Intel Xeon E-2236 Benchmarks and Review

We have benchmarked most of the Intel Xeon E-2100 and E-2200 series, yet one SKU we largely missed was the Intel Xeon E-2236. At around $284, that is perhaps the exact point. One gets a quad-core, eight-thread processor we have been seeing in this range since the Intel Xeon X3460 a decade earlier. Performance per clock and clock speeds have increased a great deal, and the platform has become more complete but the 4C/8T chips are still popular ten years after they were introduced in this segment. In our review, we are going to see what this modern example offers, and see how it compares to other CPUs we have tested.

Key stats for the Intel Xeon E-2236: 6 cores / 12 threads with a 3.4GHz base clock and 4.8GHz turbo boost. There is 12MB of onboard cache. The CPU features an 80W TDP. These are $284 list price parts. Here is the Intel Ark page for your reference.

Here is what the lscpu output looks like for an Intel Xeon E-2236:

The Intel Xeon E-2236 sits at a very interesting intersection as a mid-range part in the Intel Xeon E-2200 series and a relatively minor upgrade over the Xeon E-2136. Like the Xeon E-2234 and the E-2136, this CPU does not have a “G” in the model name. As such, we know that it does not include the onboard iGPU feature. Here are the primary competitors:

• 4-core parts such as the Xeon E-2234 and E-2274G where the E-2136 is a similar price but with 50% more cores and threads
• A Xeon E-2226G that is less expensive, has an iGPU, but does not have Hyper-Threading
• A Xeon E-2246G that has an iGPU and is only moderately more expensive

Perhaps the hardest part about the Xeon E-2236 is figuring out where it stands in a stack segmented often in $25-35 increments. Our best way to describe this chip is as the 6-core no iGPU option in Intel’s current Xeon E-2200 Series SKUs.

Test Configuration

Here is our basic configuration for this class of CPU:

• Motherboard: Supermicro X11SCA-F
• CPU: Intel Xeon E-2236
• RAM: 4x 8GB DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMMs
• SSD: Intel DC S3710 400GB
• SATADOM: Supermicro 32GB SATADOM

The CPU itself supports up to 128GB of RAM, in a 4x 32GB configuration. We see these platforms using 16-64GB or less given cost sensitivities.

There are going to be folks who want to point to AMD alternatives. As of this writing, there are really no alternatives in this space because while AMD may have competitive CPU parts, vendors have a vibrant Intel Xeon E-2100/ E-2200/ Core i3 ecosystem. AMD needs to do some work here to catch up, but it is not a focus market for them. Single socket servers in this segment are a relatively low volume area. We have now tested the ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T, X570D4I-2T, X470D4U2-2T, and X470D4U. There are AMD Ryzen-based offerings for this single-socket server segment, but they are being done primarily by ASRock Rack whereas Intel has solutions with just about every major systems vendor. There has been headway in the last few years, but so long as AMD does not put resources behind this market, they are not building that same ecosystem.

Next, we are going to take a look at our Intel Xeon E-2236 benchmarks, we are then going to focus on power consumption then conclude with our final words on the processors.