Friday, October 4th 2024
Intel's Flagship 128-Core Xeon 6980P Processor Sets Record $17,800 Flagship Price
The title has no typo, and what you are reading is correct. Intel's flagship 128-core 256-threaded CPU Xeon 6980P compute monster processor carries a substantial $17,800 price point. Intel's Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids" family of processors appears to be its most expensive yet, with the flagship SKU now carrying more than a 50% price increase compared to the previous "Emerald Rapids" generation. However, the economics of computing are more nuanced than simple comparisons. While the last generation Emerald Rapids Xeon 8592+ (64 cores, 128 threads) cost about $181 per core, the new Granite Rapids Xeon 6980P comes in at approximately $139 per core, offering faster cores at a lower per-core cost.
The economics of data centers aren't always tied to the cost of a single product. When building total cost of ownership models, factors such as power consumption, compute density, and performance impact the final assessment. Even with the higher price of this flagship Granite Rapids Xeon processor, the economics of data center deployment may work in its favor. Customers get more cores in a single package, increasing density and driving down cost-per-core per system. This also improves operational efficiency, which is crucial considering that operating expenses account for about 10% of data center costs.
Source:
Tom's Hardware
The economics of data centers aren't always tied to the cost of a single product. When building total cost of ownership models, factors such as power consumption, compute density, and performance impact the final assessment. Even with the higher price of this flagship Granite Rapids Xeon processor, the economics of data center deployment may work in its favor. Customers get more cores in a single package, increasing density and driving down cost-per-core per system. This also improves operational efficiency, which is crucial considering that operating expenses account for about 10% of data center costs.
44 Comments on Intel's Flagship 128-Core Xeon 6980P Processor Sets Record $17,800 Flagship Price
Most of customers don't get top of the line server SKUs, but say when you ask military how many of 6980Ps they want, answer is: Yes.
What I hope is they get one of these "small socket" 4710 coming Q1 2025, trim it down a bit from superfluous fluff and release as new Xeon-W for "the masses". Refresh of Sapphire Rapids was mockery of first order. Sure they have some niche applications, but c'mon 10nm+++++ in 2024 is new running joke.
This stuff made for big faceless corporations.That CPU can run it in software render :cool:
How things have changed.
Xeon 1163.33P
Socket: LGA 1255
Intel 3 node
83 W TDP
21 cores (with mesh interconnect)
84 MB L3
2 memory channels
Up to 512 GB RAM
MDRIMM 8800 GT/s (that's guaranteed to work, not an extreme overclock)
16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 (which you can split in almost any way, down to x2 links)
Price: $2970
RAM bandwidth is scarce but otherwise it's not that bad for a small server, hah. Especially if the TDP stays close to the spec.
And you can get a 20-core model, the Xeon 1163.17P, for $2625.
The problem is the illegal business practices that have been and continue to be practiced. A certain dominant sales company has always practiced illegal business practices, only offering large discounts to PC and server assemblers if they only buy its CPUs. If these assemblers also buy CPUs from the other CPU manufacturer, the dominant company does not sell its CPUs with the large discounts and, therefore, the companies that assemble and sell PCs and servers are stuck with the first company (also for reasons of greed) to dont lose the large discounts.
I would say, I don't care about the price for this product but all in all it will get to the desktop segment as well. I'm just hoping it wont happen.
I was referring to the price constantly increasing not the product itself.
Also as far as core counts go, it is very impressive, but the accelerators are what puts $x,xxx on the pricetag.
Please understand also the clock rates differentials. Linux and windows experiences with this CPU would be vastly different, and these arent going to get anywhere NEAR the 5.6ghz for multiple seconds that your used to with your gaming CPU.
For MT it would destroy you, for ST it will lag behind for sure. Boosting helps quite a bit but you cant ever directly correlate these chips and consumer stuff, literally ever.
It is legit like comparing a ferrari with a bus.
My cpu and my test server CPUs will happily sit at 800mhz all day in windows. I /might/ get 1900mhz when playing a game. Clock rates are based on lots of things, but one of the big ones is load % and there are so many cores the load is tragically low all the time, you have to tweak power plans to keep the clock rate up if you want to do something like play games. I dont mean "switch to high performance" either, tweaking the hidden settings can do a great deal, but of course this is where having that many cores shows its teeth, since you are basically running a microwave in regards to power draw at that point. If I choose ultimate performance I idle at about 170w thats just the CPU.
Interestingly heat really isnt a big deal on these CPUs at all, not in the server socket sizes anyway since atleast cascade lake (3647). They are so massive in die area and the IHS is basically a dinner plate so you dont get the thermal soak you do on consumer stuff.
I'm pretty sure the price should be high due to what the product is offering but does it really need to be that high and constantly going up?
MT ST is pretty obvious for all of us here. If you want ST you would not go for this product obviously but there are more and more apps and branches of economy that would enable regular people to utilize the cores fully in what they are doing. CPU heat was never my concern.
My problem here is not the MT high performance and low ST. My problem is the price being so high for regular costumers not being able to afford it. The other problem is your justification about the price being high so only companies can get it in bulk. If the price was right, I'm pretty sure regular customers would burst through the doors to get these for their work and it would have exceeded what the companies buy. I mean, i might be wrong on that one but it would have doubled the sales at least. It makes me wonder, how much lower the price is if you buy in bulk? 50% off? 10% off?
This is the deciding factor of why the product is so expensive. I'm pretty sure, companies would not disclose what money they need to spend to make these.
Edit: Spelling
As for not letting consumers buy you should study up on it. This happens to more companies than just intel. MS for example charges a ton when you go through them for there enterprise agreements.
These companies do not want to deal with you. The person. They price you into going with a VAR where they have b2b contracts etc.
It seems you haven’t had to deal or seen this kind of stuff from a business perspective I’ll just leave it at that.
These companies like Intel? Intel does not want to deal with customers. I sincerely think you are mistaken here. As a matter of fact, they want to sell their products. As many as possible so what you are saying does not make much sense since these are profit making companies. The reason behind it must be different. wouldn't you say?
It is not a matter of not want to deal with the simple customer and b2b does not guarantee, you can get the product right? That is my issue here. You cant get it and it is charged more so that you don't and if you still want it, you have to pay crap load.
But very, very few individuals will ever want a big Xeon, so you can't say that Intel distorts the market in any meaningful way by doing this. If there's anyone Intel really tries (and succeeds) to push out of the market with these high prices, it's small resellers and system integrators.
I found some data that seems funny actually. The Xeon Platinum 8592+ (64-core Emerald Rapids