Review and testing of the eight-core Intel Xeon E5-2630L v3 processor in popular games, programs and benchmarks

The Intel Xeon E5-2630L v3 chip is one of the most affordable 8-core, 16-thread processors available for the LGA 2011 v3 socket. However, at the same time, it also represents a rather controversial decision: In fact, the E5-2630L v3 is a hostage to its 55-watt TDP. It is because of such a serious limitation on power consumption that its frequency rarely reaches the theoretically possible 2900 MHz. Moreover, often, even when performing relatively simple tasks, such as games, it is at around 2700-2800 MHz, and at 2400-2600 MHz when performing complex tasks such as final rendering or video encoding.

I think it makes sense if some of you are wondering, “At what frequency does the E5-2630L v3 processor operate under a super-heavy load like the LinX?” And I can easily answer it! At 2000MHz:

Of course, all the above frequencies are given taking into account the modified BIOS with Unlock Turbo Boost: in theory, all the cores available to the chip can operate at the turbo frequency calculated for one core. In the case of the E5-2630L v3, this is 2900MHz. But due to the low TDP of 55 watts, this frequency is almost impossible to obtain.

In this article, we will try to find out whether the relatively low-frequency, 8-core, 16-thread Xeon E5-2630L v3 processor can bypass its higher-frequency, 6-core, 12-thread Haswell sibling in the face of the Xeon E5-2620 v3 in the popular games, programs and benchmarks.

Welcome to the second article from the November bench session!

Processor

Our test unit’s markings are SR209; the chip is manufactured in Malaysia, and its base frequency is 1800 MHz.

The Intel Xeon E5-2530L v3 processor is designed to be installed in the LGA 2011 v3 socket, which automatically notifies us of the support of this CPU for all major modern technologies: FMA3, AES, AVX, AVX2, EM64T, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4 .1 and SSE4.2. Thus, purchasing the E5-2530L v3, you obviously shouldn’t worry about compatibility problems: in the near future, this chip will be able to run any game or program.

The base frequency of the budget “eight” is equal to 1800 MHz, however, as we have already told a little above, in our case it can reach 2800 MHz for all 16 streams. The E5-2530L v3 has a 256KB L2 cache per core and a shared 20MB L3 cache. The speed of the memory controller built into the processor of the Xeon E5-2630L v3 is fixed at around 2900 MHz (L3 cache also works on it), and the maximum RAM frequency is limited to DDR4-1866 MHz.

Table with technical characteristics of all tested CPUs:

You can find more detailed technical characteristics, appearance, and a brief overview of the rest of the presented CPUs in the first article of the September bench session.

Test setup:

• Processors — Xeon E5-2620, Xeon E5-2620 v3, Xeon E5-2630L v3, Xeon E5-2643, Xeon X5570 and Xeon X5660;
• Cooling — Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition (RR-212S-20PK-R1);
• RAM for LGA 1366 — 2 x 8GB HyperX Genesis Na’Vi Edition (KHX16C9C2K2/8) with a total capacity of 16GB;
• RAM for LGA 2011 — 2 x 8GB Micron MT36JSF1G72PZ-1G4M1HF with a total capacity of 16GB;
• RAM for LGA 2011 v3 — 4 x 4GB G.SKILL DDR4@1866МГц F4-2400C15S-4GNT with a total capacity of 16GB (timings: 10-10-10-24);
• Motherboard LGA 2011 — DELL T3610 (09M8Y8);
• Motherboard LGA 2011 v3 — Kllisre X99-D8 (AD12) with modified BIOS (Unlock Turbo Boost, and also unlocked the ability to manage timings);
• Motherboard LGA 1366 — DELL T3500 (09KPNV);
• Video card — KFA2 GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB (Power Limit 115%);
• SSD — KINGSTON 120GB SA400S37120G (Windows 10 1903/Apps);
• Hardware — Seagate 2TB ST2000DM008-2FR102 (Games);
• Power supply — Chieftec GPS-1250C.

Software:

• Windows 10 Pro v1909 x64;
• CPU-z v1.93.0 x64;
• AIDA64 v6.10.5200;
• NVIDIA Driver v. 452.06;
• Cinebench R15.38;
• Cinebench R20.060;
• xNormal 3.19.3.39669 x64 (NM Map anti-aliasing x4, AO Map anti-aliasing x1);
• Blender 2.90.0;
• HWBot x265 Benchmark v2.0.0;
• WinRar v5.91 x64;
• 7-Zip v20.02 alpha x64.

Games and graphics settings:

All of the games below have been updated to the latest or stable version.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey:

• API — DirectX 11;
• Display mode – Full screen;
• Screen resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Resolution modifier – 100%;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Graphics Preset – Maximum;
• Adaptive Quality – Off;
• Anti-aliasing – Off;
• Shadows – The Highest;
• Surroundings – Highest;
• Texture Detail – High;
• Relief – High;
• Small Object Density – Highest;
• Fog – High;
• Water – Highest;
• Fullscreen reflections – High;
• Volumetric Clouds – Highest;
• Detail of character textures – High;
• Character – High;
• Volumetric Lighting – Highest;
• Depth of Field – High.

Battlefield V:

• API _ DirectX 12;
• Full screen – Full screen;
• Full screen resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Chromatic aberration – Yes;
• Image grain – Yes;
• Vignette – Yes;
• Optical distortion – Yes;
• DXR Enabled – Yes;
• RTX DLSS – Yes;
• Frame rate limitation – 200;
• Rendering of Subsequent Frames – No;
• Vertical sync – No;
• GPU Memory Limits – None;
• Graphics quality – Ultra;
• Texture quality – Ultra;
• Lighting quality – Ultra;
• Effects quality – Ultra;
• Post-processing quality – Ultra;
• Mesh quality – Ultra;
• Relief quality – Ultra;
• Grass quality – Ultra;
• Global shading – HBAO;
• The quality of reflections in ray tracing – Ultra;
• Number of high-quality objects – Ultra;

Control Ultimate Edition:

• API – DirectX 12;
• Display mode – Full screen;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Render resolution – 853 × 480;
• NVIDIA DLSS – On;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Graphics Preset – High;
• Detail of the remote environment – High;
• Texture quality – High;
• Texture filtering quality – High;
• Shadow Resolution – High;
• Shadow Filtering – Medium;
• Volumetric Lighting – High;
• Landscape Quality – Medium;
• SSAO – On;
• Fullscreen reflection quality – Medium (with active RTX technology this option is not available);
• Global Reflection Quality – High;
• Antialiasing quality MSAA – 2X;
• Granularity – On;
• Blur – On;
• Ray Tracing – On;
• Ray tracing quality preset – High (if this option is disabled, then all parameters included in it are also disabled);
  • Reflected ray tracing – On;
  • Tracing transparent reflections – On;
  • Indirect scattered lighting tracing – On;
  • Contact Shadow Ray Tracing – On;
  • Wreck Trace – On;

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive:

• API – DirectX 9;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Display mode – Full screen;
• Overall Shadow Quality – High;
• Detail of models and textures – High;
• Texture streaming – On;
• Effects Detail – High;
• Shader Detail – Very High;
• Increased Player Contrast – Off;
• Multicore Processing – On;
• Multi-sample anti-aliasing mode – 8X MSAA;
• Anti-aliasing with FXAA – On;
• Texture filtering mode – Anisotropic 16X;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Motion Blur – Off;
• Tri-Monitor Mode – Off

Destiny 2:

• API – DirectX 11;
• Display mode – Full screen;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Frame Rate Limitations – Off;
• Field of view – 105 degrees;
• Graphics Preset – Highest;
• Anti-aliasing – SMAA;
• SSAO – 3D;
• Anisotropic texture filtering – 16X;
• Texture Quality – Highest;
• Shadow Quality – Highest;
• Depth of Field – High;
• Environment detail range – High;
• Character detail range – High;
• Foliage detail range – High;
• Foliage Shadow Display Range – Highest;
• Light rays – High;
• Motion Blur – On;
• Wind gusts – On;
• Render resolution – 100%
• Chromatic aberration – On;
• Grainy Film Effect – On

Far Cry 5:

• API – DirectX 11;
• Display mode – Full screen;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Graphics quality – Maximum;
• Texture filtering – Maximum;
• Shadows – Maximum;
• World Geometry and Vegetation – Maximum;
• Water – High;
• Terrain – High;
• Volumetric Fog – High;
• HD Textures – Off;
• Anti-aliasing – TAA;
• Motion Blur – Off;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Field of view scale – 75 degrees;
• Dynamic Resolution – Off;
• The scale of the resolution is 1 (100%).

For Honor:

• API – DirectX – 11;
• Display mode – Full screen;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Field of view – 70 degrees;
• Image quality – Very high;
• Texture Filtering – Anisotropic 16X;
• Anti-aliasing – TAA;
• Image scaling – 100%;
• Detail – Very High;
• Texture quality – High;
• Dynamic Shadows – Very High;
• Relief drawing – High;
• Volumetric lighting – MHBAO;
• Dynamic Reflection – High;
• Blur effect – On;
• Oversampling Smoothing – Off.

Horizon Zero Dawn:

• API – DirectX 12;
• Display mode – Full screen;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Viewing angle – 70 degrees;
• Adaptive Frame Rate – Off;
• Frame limit – Unlimited;
• Frame scale – 100%;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Configuration – Top quality;
• Textures – Maximum;
• Model quality – Maximum;
• Anisotropic Filtering – Maximum;
• Shadows – Maximum;
• Reflections – High;
• Clouds – Maximum;
• Anti-aliasing – TAA;
• Speed Effect – On;
• Background Light Shading – Maximum.

Red Dead Redemption 2:

• API – Vulkan;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Display mode – Full screen;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Texture quality – Ultra;
• Anisotropic filtering – X8;
• Lighting Quality – Medium;
• Global Illumination Quality – High;
• Shadow quality – High;
• Distant Shadow Quality – High;
• Shading SSAO – High;
• Reflection quality – Low;
• The quality of the mirrors is High;
• Water quality – High;
• Volumetric Effects Quality – Medium;
• Particle Quality – Medium;
• Tessellation quality – High;
• Anti-aliasing TAA – Off;
• Anti-aliasing FXАА – On;
• Anti-aliasing MSАА – Off;
• Near Volumetric Effects Resolution – Medium;
• Long Range Volumetric Effects Resolution – Medium;
• Volumetric Effects Lighting Quality – Medium;
• High detail light rays – Off;
• Particle Lighting Quality – Medium;
• The quality of soft shadows – Ultra;
• Grass Shadow Quality – Medium;
• Long Shadows – On;
• Shading SSAO (full screen mode) – On;
• Water refraction quality – High;
• Quality of reflections in the water – High;
• Water physics quality – High;
• Resolution Scaling – Off;
• Anti-aliasing sharpness TAA – Low;
• Motion Blur – On;
• Anti-aliasing MSАА for reflections – Off;
• Geometry Detail Levels – Ultra;
• Grass Detail – Medium;
• The quality of the trees is Medium;
• Bump texture quality – Ultra;
• Decal quality – High;
• Fur quality – Medium;
• Tree Tessellation – Off

Remnant: From the Ashes:

• API – DirectX 11;
• Screen mode – Full screen;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Motion Blur – On;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Distance of shadows – 100;
• Shadow quality – Ultra;
• Anti-Aliasing – Ultra;
• View range – Ultra;
• Textures – Ultra;
• Post-processing – Ultra;
• Effects – Ultra;
• Vegetation quality – Ultra;
• Limiting frames per second – 0;
• Minimize Input Lag – On;
• Field of vision – 1.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider:

• API – DirectX 12
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• NVIDIA RTX DLSS – On;
• Screen Mode – Full Screen;
• Exclusive Full Screen – On;
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Graphics quality – Ultra;
• Texture quality – Ultra;
• Ray-traced shadow quality – Ultra;
• Background shading – HBAO +;
• Depth of Field – High;
• World Detail Quality – Ultra;
• Tessellation – On;
• Bloom – On;
• Motion Blur – On;
• Full Screen Reflections – On;
• Full Screen Contact Shadows – High;
• Pure Hair – Medium;
• Volumetric lighting – On;
• Glare – On;
• Full Screen Effects – On

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2:

• API – DirectX 12;
• Screen Mode – Full Screen;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Reduced input delays – On (slightly reduces the input lag at the cost of a slight decrease in performance);
• Graphics quality – Custom (in this game, disabling Vertical Sync switches any graphics mode to “Custom” without changing the rest of the settings);
• Vertical sync – Off;
• Frame Limit – Off;
• Shadow quality – High;
• Local Shadows – High;
• Local Shadow Resolution – High;
• Contact Shadows Sun: High;
• Scalable Resolution – 100%;
• Sharpness effect – 70%;
• Particle quality – Maximum;
• Volumetric Fog – Maximum;
• Reflection Quality – Medium;
• Local reflections quality – High;
• Vegetation quality – Medium;
• Internal dispersion – On;
• Anisotropic filtering – 16X;
• Parallax Maps – On;
• Background Shading – High;
• Depth of Field – On;
• The quality of objects – 100;
• Increasing the broadcast range – 10;
• Neutral lighting – Off;
• Lens Flare – On;
• Vignetting – On
• Water quality – High;
• Chromatic aberration – On;
• Resolution of projected textures – 512;
• High Resolution Sky – On
• Landscape quality – High;
• Anti-aliasing – Maximum;

Watch_Dogs 2:

• Window mode – Full screen;
• Resolution – 1280 × 720;
• Frame Sync – Off;
• Fps limit – 125;
• Field of view – 70;
• Pixel density – 1;
• Graphics quality – Ultra;
• Geometry – Ultra;
• Additionally – 0%;
• Relief – Ultra;
• Vegetation – Ultra;
• Texture resolution – Ultra;
• Texture Filtering – Ultra;
• Shadows – Ultra;
• Object shadows in headlights – 2 cars;
• Water – High;
• Reflections – High;
• SSLR – Ultra;
• Dynamic particles – On;
• San Francisco Fog – On;
• Depth of Field – On;
• Blur – On;
• Glow – On;
• Volumetric light – HMSSAO;
• Temporary filtering – Off;
• MSAA – Off;
• Post-processing and anti-aliasing – SMAA.

For more visual settings for the quality of graphics in games, you can get acquainted with the video recording of testing the Xeon E5-2630L v3 processor, which is located at the end of this article.

Testing in benchmarks and applications

First, let’s take a look at the metrics of the most basic test applications, and then move on to real-world tasks and software packages. For some tests, additional screenshots will be provided, which will show the real frequency of the processor during load.

Overall performance:

CPU-z Benchmark

In the benchmark built into the CPU-z utility, the frequency of the E5-2630Lv3 chip was around 2800 MHz. It is for this reason that its results have been very impressive. Judge for yourself: with a TDP of only 55 watts, the budget eight-core was able to outperform its 85-watt, 6-core counterpart by 15% in the multi-threaded test. Of course, at the same time, due to the relatively low frequency, in the single-threaded test the E5-2630Lv3 lagged 10% behind the E5-2620v3. But you must admit that such a confident superiority in a multi-threaded test eliminates the lag in single-threaded loads that are virtually absent in modern realities.

However, as we have already seen from previous materials, testing processors in the CPU-z utility in no way reflects the real state of affairs. Therefore, let’s take a look at how the situation will change in more or less real benchmarks:

Rendering, benchmarks:

Cinebench R15

In the first more or less realistic and representative load in the form of Cinebench R15, the E5-2630Lv3 chip shows only 10% superiority over the E5-2620v3, and given the noticeably higher price and relatively low single-threaded performance of the eight-core, such an advantage does not look particularly convincing.

Cinebench R20

How about only 0.5% advantage of E5-2630Lv3 over E5-2620v3 in the current version of Cinebench R20? This benchmark actively uses AVX2, and as you know, this extension has a rather strong effect on the final values of power consumption of any CPU (of course, provided that the processor itself supports AVX2). Thus, due to the TDP limit of 55, during the passage of Cinebench R20, the frequency of the E5-2630Lv3 chip did not rise above 2400 MHz.

Corona Render 1.3

In the old benchmark of the Corona 1.3 render, the situation is somewhat evened out, and the E5-2630Lv3 is 5% ahead of its closest pursuer. But with a 25% overweight, it’s not impressive.

V-Ray Render Benchmark

The V-Ray render test suite reports an 8% advantage of an 8-core Haswell over a 6-core.

Rendering, real tasks:

Blender

But the first really real final render in Blender using the Cycles engine shows absolutely shocking results: the 16-thread E5-2630Lv3 chip lost to the 12-thread E5-2620v3! Of course, the gap is very small and does not exceed 5%, but the fact itself, I think, is very curious.

If you want to start exploring the free 3D modeling application Blender, the E5-2620v3 processor will be a better purchase than, for example, the E5-2630Lv3, because even the launch of the program on the 6-core Haswell is much faster.

xNormal

In baking textures using the most popular program xNormal, the E5-2630Lv3 demonstrates the best performance.

Video encoding

HWBot x265 Benchmark, 1080P

Encoding video to x265 is not what the 8-core processor with 55W TDP does best: in fact, the superiority of the E5-2630Lv3 over the E5-2620v3 is within the margin of error.

Archiving

7-Zip

The same cannot be said about the results obtained when testing processors in archiving using the free 7-zip program. Here the superiority of the 8-core Haswell over the 6-core is an impressive 15%.

WinRar

WinRar “from time immemorial” reacts sharply enough to the increase in processing threads and the volume of the L3 cache, and thanks to this feature of this archiver, we get the biggest 30% advantage of the E5-2630Lv3 chip over its closest rival in real tasks!

Well, we’re done with the software tests. Let’s move on to examining the gaming performance of the E5-2630Lv3. In this section, the results should probably be more unpredictable, since game engines can rarely adequately apply 16 processor threads in practice.

Testing in games

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

The current part of the Assassin’s Creed series meets us with a completely unexpected result: the low-frequency 8-core demonstrates a slight superiority over its 6-core rival.

Battlefield V

In Battlefield 5, the situation is about the same as in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: both processors demonstrate virtually equal performance, and the difference in FPS is at the margin of error.

But Battlefield 5 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey are very difficult projects with large detailed locations. In addition, the engines of both games have long learned to use multi-threaded processors. Let’s take a look at how the tested CPUs behave in 4-threaded games:

Control Ultimate Edition

The Control “Northlight” engine is quite well optimized, however, the maximum that it can load is 4 streams. Thus, in this game, the key quality of the processor is its frequency, which, as you know, is higher in the 6-core E5-2620v3 chip. But even this did not allow it to significantly break away from its 8-core counterpart: the advantage of E5-2620v3 over E5-2630Lv3 does not exceed 5%.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

In the cybersport discipline Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the situation for the 8-core is no longer so favorable. Here its lag from 2620v3 is at the level of 11%.

Destiny 2

The same cannot be said about Destiny 2. In the creation of the Bungie studio, the 2620v3 chip was only 4% faster than the main character of this material.

Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 also cannot adequately use more than 6 threads, however, in one of Ubisoft’s flagship games, the E5-2630Lv3 demonstrates almost the same results as the E5-2620v3.

For Honor

In another Ubisoft game, the medieval action game For Honor, both processors show virtually identical FPS, and the difference is at the margin of error.

Horizon Zero Dawn

In the relatively fresh game Horizon Zero Dawn, we again expect virtually equal FPS rates of both representatives of the Haswell architecture.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Surprisingly, the creation of the Rockstar studio – Red Dead Redemption 2, responded very well to the additional 2 cores, 4 threads and thus brought the victory to E5-2630Lv3. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that here, too, the result is at the level of error (except for the indicators of 1% of rare events).

Remnant: From the Ashes

But in Remnant: From the Ashes, everything is pretty obvious: in soul-like action, victory is unambiguously awarded to the higher-frequency 6-core Xeon E5-2620v3 chip. Its FPS rates are 9% higher than the 8-core Xeon E5-2630Lv3.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Just take a look at the results of testing processors in the game Shadow of the Tomb Raider! The average FPS of the E5-2630Lv3 exceeds that of the E5-2620v3 by 16%! This is the most significant advantage of an 8-core over a 6-core in all game tests! Moreover, pay attention to the minimum FPS – this indicator for E5-2630Lv3 is as much as 56% higher than that of the closest pursuer!

These are amazing results! And so they, in theory, reflect the picture of the future of the gaming industry, since the next generation consoles are equipped with 8-core, 16-thread chips.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 also reports, albeit a small, but still superiority of an 8-core chip over a 6-core one. In any case, the difference in average FPS is hard to call an error.

Watch_Dogs 2

Watch_Dogs 2 is famous for its gluttony in relation to the central processor, and for this reason, it is extremely difficult to get 60 frames per second at the maximum graphics quality settings desired by most gamers (here we are talking about budget CPUs). But the Xeon E5-2630Lv3 chip succeeded! The 8-core processor surpassed the 60 FPS mark and surpassed the closest competitor by an impressive 13%!

Below is a video of testing the Xeon E5-2630L v3 chip in games. Please note that for the above graphs, the FPS indicators were taken without “eating” some video recording performance. Therefore, in the video, the frame rate values are slightly lower than in the graphs.

Conclusion

Remember what I said at the beginning of this article? And at the end of the article, in fact, nothing has changed: The Xeon E5-2630L v3 processor still remains a very controversial chip with its pros and cons.

Of the obvious advantages of an 8-core, I would like to note low heat generation and heating. In theory, the cheapest aluminum radiator should be suitable for cooling it.

But the disadvantages are not always a clear superiority over the cheaper, 6-core Xeon E5-2620 v3. In places, the E5-2630L v3 removed even a slight lag behind its fellow architecture.

But will this trend continue with the arrival of the next generation of consoles and more optimized software? It is hard to say. But I think that at the moment, it is still better to choose the 6-core Xeon E5-2620v3 since now, games mainly use 6-12 threads and extremely rarely 16. And if next year, for some reason, E5 -2620v3 will not suit you, then well, it did not cost so much ($ 20), and replacing it, for example, with a 12-core E5-2678 v3 ($ 60-70), would not be such an expensive undertaking. Moreover, most likely, the older LGA 2011 v3 processors should significantly drop in price over the course of a year and start from the $ 40-50 mark.

The final decision, of course, is yours, and at this point I will take my leave. High, and most importantly, a stable frame rate for you, as well as fast rendering. Thanks for attention!

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