Intel has introduced its new line of processors, the Sapphire Rapids family, specifically designed to build powerful desktop workstations. This new family includes two series, the Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400, both of which offer impressive performance and capabilities. Intel has dubbed the flagship Xeon w9-3495X its most powerful desktop processor ever made and specified that it is a workstation chip.
The Xeon W-3400 family includes processors ranging from 12 to 56 cores, each with two threads. These processors have base frequencies ranging from 1.9 to 3.2 GHz and maximum frequencies limited to 4.8 GHz. These chips even have overclocking support, including the 56-core flagship Xeon w9-3495X. TDP levels for these processors range from 270 to 350W, depending on the model.
The Xeon W-2400 family includes processors with 6 to 24 cores, which use Golden Cove cores that support Hyper-Threading technology. This means that these processors offer twice as many threads as cores. Base frequencies for these processors range from 2.1 to 3.2 GHz, while the maximum Turbo frequencies reach 4.8 GHz for older models. Some of the older Xeon W-2400 chips even have an unlocked multiplier, which allows them to be overclocked. The TDP level for these processors ranges from 120 to 225 watts.
The new processors can offer up to 105MB of L3 cache. The Xeon W-2400 chips have four channels of RAM and support up to 2TB of DDR5 at up to 4800MHz, while the Xeon W-3400 has eight memory channels and supports up to 4 TB DDR5 with the same frequency. In both cases, these processors support ECC memory. Unlocked processors also support RAM overclocking, including DDR5 XMP 3.0 RDIMM profiles.
The Xeon W-2400 and W-3400 processors offer PCIe 5.0 lanes, with 64 lanes for the former and 112 for the latter. All new processors are made for the LGA 4677 processor socket and will work with the W790 chipset, with declared support for Wi-Fi 6E and wired 2.5G Ethernet.
Intel has claimed that these new processors can offer up to a 28% performance improvement in single-threaded tasks and up to 120% in multi-threaded tasks compared to the previous generation chips, the Intel Xeon W-3200 (Cascade Lake) models. The new Xeon w9-3495X is ahead of the Xeon W-3275 by up to 140% in certain tasks.
These new workstation processors will be priced at $359 for the six-core Xeon w3-2423 and up to $5889 for the flagship 56-core Xeon w9-3495X. These processors will go on sale in March, with pre-orders beginning today.
