Friday, November 3rd 2023

Intel Readies Xeon W-2500 Series with 4-channel Memory to Square Off Against Threadripper 7000
The HEDT/workstation segment is heating up, with Intel preparing to launch a new line of low(er) core-count processor models with I/O features competitive to those of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series for the AMD TRX50 platform. The new W-2500 series is designed for the same Intel W790 chipset Socket LGA4677 motherboards as the W-2400 series, but with increased CPU core-counts across the board. The top W-2500 series processor model comes with a 26-core/52-thread core-configuration, 2 MB of dedicated L2 cache per core, and 48.75 MB of shared L3 cache.
Where the Intel Xeon W-2500 series aces over the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 (TRX50), is the platform I/O. While both processors offer a 4-channel DDR5 interface, the Intel chip offers a 64-lane PCI-Express Gen 5 root complex, in comparison to the 48-lane PCIe Gen 5 root complex from the processor. The TRX50 platform itself adds up to 88 PCIe lanes, but only 48 of these are Gen 5. The W-2500 series includes seven processor models, with the lowest model giving you 8-core/16-thread, and the highest one being 26-core/52-thread. Here the Threadripper 7000 TRX50 has a distinct advantage, as it offers core counts of up to 64-core/128-thread.The series begins with the W3-2525 and W3-2535. The W3-2525 is an 8-core/16-thread model with a TDP of 175 W, clock speed of 3.50 GHz base, 4.50 GHz boost, 2 MB per core L2 cache, and 22.5 MB L3 cache. The W3-2535 goes a step up, with 10-core/20-thread, 185 W TDP, 4.60 GHz boost, and 26.25 MB L3 cache.
A notch above are the W5-2545, W5-2555X, and W5-2565X. The W5-2545 is 12-core/24-thread, with a 210 W TDP, 4.70 GHz maximum boost frequency, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. The W5-2555X has the same 210 W TDP, but steps up to 14-core/28-thread, 4.80 GHz maximum boost frequency, and 33.75 MB L3 cache. The W5-2565X steps up the core counts to 18-core/36-thread, or what used to be the highest core counts for Intel HEDT processors under the Core X brand. It has the same 4.80 GHz maximum boost frequency as the W-2555X, but the additional cores mean that the TDP is stepped up to 240 W.
At the top of the product stack are the Xeon W7-2575X and W7-2595X. The W7-2575X comes with a core count of 22-core/44-thread, the same 240 W TDP as the W-2565X, the same 4.80 GHz boost frequency, but 45 MB of L3 cache. At the very top, is the W7-2595X, with 26-core/52-thread of muscle, 250 W TDP, 4.80 GHz maximum boost frequency, and 48.75 MB L3 cache.
Sources:
VideoCardz, Yuuki_ans (Twitter)
Where the Intel Xeon W-2500 series aces over the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 (TRX50), is the platform I/O. While both processors offer a 4-channel DDR5 interface, the Intel chip offers a 64-lane PCI-Express Gen 5 root complex, in comparison to the 48-lane PCIe Gen 5 root complex from the processor. The TRX50 platform itself adds up to 88 PCIe lanes, but only 48 of these are Gen 5. The W-2500 series includes seven processor models, with the lowest model giving you 8-core/16-thread, and the highest one being 26-core/52-thread. Here the Threadripper 7000 TRX50 has a distinct advantage, as it offers core counts of up to 64-core/128-thread.The series begins with the W3-2525 and W3-2535. The W3-2525 is an 8-core/16-thread model with a TDP of 175 W, clock speed of 3.50 GHz base, 4.50 GHz boost, 2 MB per core L2 cache, and 22.5 MB L3 cache. The W3-2535 goes a step up, with 10-core/20-thread, 185 W TDP, 4.60 GHz boost, and 26.25 MB L3 cache.
A notch above are the W5-2545, W5-2555X, and W5-2565X. The W5-2545 is 12-core/24-thread, with a 210 W TDP, 4.70 GHz maximum boost frequency, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. The W5-2555X has the same 210 W TDP, but steps up to 14-core/28-thread, 4.80 GHz maximum boost frequency, and 33.75 MB L3 cache. The W5-2565X steps up the core counts to 18-core/36-thread, or what used to be the highest core counts for Intel HEDT processors under the Core X brand. It has the same 4.80 GHz maximum boost frequency as the W-2555X, but the additional cores mean that the TDP is stepped up to 240 W.
At the top of the product stack are the Xeon W7-2575X and W7-2595X. The W7-2575X comes with a core count of 22-core/44-thread, the same 240 W TDP as the W-2565X, the same 4.80 GHz boost frequency, but 45 MB of L3 cache. At the very top, is the W7-2595X, with 26-core/52-thread of muscle, 250 W TDP, 4.80 GHz maximum boost frequency, and 48.75 MB L3 cache.
44 Comments on Intel Readies Xeon W-2500 Series with 4-channel Memory to Square Off Against Threadripper 7000
www.cgdirector.com/guide-to-pcie-lanes/
www.cgdirector.com/best-hardware-for-gpu-rendering-in-octane-redshift-vray/
For compute workloads on GPU, it's far more important that GPU has enough bus width and VRAM capacity to process workloads within itself than bandwidth needed to send and receive queries to/from CPU and other peripherals. Somehow you forgot that TRX50 platform has more physical PCIe lanes directly wired with CPU than Sapphire/Emerald Rapids, which deals with any bottleneck created by traffic via chipset. On TRX50, only necessary I/O peripherals are wired into chipset, everything else has a direct access to CPU.
As said, both platforms are overkill in terms of Gen5 lanes, Intel's platform more so. It's a marketing gimmick to drive away attention from simple fact that Emerald Rapids is end-of-life platform with no CPU upgrades.
www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-28-core-cpu-5ghz,37244.html
Gigabyte Aero D is decent, I/O with Thunderbolt4/USB4 ports, DP IN is good, WiFi7 is good, but it needs at least one more PCIe slot.
Asus TRX50 also has unambitious rear I/O, no USB4, no DP IN, PCIe slots are better.
I would not buy any of those three boards. All vendors need to release something more mature, with better I/O. They treated TRX50 platform as guiney pig. Boards are not mature.
I agree with the really weird tons of fans design out of ASRock though it's super confusing.
PCIE 5.0 will also help with latency and less CPU usage when moving data from GPU to host memory if you are doing high performance CUDA programming, which is the only reason I am using a 4090 card
that I have already. This is definitely not a gaming machine but for AI/algorithmic options dev/trading which is higly sensitive to system latency.
Since I plan on keeping this machine for at least another 5+ years, I want the best performance that I can afford with todays pricing.
The threadripper 7000x HEDT series is way better overall than the w-2500 series except for one chip, w-2495x.
Starting with 4 sticks of memory and then upgrading to another 4 sticks of memory without throwing out memory is well worth it to me.
For 32 cores or more, threadripper Pro or HEDT is the only choice but I will see what the best price performance is for 256GB memory (dont really care about mem speed but price is important) between
the threadripper 7960x vs w-2595x.
I have never upgraded my motherboard to another chip but always waited until performance has at least doubled or more which invariable is at least 2 generations.
Even if w-2595x is a dead end, it will meet my needs for the next 5 years for dev work.
Definitely will compare next year when both are available for retail order and IF i can afford 32 cores, will definitely go with threadripper 7975x...
I run risk management every time my trade changes value and it takes around 100ms round trip to send/compute/receive using a 4090 card.
The transfer time for send/receive data alone is over 90% of that time and that is with a Gen 3.0 PCIE x16 computer (1950x threadripper 16 core circa 2017).
The 4090 is incredibly fast but I am sure i will improve latency by running it with Gen 5.0 even with 4090 which is Gen4 and especially when 5090 Gen5 x16 comes out in 2025.
Ideally I would like to get this down to 1ms round trip within the next few years if possible with more optimization and at least 4 gpu (5090+) cards running on a single dedicated server. You can go upto 6000 MT/s DDR5 ecc rdimm on overclocked 2DPC w-2495x today with Asus/Asrock w-790 motherboards.
This definitely could be a significant/only advantage over 1DPC for threaderipper 7000x HEDT series depending on price/performance.
If I can afford 32 core, will definitely go with threadripper 7970x but w-2595x is still a good possibility for my needs.
I run my risk management calculations directly on the 4090 using Monte Carlo simulations which is pure math compute but there is some latency between the 4090 and main memory.
I have measured it and it is definitely there as compared to how long the computations take on the 4090 which definitely take way smaller than the time it takes to read/write data thru the PCIE channel.
Extremely fast and very effiicient and barely taxes the 4090. In fact I don't see temps greater than 50F when running 23 hours daily, 5 days a week.
Latency is only an issue during very heavy market days and cpu useage can spike easily and slows the system for a short time.
Going from PCIE Gen3 to Gen5 will definitely make some latency difference too when running next gen 5090.
But the biggest improvement will be getting an up to date workstation, either a threadripper 7000 HEDT or xeon w-2595x!!
Also, Intel Sapphire chips have much large L2 cache than threadripper and if heavily overclocked, my assumption is that it would perform higher than a similar over clocked threadripper,
which in this case would be threadripper 7960x vs xeon w-2595x only.