The Intel Xeon E-2274G represents something simple: incrementality. If you purchased the Intel Xeon E-2174G previously, this is 200MHz upgrade on a part a year later. Nobody will complain about a 200MHz upgrade at the same price point, but we are going to discuss whether that is enough.

Key stats for the Intel Xeon E-2274G: 4 cores / 8 threads with a 4GHz base clock and 4.9GHz turbo boost. There is 8MB of onboard cache. The CPU features an 83W TDP. These are $328 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-2274G:

Intel has maintained a 4 core and 8 thread in this segment for the last decade or more. You can read about the evolution in this segment in our piece: Looking back at Intel Xeon E3-1200 V1-V6 to the New Xeon E-2100.

In 2019, a 4 core CPU is relatively small. When this segment was established, mainstream dual-socket servers had 4 to 8 cores per CPU. Now, we see 64 cores in a single CPU socket and 4 seems very small, especially when virtualization is widely accepted. Still, there is a market for a bare minimum CPU where a single physical server is needed. While the Xeon E-2200 series with the Xeon E-2288G can put 8 cores into a single socket, there is additional competition from the Intel Core i3-9100 at the low end. If one needs minimal CPU performance at a lower cost, then there are other options.

One of the biggest benefits to the Intel Xeon E-2274G is the “G” which denotes onboard graphics. For those that need a server that can do video encoding/ transcoding, having onboard graphics is important.

Test Configuration

Here is our basic configuration for this class of CPU:

Motherboard: Supemicro X11SCA-F

CPU: Intel Xeon E-2274G

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 32-64GB 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.

Next, we are going to take a look at our Intel Xeon E-2274G benchmarks, we are then going to focus on power consumption then conclude with our final words on the processors.