Westmere, Sandy Bridge, and Haswell: Intel Xeon X5660, E5-2620, and E5-2620 v3 tested in popular games and benchmarks

We've wanted to compare three generations of budget six-core Intel Xeon processors (Westmere, Sandy Bridge, and Haswell) for a long time. Unfortunately, our lab went without a powerful enough graphics card for a while. Testing with our previous AMD Radeon RX474 would have bottlenecked the GPU instead of showing the CPU's true potential. Now that we have a reasonably powerful 8GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER in the lab, it's finally time to see what these budget 6-core, 12-thread processors can do in popular games, professional apps, and benchmarks.

Welcome to the first article of our September benchmarking session!

The main contenders:

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Xeon X5660

The Xeon X5660 is designed for the LGA 1366 socket. This CPU is based on the 32nm Westmere-EP silicon (B1 stepping), which is essentially a carbon copy of the desktop Gulftown die. Released back in 2010, each core of this 6-core, 12-thread 'monster' packs 256KB of L2 cache and shares a 12MB L3 cache. While the base clock of the X5660 is a modest 2800MHz, Intel Turbo Boost can push it up to 3066MHz across all six cores, and up to 3200MHz for single-threaded tasks. The chip's TDP is rated at 95W.

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CPU-Z confirms these specs, adding that the X5660's memory controller and L3 cache run at 2666MHz, while its maximum supported RAM speed is 1333MHz.

In terms of modern instruction sets, the X5660 only supports SSE4.2. The Westmere-EP architecture lacks the now-vital AVX extensions. As you'll see in our gaming benchmarks, this limitation severely hurts the CPU's relevance today.

Xeon E5-2620 v1

The Xeon E5-2620 slots into the first-generation LGA 2011 socket. This chip is built on a 6-core, 12-thread Sandy Bridge-EP die (C2 stepping). Just like Westmere-EP, each Sandy Bridge-EP core has 256KB of L2 cache, but the shared L3 cache is much larger here, coming in at a whopping 15MB. The Xeon E5-2620's base clock is a measly 2000MHz by today's standards. While Intel Turbo Boost can push it to 2300MHz across all six cores, that still looks incredibly weak, especially compared to the other chips in this test.

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Unfortunately, our Dell T3610 workstation motherboard can't read the frequency of the integrated memory controller (IMC). However, we know that the IMC clock in the Sandy Bridge architecture is tied directly to the CPU core frequency. This means the Xeon E5-2620's IMC is capped at 2300MHz, and its maximum RAM speed is limited to 1333MHz. On the bright side, this CPU does support SSE4.2 and AVX. While the TDP of this entry-level LGA 2011 six-core is rated at 95W, in practice, it doesn't even hit 70W.

Xeon E5-2620 v3

Now we come to the highlight of our review. Meet the Xeon E5-2620 v3, one of the most affordable, capable, and highly sought-after processors of 2020.

Based on the relatively modern Haswell architecture, this CPU natively supports critical instruction sets like AVX, AVX2, and FMA3. The E5-2620 v3 fits the LGA 2011 v3 socket, meaning it supports modern, affordable DDR4 RAM. Combined with a quad-channel memory controller, this setup delivers bandwidth of up to 50GB/s.

But that's not even its best trick. The main reason this processor is so incredibly popular is that you can force all 6 cores and 12 threads to run at its maximum single-core boost frequency of 3200MHz. This is done via the 'Turbo Boost unlock' mod, which involves flashing a modified motherboard BIOS.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of guides online on how to unlock the maximum frequency on Haswell-era Xeon chips, so we won't go into detail here. However, if you'd like to see our own guide on the process, let us know in the comments. If there's enough interest, we'll definitely put one together.

As for the specs of the Xeon E5-2620 v3, its stock base clock is 2400MHz, but as mentioned, the Turbo Boost unlock keeps all cores locked at 3200MHz.

The Haswell-EP silicon once again follows the Westmere-EP and Sandy Bridge-EP formula, with each CPU core having 256KB of L2 cache. The shared L3 cache is similar to the first-generation E5-2620, coming in at 15MB.

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With the Haswell architecture, Intel engineers went back to decoupling the memory controller and L3 cache frequency from the core speed. The Xeon E5-2620 v3 IMC is locked at 2992MHz, and the maximum RAM speed is capped at DDR4-1866MHz. The E5-2620 v3 has an 85W TDP limit, which is a pretty significant constraint—especially in AVX2-heavy workloads, where the clock speed can drop to 2800MHz:

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Obviously, you won't see this kind of clock degradation in games or lighter apps and benchmarks. Still, it's an important detail to mention. That's why, for the sake of clarity, our charts will display the actual, real-world CPU frequencies recorded during each specific test.

Specifications of all tested CPUs:

Test setup:

• Processors: Xeon E5-2620, Xeon E5-2620 v3, Xeon E5-2643, Xeon X5570, and Xeon X5660;

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

• RAM for LGA 1366: 2 x 8GB HyperX Genesis Na’Vi Edition (KHX16C9C2K2/8), 16GB total;

• RAM for LGA 2011: 2 x 8GB Micron MT36JSF1G72PZ-1G4M1HF, 16GB total;

• RAM for LGA 2011 v3: 4 x 4GB G.SKILL DDR4 @ 1866MHz F4-2400C15S-4GNT, 16GB total (10-10-10-24 timings);

• LGA 2011 motherboard: Dell T3610 (09M8Y8);

• LGA 2011 v3 motherboard: Kllisre X99-D8 (AD12) with modified BIOS (Turbo Boost unlocked, timing controls enabled);

• LGA 1366 motherboard: Dell T3500 (09KPNV);

• Graphics card: KFA2 GeForce RTX 2060 Super 8GB (115% power limit);

• SSD: Kingston 120GB SA400S37120G (Windows 10 1903/apps);

• HDD: 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 v452.06;

• Cinebench R15.38;

• Cinebench R20.060;

• xNormal 3.19.3.39669 x64 (NM Map 4x anti-aliasing, AO Map 1x anti-aliasing);

• 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 the games tested below were updated to either the latest or most stable version.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey:

• API: DirectX 11;

• Display mode: Fullscreen;

• Screen resolution: 1280×720;

• Resolution scale: 100%;

• V-Sync: Off;

• Graphics preset: Max;

• Adaptive quality: Off;

• Anti-aliasing: Off;

• Shadows: Ultra;

• Environment: Ultra;

• Texture detail: High;

• Terrain: High;

• Clutter density: Ultra;

• Fog: High;

• Water: Ultra;

• Screen space reflections: High;

• Volumetric clouds: Ultra;

• Character texture detail: High;

• Character: High;

• Volumetric lighting: Ultra;

• Depth of field: High.

Battlefield V:

• API - DirectX 12;

• Fullscreen - Fullscreen;

• Fullscreen resolution - 1280x720;

• Chromatic aberration - Yes;

• Film grain - Yes;

• Vignette - Yes;

• Lens distortion - Yes;

• DXR Enabled - Yes;

• RTX DLSS - Yes;

• Framerate limit - 200;

• Future frame rendering - No;

• Vertical sync - No;

• GPU memory limit - No;

• Graphics quality - Ultra;

• Texture quality - Ultra;

• Lighting quality - Ultra;

• Effects quality - Ultra;

• Post-processing quality - Ultra;

• Mesh quality - Ultra;

• Terrain quality - Ultra;

• Grass quality - Ultra;

• Ambient occlusion - HBAO;

• Ray-traced reflections quality - Ultra;

• High fidelity objects amount - Ultra;

Control Ultimate Edition:

• API — DirectX 12;

• Display mode — Fullscreen;

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• Render resolution — 853×480;

• NVIDIA DLSS — On;

• V-Sync — Off;

• Graphics preset — High;

• Far object detail — High;

• Texture quality — High;

• Texture filtering — High;

• Shadow resolution — High;

• Shadow filtering — Medium;

• Volumetric lighting - High;

• Terrain quality — Medium;

• SSAO — On;

• Screen space reflections — Medium (disabled when RTX is active);

• Global reflections — High;

• MSAA — 2X;

• Film grain — On;

• Motion blur — On;

• Ray tracing — On;

• Ray tracing preset — High (if this option is disabled, all sub-settings are also disabled);Ray-traced reflections — On;

• Ray-traced transparent reflections — On;

• Ray-traced indirect diffuse lighting — On;

• Ray-traced contact shadows — On;

• Ray-traced debris — On;

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive:

• API — DirectX 9;

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• Display mode — Fullscreen;

• Global shadow quality — High;

• Model and texture detail — High;

• Texture streaming — On;

• Effect detail — High;

• Shader detail — Very high;

• Boost player contrast — Off;

• Multicore rendering — On;

• Multisample anti-aliasing mode — 8X MSAA;

• FXAA anti-aliasing — On;

• Texture filtering mode — Anisotropic 16X;

• V-Sync — Off;

• Motion blur — Off;

• Triple-monitor mode — Off.

Destiny 2:

• API — DirectX 11;

• Display mode — Fullscreen;

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• V-Sync — Off;

• Framerate cap — 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 distance — High;

• Character detail distance — High;

• Foliage detail distance — High;

• Foliage shadows distance — Highest;

• Light shafts — High;

• Motion blur — On;

• Wind gusts — On;

• Render resolution — 100%

• Chromatic aberration — On;

• Film grain — On.

Far Cry 5:

• API — DirectX 11;

• Display mode — Fullscreen;

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• Graphics quality — Ultra;

• Texture filtering — Ultra;

• Shadows — Ultra;

• Geometry and vegetation — Ultra;

• Water — High;

• Terrain — High;

• Volumetric fog — High;

• HD textures — Off;

• Anti-aliasing — TAA;

• Motion blur — Off;

• V-Sync — Off;

• FOV scale — 75 degrees;

• Dynamic resolution — Off;

• Resolution scale — 1 (100%).

For Honor:

• API — DirectX 11;

• Display mode — Fullscreen;

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• V-Sync — Off;

• Field of view — 70 degrees;

• Graphics quality — Very high;

• Texture filtering — Anisotropic 16x;

• Anti-aliasing — TAA;

• Image scaling — 100%;

• Detail level — Very high;

• Texture quality — High;

• Dynamic shadows — Very high;

• Terrain quality — High;

• Ambient occlusion — MHBAO;

• Dynamic reflections — High;

• Motion blur — On;

• Supersampling — Off.

Horizon Zero Dawn:

• API — DirectX 12;

• Display mode — Fullscreen;

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• Field of view — 70 degrees;

• Adaptive frame rate — Off;

• Frame rate limit — Unlimited;

• Render scale — 100%;

• V-Sync — Off;

• Preset — Ultimate quality;

• Textures — Max;

• Model quality — Max;

• Anisotropic filtering — Max;

• Shadows — Max;

• Reflections — High;

• Clouds — Max;

• Anti-aliasing — TAA;

• Motion blur — On;

• Ambient occlusion — Max.

Red Dead Redemption 2:

• API — Vulkan;

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• Screen Mode — Fullscreen;

• V-Sync — Off;

• Texture Quality — Ultra;

• Anisotropic Filtering — 8x;

• Lighting Quality — Medium;

• Global Illumination Quality — High;

• Shadow Quality — High;

• Far Shadow Quality — High;

• SSAO — High;

• Reflection Quality — Low;

• Mirror Quality — High;

• Water Quality — High;

• Volumetric Quality — Medium;

• Particle Quality — Medium;

• Tessellation Quality — High;

• TAA — Off;

• FXAA — On;

• MSAA — Off;

• Near Volumetric Resolution — Medium;

• Far Volumetric Resolution — Medium;

• Volumetric Lighting Quality — Medium;

• Unlocked Volumetric Raymarch Resolution — Off;

• Particle Lighting Quality — Medium;

• Soft Shadows — Ultra;

• Grass Shadows — Medium;

• Long Shadows — On;

• Full Resolution SSAO — On;

• Water Refraction Quality — High;

• Water Reflection Quality — High;

• Water Physics Quality — High;

• Resolution Scale — Off;

• TAA Sharpening — Low;

• Motion Blur — On;

• Reflection MSAA — Off;

• Geometry Level of Detail — Ultra;

• Grass Level of Detail — Medium;

• Tree Quality — Medium;

• Parallax Occlusion Mapping Quality — Ultra;

• Decal Quality — High;

• Fur Quality — Medium;

• Tree Tessellation — Off.

Remnant: From the Ashes:

• API — DirectX 11;

• Display Mode — Fullscreen;

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• Motion Blur — On;

• V-Sync — Off;

• Shadow Distance — 100;

• Shadow Quality — Ultra;

• Anti-Aliasing — Ultra;

• View Distance — Ultra;

• Textures — Ultra;

• Post Processing — Ultra;

• Effects — Ultra;

• Foliage Quality — Ultra;

• Framerate Limit — 0;

• Minimize Input Delay — On;

• Field of View — 1.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider:

• API - DirectX 12

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• NVIDIA RTX DLSS - On;

• Display mode — Fullscreen;

• Exclusive Fullscreen - On;

• VSync — Off;

• Graphics quality - Ultra;

• Texture quality - Ultra;

• Ray-traced shadow quality - Ultra;

• Ambient occlusion - HBAO+;

• Depth of field - High;

• World detail - Ultra;

• Tessellation - On;

• Bloom - On;

• Motion blur - On;

• Screen space reflections - On;

• Screen space contact shadows - High;

• PureHair - Medium;

• Volumetric lighting - On;

• Lens flares - On;

• Screen effects - On.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2:

• API — DirectX 12;

• Display mode — Fullscreen;

• Resolution — 1280×720;

• Reduce input latency — On (slightly reduces input lag at a small cost to performance);

• Graphics quality — Custom (disabling VSync in this game automatically switches the quality preset to "Custom" without changing other settings);

• VSync — Off;

• Frame rate limit — Off;

• Shadow quality — High;

• Local shadows — High;

• Local shadow resolution — High;

• Contact shadows Sun: High;

• Resolution scale — 100%;

• Sharpening — 70%;

• Particle quality — Ultra;

• Volumetric fog — Ultra;

• Reflection quality — Medium;

• Local reflection quality — High;

• Vegetation quality — Medium;

• Sub-surface scattering — On;

• Anisotropic filtering — 16x;

• Parallax mapping — On;

• Ambient occlusion — High;

• Depth of field — On;

• Object detail — 100;

• Extra streaming distance — 10;

• Neutral lighting — Off;

• Lens flare — On;

• Vignette — On.

• Water quality — High;

• Chromatic aberration — On;

• Projected texture resolution — 512;

• High resolution sky — On.

• Terrain quality — High;

• Anti-aliasing — Ultra;

Watch_Dogs 2:

• Window mode - Fullscreen;

• Resolution - 1280x720;

• V-Sync - Off;

• Frame rate limit - 125;

• Field of view - 70;

• Pixel density - 1;

• Graphics quality - Ultra;

• Geometry - Ultra;

• Extra - 0%;

• Terrain - Ultra;

• Vegetation - Ultra;

• Texture resolution - Ultra;

• Texture filtering - Ultra;

• Shadows - Ultra;

• Headlight shadows - 2 cars;

• Water - High;

• Reflections - High;

• SSLR - Ultra;

• Dynamic particles - On;

• San Francisco fog - On;

• Depth of field - On;

• Motion blur - On;

• Bloom - On;

• Ambient occlusion - HMSSAO;

• Temporal filtering - Off;

• MSAA - Off;

• Post-processing and anti-aliasing - SMAA.

For a more visual look at how these graphics settings perform, check out the benchmark video testing the Xeon X5660, E5-2620, and E5-2620v3 processors at the end of this article.

Testing in benchmarks and applications

We'll start by looking at some basic synthetic benchmarks before moving on to real-world tasks and applications.

Overall performance:

CPU-Z benchmark

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The E5-2620v3 doesn't show anything extraordinary in the built-in CPU-Z benchmark. Predictably, it takes the top spot, but its 25% lead over the runner-up is hardly groundbreaking. Technologically, these results are exactly what you'd expect given the five-year generation gap between the X5660 and the E5-2620v3. As for the base E5-2620, the story is even more predictable: its low 2300 MHz clock speed prevented it from competing even with the 4-core, 8-thread E5-2643.

Rendering, benchmarks:

Cinebench R15

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However, the story changes completely in Cinebench R15, our first semi-realistic and representative workload. Here, the E5-2620v3 pulls ahead of its closest opponent, the X5660, by a massive 40%. Even the first-generation E5-2620 put up a decent showing, beating out its higher-clocked sibling, the E5-2643.

Cinebench R20

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In Cinebench R20, the E5-2620v3's lead over the X5660 widens to a staggering 55%!

Corona Render 1.3

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The aging Corona 1.3 brings the 2620v3 back down to earth a bit. Here, Haswell manages to beat Westmere by "only" 40%.

V-Ray Render Benchmark

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In the V-Ray rendering benchmark, the E5-2620v3's lead over the X5660 is massive, reaching a whopping 74%. AVX2 support and other architectural improvements in Haswell leave no chance for the 6-core Westmere-EP and Sandy Bridge-EP, let alone other test participants.

Rendering: real-world tasks

Blender

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Final rendering in Blender using the Cycles engine shows the E5-2620v3 practically doubling the performance of the X5660. Overall, both Nehalem-based chips look quite sluggish here: the X5660 doesn't offer much of an edge over the E5-2620v1, and the X5570 looks weak next to the E5-2643.

xNormal

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The E5-2620v3 also leads the pack in xNormal texture baking. This is particularly evident in ambient occlusion (AO map) rendering, where the Xeon E5-2620v3 absolutely crushes its competitors. When compared to the weakest CPU in this test, the E5-2620v3 is practically twice as fast as the X5570.

Video encoding

HWBot x265 benchmark, 1080p

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When converting video to x265, the E5-2620v3 is 92% faster than the X5660 and outperforms the E5-2620v1 by a massive 125%!

Compression

7-Zip

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In 7-Zip, the E5-2620v3's lead over the X5660 shrinks significantly to just 22%. This is despite the 6-core LGA 1366 chip running on dual-channel DDR3-1333 memory, while the 2620v3 benefits from quad-channel DDR4-1866.

WinRAR

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WinRAR tells a completely different story. This utility has always favored high-frequency, multi-channel memory, so the E5-2620v3's 36% lead over its closest competitor comes as no surprise.

That wraps up our synthetic benchmarks. Now, let's move on to gaming tests for these three six-core processors.

Gaming benchmarks

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

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Right out of the gate in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the Xeon E5-2620v3 delivers stunning results. First, this 6-core Haswell chip easily averages over 70 fps at max settings. Second, the 1% lows on the E5-2620v3 comfortably beat the average framerate of its closest competitor, the Xeon X5660. Finally, this third-generation 2620 chip outperforms the original v1 version by a massive 75%!

Battlefield V

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Battlefield 5 tells a very similar story. The E5-2620v3 delivers class-leading performance here, outrunning the X5600 by 60% and the E5-2520v1 by a staggering 87%.

Control Ultimate Edition

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Control's Northlight engine is reasonably well-optimized, meaning Sam Lake's mind-bending shooter is playable in some fashion on all the tested CPUs. Still, the E5-2620v3 handles it best, though its lead over the X5660 tops out at 36%.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

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In CS:GO, the 6-core Haswell averages 260 fps, with 136 fps minimums and 1% lows at 94 fps. This means the E5-2620v3 can easily saturate a 144Hz monitor. Even weaker chips like the E5-2643 and X5570 deliver perfectly acceptable performance here. The reason is simple: the Source engine only utilizes four threads, making per-core performance far more important than raw core count.

Destiny 2

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Destiny 2 tells a very similar story, as multi-core CPUs fail to fully stretch their legs here. However, thanks to its solid clock speed and support for modern instructions, the E5-2620v3 tops the charts once again, outperforming both the E5-2643 and X5660 by 37%.

Notably, in geometry-heavy zones like the EDZ, Titan, and the Dreaming City, the E5-2620v3 keeps the framerate above 60 fps, even at max graphics settings.

Far Cry 5

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Almost all tested CPUs handle Far Cry 5 well, clustering around a similar 53–64 FPS. Only the 6-core, 12-thread Haswell chip is in a league of its own, with the E5-2620v3 beating the X5660 by 38% and outperforming the E5-2620v1 by 66%.

For Honor

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As always, For Honor is beautifully optimized. We get an average of 212 FPS on the E5-2620v3, which is 24% faster than the 170 FPS from the X5660. But as you can probably see from the chart, For Honor runs smoothly on any of these CPUs, from the X5570 to the E5-2620v1.

Horizon Zero Dawn

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Remember what I mentioned in the Xeon X5660 specs section? There's no mistake in the charts: both Nehalem processors, the X5570 and X5660, lack the AVX support required by Horizon Zero Dawn and simply cannot launch the game. Because of this, the otherwise unremarkable E5-2620v1 suddenly shines. Even if it only manages a console-like framerate, you can actually play the former PlayStation 4 exclusive on it.

As for the E5-2620v3, it easily delivers an average of nearly 100 FPS, which is a stellar result.

Red Dead Redemption 2

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In Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2, every single CPU handled the game perfectly fine at our chosen settings. Even the E5-2620v3 doesn't really stand out here. The 6-core Haswell chip performs as expected, but its results are hardly spectacular.

Remnant: From the Ashes

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The same goes for the only Unreal Engine 4 title in our benchmark suite. Remnant: From the Ashes was lukewarm toward the E5-2620v3, where the 12-thread Haswell's lead over its closest competitor, the E5-2643, did not exceed 27%.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

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However, the E5-2620v3 managed to redeem itself in the latest Tomb Raider game. It pulls ahead of the X5660 by a substantial 34%, and leads the 2620v1 by a whopping 66%.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2

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Only the E5-2620v3, E5-2643, and X5660 can deliver a smooth experience in Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 at max settings. The X5570 and E5-2620v1 fall short for multiplayer, though they aren't completely unplayable. After all, you can still enjoy PvE content even with a lower frame rate.

Watch_Dogs 2

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The final game in our test suite presents the toughest and most ambiguous case. Watch_Dogs 2 is notoriously CPU-heavy, making the coveted 60 fps at max settings extremely hard to reach on budget processors.

Unfortunately, the E5-2620v3 is no exception. The 12-thread Haswell chip averaged 55 fps, which is still 25% faster than the X5660's 44 fps and 66% ahead of the E5-2620v1's 33 fps.

You can watch our gameplay test of the three six-core chips below. Keep in mind that the benchmark charts above show performance without video recording, which always eats into resources. Consequently, the frame rates in the video are slightly lower than what is shown on the graphs.

Verdict

Predictably, the Intel Xeon E5-2620v3 was the fastest chip of the bunch, serving as the ultimate solution here. Surprisingly, though, we would put the standard Xeon E5-2620 in second place. Why pick it over the faster Xeon X5660? The reason is simple: AVX instruction support.

To paraphrase the famous meme, "Where is this AVX? Show me!" Well, it seems the time has come. Horizon Zero Dawn is just the tip of the iceberg in requiring AVX instructions, and future games will only demand them more often. It is highly likely that the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 will also refuse to run on CPUs without AVX. That is why we think it's better to play it safe and choose a relatively modern chip, so you don't find yourself panic-upgrading to meet minimum specs when your favorite game drops.

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