Intel Xeon E5649 's Advantages
Larger L3 cache size (12MB vs 8MB)
Lower TDP (80W vs 87W)
Intel Xeon E3 1290 v2 's Advantages
Released 1 years and 3 months late
Newer PCIe version (3 vs 2)
Higher base frequency (3.7GHz vs 2.533GHz)
More modern manufacturing process (22nm vs 32nm)