Recommended System Requirements | ||
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Game | Core i3-9350KF 4-Core 4.0GHz | Xeon Processor W3520 |
Cyberpunk 2077 | 29% | 26% |
Hitman 3 | 5% | 70% |
Assassins Creed: Valhalla | 5% | 70% |
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | 32% | 23% |
FIFA 21 | 34% | 18% |
Grand Theft Auto VI | 16% | 108% |
Far Cry 6 | 11% | 99% |
Genshin Impact | 47% | 4% |
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands | 10% | 97% |
Battlefield 6 | 1% | 77% |
In terms of overall gaming performance, the Intel Core i3-9350KF 4-Core 4.0GHz is massively better than the Intel Xeon Processor W3520 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 i3-9350KF 4-Core was released over three years more recently than the Xeon Processor W3520, and so the Core i3-9350KF 4-Core is likely to have far better levels of support, and will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the Xeon Processor W3520 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 Core i3-9350KF 4-Core and the Xeon Processor W3520 both have 4 cores, which is not likely to be a limiting factor for gaming.
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 i3-9350KF 4-Core and Xeon Processor W3520 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 i3-9350KF 4-Core has a 1.333 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 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 Core i3-9350KF 4-Core has a 39 Watt lower Maximum TDP than the Xeon Processor W3520, and was created with a 31 nm smaller manufacturing technology. What this means is the Core i3-9350KF 4-Core will consume significantly less power and consequently produce less heat, enabling more prolonged computational tasks with fewer adverse effects. This will lower your yearly electricity bill significantly, as well as prevent you from having to invest in extra cooling mechanisms (unless you overclock).
CPU Codename | Coffee Lake | Nehalem-WS | |||
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MoBo Socket | LGA 1151 | LGA 1366/Socket B | |||
Notebook CPU | no | no | |||
Release Date | 06 Jan 2019 | 29 Mar 2009 | |||
CPU Link | GD Link | GD Link | |||
Approved | ![]() | ![]() |
CPU Cores | 4 | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 4 |
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CPU Threads | 4 | ![]() | vs | - | |
Clock Speed | 4 GHz | ![]() | vs | 2.667 GHz | |
Turbo Frequency | 4.6 GHz | ![]() | vs | - | |
Max TDP | 91 W | ![]() | vs | 130 W | |
Lithography | 14 nm | ![]() | vs | 45 nm | |
Bit Width | 64 Bit | ![]() | vs | - | |
Virtualization Technology | no | vs | no | ||
Comparison |
L1 Cache Size | - | vs | ![]() | 256 KB | |
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L2 Cache Size | - | vs | ![]() | 1024 KB | |
L3 Cache Size | 8 MB | ![]() | vs | ![]() | 8 MB |
Max Memory Size | - | ![]() | vs | - | |
Memory Channels | - | ![]() | vs | - | |
ECC Memory Support | no | vs | no | ||
Comparison |
Graphics | |||||
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Base GPU Frequency | - | vs | - | ||
Max GPU Frequency | - | vs | - | ||
DirectX | - | vs | - | ||
Displays Supported | - | vs | - | ||
Comparison |
Package Size | 37.5mm x 37.5mm | vs | - | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Revision | - | vs | - | ||
PCIe Revision | - | vs | - | ||
PCIe Configurations | - | vs | - |
Performance Value | ![]() |
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Mini Review | The Intel Core i3-9350KF 4-Core 4.0GHz is a mid to low-end CPU based on Intel's 9th Gen 14nm, Coffee Lake refresh microarchitecture. It offers 4 physical cores (4 logical), initially clocked at 4.0GHz, which may go up to 4.6GHz using Turbo Boost. It has an unlocked multiplier and can therefore be overclocked using traditional methods. It has 8MB of SmartCache. Intel SmartCache refers to the architecture that allows all cores to dynamically share access to the last level cache. Level 3 cache is a static memory bank of a processor and it is used to feed it instructions. This processor also supports DDR4 based RAMs with maximum memory support of 64GB. It has a maximum Thermal Power Design of 91W. It is on par with competitor processors. Among its many advanced features are Intel Optane Memory support, Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 and Virtualization technology. It Intel Core i3-9350KF features no onboard integrated graphics. This CPU is likely to offer decent computational performance and will not be a bottleneck in all but the most CPU-intensive AAA games in 2019. | The Xeon is a brand of multiprocessing- or multi-socket-capable x86 microprocessors from Intel Corporation targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded system markets. |
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