Intel Xeon Gold 6346 vs Intel Pentium 987

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Xeon Gold 6346 CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Pentium 987
Intel Xeon Gold 6346 Intel Pentium 987

CPU comparison

Intel Xeon Gold 6346 or Intel Pentium 987 - 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 Gold 6346 has 16 cores with 32 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.60 GHz. Up to 6144 GB of memory is supported in 8 memory channels. The Intel Xeon Gold 6346 was released in Q2/2021.

The Intel Pentium 987 has 2 cores with 2 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.50 GHz. The CPU supports up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Pentium 987 was released in Q3/2012.
Intel Xeon Gold (163) Family Intel Pentium (150)
Intel Xeon Gold 5300/6300 (21) CPU group Intel Pentium 900 (10)
3 Generation 3
Ice Lake Architecture Sandy Bridge U
Desktop / Server Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Xeon Gold 6346 has 16 CPU cores and can calculate 32 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Intel Xeon Gold 6346 is 3.10 GHz (3.60 GHz) while the Intel Pentium 987 has 2 CPU cores and 2 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Intel Pentium 987 is at 1.50 GHz.

Intel Xeon Gold 6346 Characteristic Intel Pentium 987
16 Cores 2
32 Threads 2
normal Core architecture normal
Yes Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
3.10 GHz Frequency 1.50 GHz
3.60 GHz Turbo Frequency (1 Core) --
3.60 GHz Turbo Frequency (All Cores) --

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Intel Xeon Gold 6346 Characteristic Intel Pentium 987
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The Intel Xeon Gold 6346 or Intel Pentium 987 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 Intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge GT1)
GPU frequency 0.35 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.00 GHz
-- GPU Generation 6
Technology 32 nm
Max. displays 2
-- Compute units 6
-- Shader 48
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 2 GB
-- DirectX Version 10.1

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 Intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge GT1)
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
No Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 No
No Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
No Codec AVC Decode / Encode
No Codec VC-1 Decode
No Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Xeon Gold 6346 can use up to 6144 GB of memory in 8 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 204.8 GB/s. The Intel Pentium 987 supports up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 21.3 GB/s.

Intel Xeon Gold 6346 Characteristic Intel Pentium 987
DDR4-3200 Memory DDR3-1066, DDR3-1333
6144 GB Max. Memory 16 GB
8 (Octa Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
204.8 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 21.3 GB/s
Yes ECC No
-- L2 Cache --
36.00 MB L3 Cache 2.00 MB
4.0 PCIe version 2.0
64 PCIe lanes 16
126.0 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth 8.0 GB/s

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Intel Xeon Gold 6346 is 205 W, while the Intel Pentium 987 has a TDP of 17 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Intel Xeon Gold 6346 Characteristic Intel Pentium 987
205 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 17 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The Intel Xeon Gold 6346 is manufactured in 10 nm and has 36.00 MB cache. The Intel Pentium 987 is manufactured in 32 nm and has a 2.00 MB cache.

Intel Xeon Gold 6346 Characteristic Intel Pentium 987
10 nm Technology 32 nm
Monolithic Chip design Monolithic
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, AVX-512 ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2
LGA 4189 Socket BGA 1023
VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
Yes AES-NI Yes
Windows 10, Linux Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q2/2021 Release date Q3/2012
2300 $ Release price --
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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Intel Xeon Gold 6346 (100%)
Intel Pentium 987 (24%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Intel Xeon Gold 6346 (100%)
Intel Pentium 987 (3%)

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 Gold 6346 Intel Xeon Gold 6346
16C 32T @ 3.60 GHz
1233 (100%)
Intel Pentium 987 Intel Pentium 987
2C 2T @ 1.50 GHz
297 (24%)

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 Gold 6346 Intel Xeon Gold 6346
16C 32T @ 3.60 GHz
15244 (100%)
Intel Pentium 987 Intel Pentium 987
2C 2T @ 1.50 GHz
582 (4%)

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 Gold 6346 Intel Xeon Gold 6346
16C 32T @ 3.60 GHz
37728 (100%)
Intel Pentium 987 Intel Pentium 987
2C 2T @ 1.50 GHz
675 (2%)

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 Gold 6346 Intel Xeon Gold 6346
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Pentium 987 Intel Pentium 987
Intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge GT1) @ 1.00 GHz
96 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Intel Xeon Gold 6346 Intel Pentium 987
Unknown Unknown

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