Intel Xeon Silver 4116 12-core LGA 3647

The Xeon Silver 4116 scores 14,944 in PassMark multi-thread, which is well above average for server chips. At USD 24 used, it's in the 90th percentile for affordability. Just don't expect it to do anything single-threaded quickly, the 1,680 single-thread score is mediocre and gaming is a lost cause.

The multi-thread PassMark score of 14,944 is the headline here. That's well above average for server chips in our database, and it means this thing will chew through virtual machines, database queries, and rendering jobs without breaking a sweat. The 12 cores and 24 threads at a 2.1GHz base clock with a 3.0GHz boost are the workhorses behind that number. The 85W TDP is also pretty efficient for this much compute, landing in the 73rd percentile for efficiency.

But the single-thread score of 1,680 is mediocre. That 2.1GHz base clock really shows up when a task only uses one or two cores. If you're running a web server or a file server, you'll never notice. If you're trying to use this as a desktop CPU for anything interactive, you'll feel the lag. The gaming score of 22.2 out of 100 is one of the worst we've seen, so keep this thing in a rack where it belongs.

Against the Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2, the 4116 has double the cores and a much higher multi-thread score, but the E5-2637 V2 actually beats it on single-thread performance thanks to a higher clock speed. The AMD A10-5800K is a desktop APU that's faster in single-thread and has integrated graphics, but it gets absolutely destroyed in multi-thread workloads. The Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 isn't even in the same conversation, it's a dual-core relic. For pure parallel throughput per dollar, the 4116 wins this group easily. For anything interactive, you'd be better off with almost any modern desktop chip.

At USD 24 for a used unit, this chip is in the 90th percentile for affordability in our database. That's an absurd amount of multi-threaded compute for the price of a pizza. The EUR 66-67 listings are also reasonable, though the CAD 140 and BRL 329 prices start to eat into the value proposition once you factor in the cost of an LGA 3647 motherboard and ECC DDR4. If you can find a cheap board, this is a steal. If you're paying retail for the platform, the math gets shakier.

The Intel Xeon Silver 4116 (SR3HQ) is a 12-core, 24-thread Skylake server chip that scores 14,944 in PassMark multi-thread. That's a solid number for a used server pull, and it lands in the 69th percentile for multi-thread performance in our database. The single-thread score of 1,680 is a different story, sitting at the 41st percentile, which tells you this chip is built for parallel workloads, not snappy desktop responsiveness.

It's an 85W TDP part on the LGA 3647 socket, with support for up to 768GB of DDR4 ECC memory. The 16.5MB of L3 cache is modest by modern standards, but for the price these are going for on the used market, it's a budget-friendly way to get a lot of cores into a server board. Just don't expect it to do anything well outside of server and productivity tasks.

Skip this if you're building a desktop or anything that needs snappy single-threaded performance. The 1,680 single-thread PassMark score is mediocre, and the gaming score of 22.2 out of 100 is a real letdown. Also skip it if you don't already have an LGA 3647 board, those things are expensive and hard to find. And if you're expecting modern features like PCIe 4.0 or AVX-512, this Skylake-era chip is in the 20th percentile for features, so you'll be missing out on newer instruction sets and platform perks.

If you need a cheap, power-efficient way to stuff 12 cores and 24 threads into a server, the Xeon Silver 4116 is a fantastic buy at USD 24. The multi-thread performance is well above average, the TDP is reasonable, and the memory support is generous. Just know what you're getting: a server chip with mediocre single-thread performance and a gaming score that's basically a joke. For homelab virtualization, NAS duties, or a budget render node, this is a no-brainer. For a desktop, look elsewhere.