20 Best Xeon For Gaming (2022 Updated)

I bought two to upgrade my workstation to be able to use Intel’s Optane persistent memory. The CPUs work well! With 2 CPU sockets, now having 52 cores / 104 threads in my workstation!

Along with a second processor riser board, adding this CPU as a second package to the system really smoothed out the performance of a Dell Precision 7820 workstation.

Disclamer: This product is used in a software development workstation by day, and gaming rig by night, with a SuperMicro SuperChassis 747BTQ-R1K62B barebone kit, as an upgrade to a pair of Xeon E5-2630 v2.

I came to this part with great hopes of reviving my old workstation as I patiently wait for Zen3 Threadrippers. I have been considering it since the day I built the machine originally, but the 2k+ price tag per chip was way out of budget for me and I had to settle for way way less than I wanted.

Since this day, my only concern was the cooling performance of my current gear. While the case is designed to withstand pretty much anything you could throw at it, I wasn’t so sure of the tower coolers than came with the kit.

Fast forward 6 years and, as expected, these CPUs are clear top of the line products. The performance difference with the previous midrange chips that were in this system is outstanding and, even higher than expected.

It is amazing to see the difference 800 mHz extra base clock can do. My cooling concerns were also way overblown as going from 65 to 150 watt TDP only raised the temps from 35 to 68 deg C under a heavy Prime95 load.

While it isn’t a modern CPU with tons of features like AVX2, fancy new virtualisation extensions, and insane performance, a pair of those is still more than capable today. I often run multiple VMs for development and.

well. I frankly don’t even care to close them when I fire up a game. The amount of PCIe lanes is more than enough to get a GPU, sound card, and multiple NVME SSDs in your system, just like you would expect of a modern high end machine.

Besides the still limited clock speed by today’s standards, it will perform incredibly well in almost every scenarios and are a great value with perfs that are on par with an 8700k (per chip) as long as your workload scales well.

The Xeon E3-1275 v2 was the perfect CPU upgrade to keep my 2011 pre-built PC relevant in 2021. I had been running the original Core i3 2120 for the entire time, but it had been showing its age lately.

I felt this platform was still very much usable even 10 years later and I was not willing to part ways with it just yet in favor of an entirely new system, which would have cost quite a bit more money.

This particular CPU model comes with integrated graphics, something many Xeons do not have enabled. A significantly more expensive Core i7-3770K might yield a slight performance advantage, but my Joshua H61 motherboard would not be able to overclock it and even if it could, the motherboard only supports the included proprietary cooler, which I dont believe would be able to keep the 3770K comfortably cool anyway.

So, I opted for the E3-1275 v2. Yes, it is the end of the road for this platform processor-wise, but it has brought snappy performance to and breathed new life into my aging system. (I also maxed out the motherboards memory capacity to 16GB, which certainly helps.

) Id say its good for another 45 years. I recommend this CPU for those who: 1. Want to squeeze a little more life out of their LGA 1155 systems, 2. Have anything less than a Core i7 or non-hyperthreaded Xeon,and 3.

Can find one of these for under $100.

Performance boost for $430. 00 ( 18 core 2. 30 GHZ )? Not really noticeable. It should render 3 times faster than my Intel ( 6 core ) i7 4 GHz chip, but I really do not see it. Single core should go to turbo–which would make it just a tad slower than the i7, but it never gets to 3.

6, only about 3! It is rendering faster, but not what I expected. Single core performance is noticeably slower, but livable. The reason to go to xeon? Did not have to change out any of the original components to get a speed boost.

If I upgrade to AMD, I have to change out motherboard, maybe power supply, maybe memory. The price different would be double or triple what I paid—but it would be at least twice as fast as the xeon! I have managed to get the xeon to render at 2.

65 GHZ, that’s for all 36 CPU’s, so I know it is over twice as fast, its just not all that obvious at the level I am working at. My system is water cooled and it took me 10 minutes to change out the chips.

It took a little longer to tweak out the motherboards OS. Just have to save up for a faster and more advanced CPU.

Just recently upgraded from a E5-2620(6-Core[s]) to this brilliant E5-2665(8-Core[s]) which actually has just a couple/few extra options than its sister[2660-8 core*]. It’s unlocked, more boost features etc.

It runs a little cooler as well, which is a plus! It has. 4 GHz more speed than the 2620, and I believe. 2 GHz more than 2660. Personally, I use this processor in my Crypto/VM (Virtualboxes) build. I normally have 3-4 VMs going (different ones, doing different things) and this CPU does all that I need with ease!!!.

Gaming too!! Highly recommended on all ends/aspects! Plus, for under $18, you’ll have an amazing gaming/streaming CPU. Your options are almost endless.

I bought this product because I wanted to run a genuine PCIe 3. 0 build using the X79 Intel Chipset and an Intel rated Rev 3. 0 CPU. This paragraph here is my last one but I have dropped it in here so you can get the XEON E5-1660 info before reading the story behind it: I have sold the motherboard and CPU.

I cannot take a chance with the Xeon, other than I checked it is in perfect working order and Intel has confirmed it is the newest and best and covered by warranty. It is back in the box as Test Only and New and will be on EBay asap.

I cannot afford to build again after my losses and someone else will benefit from each one of these purchases including this XEON E5 -1660, which is REV 3. 0 and is all and more than the 3960X was supposed to be.

For the common home user, enthusiast, gamer, work-at-home, and build-your-own Desktop Computer, the only CPU that would legitimize every motherboard company’s promised advertisement, was an Intel Xeon CPU.

The Asus P9X79 WS (workstation) was the only Asus motherboard that was in the above mentioned build category, which listed the Xeon E5 1620, 1650, and 1660 as a compatible CPU. All of the X79 Gigabyte Boards listed the Xeon as a compatible CPU.

Those were my two Motherboard company options from past experience. I had already purchased an Asus P9X79 PRO motherboard and the Intel 3930K Sandy Bridge E along with an Evga GTX 680 FTW+ 4GB Video Card, which was PCIe 3.

0 capable, and the Areca 1882ix-12 4GB Memory, Rev. 3. 0 Raid Controller Card which also was rated as PCIe 3. 0 capable. These four components were all purchased based on the newly released PCIe 3. 0 capable motherboards.

Just these 4 components of the many needed components for the Desktop PC build, added up to nearly $2,500. I waited several months before opening any of the components due to the swirling rumors that apart from a “Registry Hack” or the small driver patch released by NVidia; PCIe 3.

0 was at best a “better-than-nothing” improvement over PCIe 2. 0. I was beyond my one month return time, but at least I had unopened New products if I were to decide to sell, unconvinced that the rumors and contradictory stories coming directly from Intel, NVidia, and the Motherboard companies, warranted my opening of $2,500 of quickly aging products.

One day, based on a number of Forum’s and News Outlet’s reports, that good news was coming, I got out the razor blade and opened each package with precision; a step of faith with a backup plan that if I were to sell I could at least sell as Tested Only and basically new components that when repackaged it would be obvious to any buyer that what they saw would match my story that these components had less than two hours of use.

Before the long-waited unboxing contacted Asus directly through phone and email to confirm that I was in safe territory. It turns out that the first phase of setting up and installing drivers, was unsuccessful I built the PC, updated the BIOS, loaded Windows 7 X64, installed every new driver, and ensured that this build was as pure as it could be.

No PCIe 3. 0. I have sold the motherboard and CPU. I cannot take a chance with the XEON E5-1600 as it is too valuable and will be an easy sell on EBay although I will probably lose more money. I did put it in the Asus X79 PRO to check it out completely before my return time expired.

I didnt want to open it but had no choice because I cant sell a product that I am unable to vouch for.

Works great. Reliable with Intel DX79SR motherboard. Somewhat high power consumption in idle mode. This was expected from this old chip. Motherboard BIOS was configured for performance.

I went from a W3450 to this bad boy X5670 and for the price it is a massive upgrade. You can see a huge difference in performance. The computer definitely booted faster. Desktop was loaded before I even turned my monitor on.

This upgraded a sever PC Dell precision T3500. Tho I’m using it as a gaming PC xeon performs surprisingly well!! If you got a LGA1366 socket motherboard, or computer laying around and wanna give it a cheap upgrade this is the best option!.

This is the second-fastest Sandy Bridge E5 Xeon, with only the W-SKU slightly beating it for far more money. Only consider this if youre already running an old C600-chipset platform, and want to max it out to kick it down the road a little longer.

If youre speccing something out, consider newer parts.

If no benchmark, but work and stability is your priority, then this CPU comes in a play. Everything runs smooth enough to my satisfaction. Recommend.

I bought a used z620 workstation for a cheap but great gaming Pc. All z620’s can be upgraded with a 2nd E5-2600 cpu, If you buy the expansion board. This is the 2nd 2680 I just installed today. its running stable under stress test, Over all I’m very happy and for the price I have a very powerful computer.

Shipping was fast and exactly what was advertised. Thank you.

Been using these for the past year in various builds, but now specifically for [email protected] machines. Love these processors. Xeons are some of the best silicon when they were first made. They were used in servers for a reason.

Longevity. If you can find some of the cheap Chinese motherboards with the X79 chipsets you won’t have any issues with this processor.

Upgrading these in a 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 was a good performance booster. Having built many custom PC’s over the years this was fairly easy. One word of caution on a Mac Pro 1,1 is to be prepared to wrestle with the many metal and plastic covers, channels and shields.

The plastic interlocks on mine were almost welded together from heat over the years, making them very difficult to remove. Upon reassembly, I used a VERY small amount of silicone grease on some of the tabs that were sticking.

The other thing I would say is to go slow when reassembling so that you get all of the plastic tabs properly aligned before pushing the pieces together. Some of them are easy to miss. The multicore benchmark speed was essentially doubled from the previous Xeon 5760’s.

Did look up at the reviews and found out they are compatible MacPro1,1. Shipment was OK but safe. Was able to upgrade by following the Youtube video posted on MacForums. Few things were challenging but overall with patience it worked out for me.

It has been a week since I upgraded and monitoring the CPUs closely with Hardware Monitor and iStats apps. Cranked the Fans up a little. Looks all normal and happy with the upgrade from 2 dual cores to 2 quad cores.

One of the CPU had scratch and was worried even after upgrading the Firmware showed only 1 processor. But after a reboot I was able to see 2 processors. Interesting why it requires 2 reboots to recognize the CPUs.

Overall I am happy to have upgraded to 8 cores now and temps are under control. MacPro1,1 has become MacPro 2,1 now and runs Yosemite and Mavericks without any major issues.

Arrived fast than I expected. The CPUs look like new! Installing was a little pain but not too bad, due to its design, it requires more parts to be removed and loose as well to get to it. I cut my finger by sharp metal edge in the Ram enclosure area to take the second Heatsink sensor plug off.

Other than that, it boost from my quad core 2. 66GHz to 8 core 3GHZ! It perform well and Im thrilled about this.

This core is excellent if you are looking to do a home workstation build. It makes very quick work of 3d Rendering programs that I am using. I was using my laptop for it before, and wasn’t completely surprised to see the speed difference once it got going.

As for gaming, it will perform very well, but I would caution that a newer gen I7 would be the better option if that is the intention of your build. The core does not run very high wattage(being a server core and all), so if hyper fast response is necessary, look elsewhere.

Don’t get me wrong however, it CAN play most games, especially if paired with later gen graphics cards. This is basically in range of a 4th or 5th gen I7 in terms of single core performance, and steps into a world all its own for multi-core usage.

You also get an Intel Diagnostic tool specifically designed for Xeons to test the Xeon’s performance envelope. I expect to be running this core for a VERY LONG time. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone looking to create a home based workstation for 3d, graphics editing, video editing, or whatever else that would need a multi-core package to perform efficiently and steadily.

These ES & QS cpus are so much value for money, that I am on my third one now! I had a X9000 Core 2 Extreme ES, that was flawless. I have a 920XM i7 Quad Core Extreme ES that is running @ 3. 5GHz to this day.

And now I have this ‘E5-2690 v4’ this is also an ES chip. My GTX1070 on 3DMark11 hit a mere 15,000 on my server’s 6-core CPU, but it hits 18,000 attached to the ‘2690’. I put the 2690 in inverted quotes, because the ES Xeons, unlike the consumer ‘ES’ chips, are not quite exactly the same as their retail brethren, as they have a slightly lower base clock than the retail chips do, but usually the same max turbo / multiplier speed, same L3 Cache too.

Since they chips do not report their model number to CPU-Z (like the consumer ES chips), I assume they determine it to be a 2690 based on max clock, and L3 cache level. But seriously, after my system POSTs, the Win Server 2016 (Win 10 without spyware & tracking, no forced updates, etc) boots in about 5 seconds.

Wow, what a chip. Anything you do with a 14 Core / 28 Thread chip feels near instantaneous. The cost of a 6950X? 1300 GBP? My 2690? 340GBP (shipped). This is the point in buying a chips such as this.

Oh, and I get to use ECC RAM too for stability. I don’t think you can use ECC with any of Intel’s consumer chips, but AMD you can. Peace.

This is an under-appreciated SKU. This configuration was a custom spec for Amazon. a nice balance of performance and cores; a little heavy on the power consumption. I think the fact that not a lot of public information is available on this chip has kept the prices low, I think it is a grat value in the E5-V4 Xeon range.

The Xyratex 0944037-03, also known as the Xyratex HS-1235T-ATX, supports 2 CPU’s, 12x DDR3 RAM slots of both registered, and non-registered variants. It took me a bit to understand that I “HAD” to power it with 2x 4×2 12v power connectors.

This also requires a Server or Pro series OS to make use of both CPU’s. Supports an ASPEED on-board graphics adapter heavily suited for text, and offloads a lot of the graphical bits inefficiently as CPU instructions, and can cause a lot of stutter.

Although it supports 7 PCI lanes, they’re limited to PCIe x8, and required adapters, or a special GPU to get away from the on-board graphics. The Board is completely obsolete as far as support goes, but Windows does a nice job at providing the basics needed.

There was also a LOT of CPU noise that I couldn’t identify since I got the thing, but it seems to have warmed up and smoothed out. Overall, this is an absolutely amazing board for it’s price if all you want is a couple of game servers, virtual machines, or a database server.

Highly suggest you look into a proper case, as it will NOT fit in a traditional desktop case.

If this would have worked, I would have been able to write a better review. However, I never did get it to power up. I have many matched pairs of 5670s and 5645s with countless RAM sticks and nothing worked.

I have three dual 8pin EPS 1000 watt PSUs and that was not the issue either. This board is a OEM solutions motherboard designed for a specific OEM chassis. There are no CPU fan power ports or system/case fan ports.

I spent the better part of a day scouring the internet looking for a manual, schematic, pinout guide, or whatever I could find for documentation to figure out the front panel connectors. This board is a ghost in the internet.

I couldn’t find a thing. Maybe it’s just me, but I cannot recommend this board.

Bought this CPU as the 900 range of intel processors is out of production and hard to find an upgrade for cheap. I had an intel i7-920 (lowest i7 launch chip). Been wanting to upgrade for a couple of years but the higher spec compatible i7s just never came down in price.

Eventually I read about the xenon goldmine. Every generation they’ll be a partcular xenon that is used in servers based on it’s performance/cost. I searched all compatible xenons and low and behold this beauty pops up at under 20.

Works fine, no drama with it. Have it at stock speeds (which for me is fine). If you’re considering this as an upgrade, rememeber to use a graphics card (Xenons don’t have inbuilt graphics).