Intel Sapphire Rapids on PC: the return of the Xeon W

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Intel is going to return to the HEDT segment, a world that it had left to AMD’s Threadripper for some time. To do so, the Sapphire Rapids platform will be used with a top-of-the-line processor with 56 cores. This Xeon W will be manufactured using the Intel 7 10 nm ESF process. Despite this, the TDP of the future beast should be around 350W . In this story you will have understood, the main asset of Intel will not be the number of cores, but the CPI which is expected to be visibly superior to that of its rival AMD.

Xeon W
A future Xeon W SApphire Rapids?

The Xeon Sapphire Rapids-WS, will use the W790 platform , codenamed “Fishhawk Falls”. This will use the socket LGA 4677 . The chipset should support the new Intel Xeon CPUs with up to 56 cores and 112 threads, it will have 112 PCIe 5.0 lanes and 8-channel DDR5 memory at 4400 MHz (1DPC) or 4800 MHz (2DPC) for a maximum total of 4 TB. The joke in the story is that a first motherboard from SuperMicro was leaked at a retailer.A model was put on sale at Atica. ca at 1260$ CAD (about 900€) with 6 PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, two 10Gb Ethernet LANs, all in E-ATX format.

Unfortunately, it will be difficult, like the Threadripper, to get this CPU which will probably be reserved for professional stations. The Xeon Sapphire Rapids HEDT will be available in the spring of 2023, almost a year later than Intel’s initial forecast. Once they are really there, we will have to see how the flagship of the range (56 cores / 112 threads at 350 W of TDP) behaves against the new Threadripper 7000 “Storm Peak” whose champion should offer 96 cores / 192 threads.