perform best.

Additionally, significant performance gains can be achieved with instruction sets like AVX-512 and TSX. However, with TSX, some projects occasionally exhibit unstable behavior.

Emulator settings for Red Dead Redemption: SPU block size – Mega, ZCULL accuracy – Relaxed, Write color buffers – On, Sleep timers accuracy – As Host, RSX FIFO accuracy – Atomic, resolution 1080p.

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Even without benchmarks, it was clear that gaming is a weak point for the Xeon E5-2640 v4. In 90% of projects, the chip's frequency didn't exceed its maximum all-core boost (2600 MHz), reaching 2700-2800 MHz only in rare exceptions, like Far Cry 6. Still, Broadwell managed to surprise us a bit.

In most games, the Xeon E5-2640 v4 performs on par with stock Ryzen 5 1600X, Ryzen 7 1800X, Core i3-10100F, and Xeon E5-2630 v3. While it slightly pulls ahead in some titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales, Starfield, and Watch Dogs Legion, it conversely falls behind in others, including Assassins Creed Valhalla, Baldur’s Gate 3, Far Cry 6, The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Update, and the RPCS3 emulator.

Focusing solely on frame rates, and with rare exceptions like Baldur’s Gate 3, the E5-2640 v4 handles current games quite well at maximum graphics settings.

Summary

As expected, the 'most affordable multi-core Broadwell' couldn't deliver a performance miracle. While the E5-2640 v4 can certainly compete with, and even slightly outperform, the E5-2630 v3 in well-parallelized workloads like rendering, it's often weaker than 8-core Haswell CPUs in games.

Among the noticeable advantages of the 2640 v4 are its extremely low power consumption and heat output. If you're considering building a server or render farm that runs almost around the clock, this CPU is definitely a solid choice. It's certainly better than many Xeon v3-series processors, especially given their excessive TDP on Chinese motherboards.

Ultimately, 8-12 core Haswell CPUs with Unlock Turbo Boost remain an excellent choice for ultra-budget gaming and various digital content creation.