HiSilicon Kirin 970 vs Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


HiSilicon Kirin 970 CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
HiSilicon Kirin 970 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3

CPU comparison

HiSilicon Kirin 970 or Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.40 GHz. Up to 8 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 was released in Q3/2017.

The Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.50 GHz. The CPU supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 was released in Q2/2013.
HiSilicon Kirin (29) Family Intel Xeon E3 (43)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (1) CPU group Intel Xeon E3 v3 (15)
6 Generation 4
Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53 Architecture Haswell S
Mobile Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.40 GHz. The Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 has 4 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 3.10 GHz (3.50 GHz).

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
8 Cores 4
8 Threads 4
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.40 GHz
4x Cortex-A73
A-Core 3.10 GHz (3.50 GHz)
1.84 GHz
4x Cortex-A53
B-Core --

NPU AI performance

The performance values of the processor's AI unit. The isolated NPU performance is specified here, the total AI performance (NPU+CPU+iGPU) can be higher. Processors with support for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.

ARM Mali-G72 MP12 GPU no iGPU
0.75 GHz GPU frequency --
-- GPU (Turbo) --
Bifrost 2 GPU Generation --
16 nm Technology
1 Max. displays
12 Compute units --
192 Shader --
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
2 GB Max. GPU Memory --
12 DirectX Version --

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

ARM Mali-G72 MP12 GPU no iGPU
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 No
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 No
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
Decode / Encode Codec AVC No
Decode / Encode Codec VC-1 No
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 supports a maximum of 8 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 can connect up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
LPDDR4X-2133 Memory DDR3-1600
8 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
-- Max. Bandwidth 25.6 GB/s
No ECC Yes
-- L2 Cache --
2.00 MB L3 Cache 8.00 MB
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a TDP of 9 W, that of the Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 is 80 W.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
9 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 80 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a 2.00 MB cache, while the Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 cache has a total of 8.00 MB.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
10 nm Technology 22 nm
Chiplet Chip design Monolithic
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2
-- Socket LGA 1150
None Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
No AES-NI Yes
Android Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q3/2017 Release date Q2/2013
-- Release price 190 $
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the HiSilicon Kirin 970 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 5.0 stars (5 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.3 stars (3 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (37%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (44%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
349 (37%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
946 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
1455 (44%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
3342 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
1162 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
3364 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
ARM Mali-G72 MP12 @ 0.75 GHz
330 (100%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
5199 (100%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
4C 4T @ 3.10 GHz
1416 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
132 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
4C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
517 (100%)

Devices using this processor

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
Huawei Honor 10
Huawei Note 10
Huawei Play
Huawei Honor View 10
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
Huawei P20
Huawei Nova 3
Huawei Nova 4
Unknown

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