What is real difference between old Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 @ 2.60GHz and new Intel Xeon Gold 5218 @ 2.30GHz

We are hosting file processing SAAS on Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 @ 2.60GHz and recently the Intel Xeon Gold 5218 @ 2.30GHz (Cascade Lake/Gold) is introduced in our data center. While comparing them at https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-2690-v3-vs-Intel-Xeon-Gold-5218/2364vs3536 the Intel Xeon Gold 5218 seems faster and it cost cheaper in our data center. Also has more cores 12 vs 16.

I am not an expert in hardware, maybe someone could explain why bigger and faster cost less? What is the difference between E5 and Gold Intel CPU versions?

The Xeon E5-2690 v3 is an old Haswell-based Xeon, with less core but more cache. It is from an era when Intel faced basically no competition on the server CPU side, and it was priced according.

The Xeon Gold 5218 is a Cascade Lake (Skylake refresh) CPU. It has a significantly better IPC (5-10%) and higher frequency, resulting in better performance. However, it is priced much better due to AMD Epyc competition.

Between the two CPUs I would select the Xeon Gold 5218 even at same price. As it is cheaper, it is even a better deal.