Intel Core i3-2120 vs Intel Xeon W3520

Core i3-2120 vs Xeon W3520 comparison

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Xeon W3520 performs better than the Core i3-2120. Despite this, the Core i3-2120 has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Xeon W3520 has significantly more cores than the Core i3-2120. Indeed, the Xeon W3520 has 4 cores compared to 2 cores found in the Core i3-2120. But they both have the same number of threads. Our comparison shows that the Core i3-2120 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Xeon W3520. A Core i3-2120 CPU outputs less heat than a Xeon W3520 CPU because of its significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. Indeed, the Core i3-2120 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.