HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G vs Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6

CPU comparison

HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G or Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 - 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 990 5G has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.86 GHz. Up to 8 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G was released in Q3/2019.

The Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 has 4 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 4.20 GHz. The CPU supports up to 64 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 was released in Q1/2017.
HiSilicon Kirin (29) Family Intel Xeon E3 (43)
HiSilicon Kirin 990 (3) CPU group Intel Xeon E3 v6 (10)
8 Generation 6
Cortex-A76 / Cortex-A55 Architecture Kaby Lake S
Mobile Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.86 GHz. The Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 has 4 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 3.90 GHz (4.20 GHz).

HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
8 Cores 4
8 Threads 8
hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? No
2.86 GHz
2x Cortex-A76
A-Core 3.90 GHz (4.20 GHz)
2.36 GHz
2x Cortex-A76
B-Core --
1.95 GHz
4x Cortex-A55
C-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 990 5G Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
HUAWEI HiAI 2.0 AI hardware --
Da Vinci Architecture. 1x Ascend Lite + 1x Ascend Tiny 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-G76 MP16 GPU no iGPU
0.60 GHz GPU frequency --
-- GPU (Turbo) --
Bifrost 3 GPU Generation --
7 nm Technology
2 Max. displays
16 Compute units --
256 Shader --
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
4 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-G76 MP16 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 990 5G supports a maximum of 8 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 can connect up to 64 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
LPDDR4X-4266 Memory DDR4-2400
8 GB Max. Memory 64 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
-- Max. Bandwidth 38.4 GB/s
No ECC Yes
-- L2 Cache --
2.00 MB L3 Cache 8.00 MB
-- PCIe version 3.0
-- PCIe lanes 16
-- PCIe Bandwidth 15.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G has a TDP of 6 W, that of the Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 is 72 W.

HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
6 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 72 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G has a 2.00 MB cache, while the Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 cache has a total of 8.00 MB.

HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G Characteristic Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
7 nm Technology 14 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 1151
None Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
No AES-NI Yes
Android Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q3/2019 Release date Q1/2017
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.2 stars (5 ratings). Rate now:
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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G (62%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G (61%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 (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 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
8C 8T @ 2.86 GHz
757 (62%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
4C 8T @ 4.20 GHz
1218 (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 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
8C 8T @ 2.86 GHz
2855 (61%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
4C 8T @ 4.10 GHz
4710 (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 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
8C 8T @ 2.86 GHz
996 (100%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
4C 8T @ 4.20 GHz
0 (0%)

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 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
8C 8T @ 2.86 GHz
3244 (100%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
4C 8T @ 4.10 GHz
0 (0%)

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 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
ARM Mali-G76 MP16 @ 0.60 GHz
737 (100%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)

AnTuTu 9 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 9 benchmark is very well suited to measuring the performance of a smartphone. AnTuTu 9 is quite heavy on 3D graphics and can now also use the "Metal" graphics interface. In AnTuTu, memory and UX (user experience) are also tested by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu version 9 can compare any ARM CPU running on Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly comparable when benchmarked on different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 9 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The rating is made up of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the working memory, and the performance of the internal graphics.
HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
8C 8T @ 2.86 GHz
545690 (100%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
4C 8T @ 3.90 GHz
0 (0%)

AnTuTu 8 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 8 Benchmark measures the performance of a SoC. AnTuTu benchmarks the CPU, GPU, Memory as well as the UX (User Experience) by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu can benchmark any ARM CPU that runs under Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly compareable if the benchmark has been performed under different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 8 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The evaluation consists of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the RAM and the performance of the internal graphics.
HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
8C 8T @ 2.86 GHz
463729 (100%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
4C 8T @ 3.90 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 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
8C 8T @ 2.86 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
4C 8T @ 4.10 GHz
8957 (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 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
8C 8T @ 2.86 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
4C 8T @ 4.20 GHz
187 (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 990 5G HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G
8C 8T @ 2.86 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6 Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
4C 8T @ 4.10 GHz
927 (100%)

Devices using this processor

HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G Intel Xeon E3-1280 v6
Unknown Unknown

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