Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 vs HiSilicon Kirin 970

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 CPU1 vs CPU2 HiSilicon Kirin 970
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 HiSilicon Kirin 970

CPU comparison

Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 or HiSilicon Kirin 970 - 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 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 has 12 cores with 24 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.50 GHz. Up to 768 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 was released in Q3/2013.

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.40 GHz. The CPU supports up to 8 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 was released in Q3/2017.
Intel Xeon E5 (71) Family HiSilicon Kirin (29)
Intel Xeon E5 v2 (15) CPU group HiSilicon Kirin 970 (1)
4 Generation 6
Ivy Bridge EP Architecture Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53
Desktop / Server Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v3 Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 has 12 CPU cores and can calculate 24 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 is 2.70 GHz (3.50 GHz) while the HiSilicon Kirin 970 has 8 CPU cores and 8 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the HiSilicon Kirin 970 is at 2.40 GHz.

Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 970
12 Cores 8
24 Threads 8
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
Yes Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.70 GHz (3.50 GHz) A-Core 2.40 GHz
4x Cortex-A73
-- B-Core 1.84 GHz
4x Cortex-A53

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.

Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 970
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

The Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 or HiSilicon Kirin 970 has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

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

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.

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

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 can use up to 768 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 59.7 GB/s. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 supports up to 8 GB of memory in 4 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to --.

Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 970
DDR3-1866 Memory LPDDR4X-2133
768 GB Max. Memory 8 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 4 (Quad Channel)
59.7 GB/s Max. Bandwidth --
Yes ECC No
-- L2 Cache --
30.00 MB L3 Cache 2.00 MB
3.0 PCIe version --
40 PCIe lanes --
39.4 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 is 130 W, while the HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a TDP of 9 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 970
130 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 9 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 is manufactured in 22 nm and has 30.00 MB cache. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 is manufactured in 10 nm and has a 2.00 MB cache.

Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 970
22 nm Technology 10 nm
Monolithic Chip design Chiplet
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX ISA extensions --
LGA 2011 Socket --
VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d Virtualization None
Yes AES-NI No
Windows 10, Linux Operating systems Android
Q3/2013 Release date Q3/2017
1975 $ Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.5 stars (8 ratings). Rate now:
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:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (46%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (19%)

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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 3.50 GHz
762 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
349 (46%)

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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 3.10 GHz
7782 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
1455 (19%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 3.50 GHz
651 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 3.10 GHz
8249 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 3.50 GHz
702 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 3.10 GHz
5167 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
ARM Mali-G72 MP12 @ 0.75 GHz
330 (100%)

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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 3.10 GHz
17198 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 2.70 GHz
4519 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 3.50 GHz
98 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2
12C 24T @ 3.10 GHz
1557 (100%)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 HiSilicon Kirin 970
Unknown Huawei Honor 10
Huawei Note 10
Huawei Play
Huawei Honor View 10
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
Huawei P20
Huawei Nova 3
Huawei Nova 4

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