Intel Launches New Xeon Workstation Processors - the Ultimate Solution for Professionals

[TheLostSwede]

Intel today announced the new Intel Xeon W-3400 and Intel Xeon W-2400 desktop workstation processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids), led by the Intel Xeon w9-3495X, Intel's most powerful desktop workstation processor ever designed. Built for professional creators, these new Xeon processors provide massive performance for media and entertainment, engineering and data science professionals. With a breakthrough new compute architecture, faster cores and new embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) packaging, the Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 series of processors enable unprecedented scalability for increased performance.

"For more than 20 years, Intel has been committed to delivering the highest quality workstation platforms - combining high-performance compute and rock-solid stability - for professional PC users across the globe. Our new Intel Xeon desktop workstation platform is uniquely designed to unleash the innovation and creativity of professional creators, artists, engineers, designers, data scientists and power users - built to tackle both today's most demanding workloads as well as the professional workloads of the future." -Roger Chandler, Intel vice president and general manager, Creator and Workstation Solutions, Client Computing Group




Why It Matters: Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 processors provide the high-end computing foundation that today's professionals require for the future of computing. Support for DDR5 RDIMM memory, PCIe Gen 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6E gives professionals the cutting-edge platform technologies they require for the compute workloads of the future. Additionally, support for Intel vPro enterprise technology, alongside ECC memory and reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) technologies, ensures workstation uptime is maximized so professionals don't have to worry about workflow interruptions.

What It Offers: Available with up to 56 cores in a single socket, the top-end Intel Xeon w9-3495X processor features a redesigned memory controller and larger L3 cache, delivering up to 28% single-thread and up to 120% multithread performance improvements over the previous generation. And operational frequencies up to 4.8 gigahertz with Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 provide professional users with incredible compute performance in daily workloads.

Other platform features include:

• Up to 105 megabytes of L3 cache for increased performance and data management.
• Eight channels of DDR5 RDIMM memory support enables up to 4 terabytes of memory capacity and increased memory bandwidth for large data sets and memory-intensive workloads.
• ECC memory and RAS technologies support improved integrity of critical data and system reliability.
• Up to 112 CPU PCIe Gen 5.0 lanes on Xeon W-3400 processors and up to 64 CPU PCIe Gen 5.0 lanes on Xeon W-2400 processors for multi-GPUs, SSDs and network cards give professionals configuration flexibility to meet their next task.
• Integrated Intel Wi-Fi 6E for the latest network connectivity.
• Comprehensive overclocking support for unlocked processors - including first-in-industry DDR5 XMP 3.0 RDIMM memory overclocking features.
• 3rd generation Intel Deep Learning Boost (AMX, Bfloat16) delivers significantly more efficient deep learning acceleration for artificial intelligence training and inferencing.
• Intel vPro enterprise technologies for hardware-enhanced security features, firmware version control and remote manageability enable easy system deployment into the enterprise environment.

When It's Available: Xeon W-3400 and W-2400 workstation processors will be available for pre-order Feb. 15 from industry partners, with system availability beginning in March. The recommended customer price for the Intel Xeon W Processor family starts at $359 (Xeon w3-2423) and scales up to $5,889 (Xeon w9-3495X).

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[TheLostSwede]

More details at Serve the Home for those that wants a deep dive.

New Workstation Kingpins Intel Xeon W-3400 Xeon W-2400 and W790 Launch

We delve into the new Intel Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 series bringing PCIe Gen5 lanes, DDR5, and more cores to the workstation market

www.servethehome.com

 

[HBSound]

Nice!

Thank you for sharing.

This - would be - nice in an ASROCK RACK - https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=SPC741D8UD-2T/X550#Specifications

MicroATX with a couple of professional GPUs! Watercool - Small Format!

Nice!!!

 

[john_]

You can't trick professionals with Efficiency cores, so only Performance cores here.

 

[Fouquin]

You can't trick professionals with Efficiency cores, so only Performance cores here.

No E-Cores because these are using Sapphire Rapids silicon slices. They never had E-Cores to begin with.

 

[ncrs]

Nice!

Thank you for sharing.

This - would be - nice in an ASROCK RACK - https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=SPC741D8UD-2T/X550#Specifications

MicroATX with a couple of professional GPUs! Watercool - Small Format!

Nice!!!

Be careful with boards like that. It's using Intel X550-AT2 from 2015 that only supports NBASE-T (2.5/5GBit/s) under Linux - Windows is 1/10Gbit/s, doesn't support EEE at all and is quite power-hungry. I have no idea why would they use this part in a new design.

 

[john_]

No E-Cores because these are using Sapphire Rapids silicon slices. They never had E-Cores to begin with.

That's my point. In CPUs for home users you can advertise 16-24 cores and hide reality behind the fact that the vast majority of software doesn't use more than 6-8 cores.
In workstations and servers all cores need to be equal.

 

[Wirko]

In workstations and servers all cores need to be equal.

Agreed, that's why Intel will also have Sierra Forest.

 

[efikkan]

When L3 cache is the top bullet point for this product, then there probably isn't a whole lot to get excited about.

If the clock speeds are in the range we've seen so far, then a lot of pro users will be left choosing between high clock speeds(Raptor Lake) or IO (Xeon W-2400), and many of these will pick the first. I would really love to see a 8 and 12 core model with very high clock speeds and the IO of this platform.

 

[Fouquin]

If the clock speeds are in the range we've seen so far, then a lot of pro users will be left choosing between high clock speeds(Raptor Lake) or IO (Xeon W-2400), and many of these will pick the first.

The specs are live on Intel's website, no need to speculate. The boost clocks of all the new Xeon Ws are in excess of 1GHz higher than the Xeon 8400/9400 series. 4.4-4.8GHz across the whole stack for Xeon W now.

There's also no need to choose when all of the Xeons with an "X" at the end are unlocked for overclocking. Intel does offer Raptor Lake-S as an entry level workstation offering and isn't trying to shove it out of the market with these Xeon W parts. These are filling the intermediate price and performance points between the $9500-$17000 Sapphire Rapids Xeons and the $600 Raptor Lake parts.

 

[dragontamer5788]

With Zen4 supporting AVX512, I feel like Xeon Workstation just lost their biggest advantage.

More details at Serve the Home for those that wants a deep dive.

New Workstation Kingpins Intel Xeon W-3400 Xeon W-2400 and W790 Launch

We delve into the new Intel Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 series bringing PCIe Gen5 lanes, DDR5, and more cores to the workstation market

www.servethehome.com

I'll have to give it a read myself, but it seems like AMD really owns this space now (thanks to Threadripper Pro).

 

[ncrs]

With Zen4 supporting AVX512, I feel like Xeon Workstation just lost their biggest advantage.



I'll have to give it a read myself, but it seems like AMD really owns this space now (thanks to Threadripper Pro).

It does support AMX, which is capable of significant performance gains for optimized software, as benchmarked by Phoronix:

Granted there's more software supporting AVX-512 than AMX, but Intel has always been good with software support. For example Microsoft ONNX Runtime supports AMX already thanks to oneDNN.

 

[BorisDG]

Intel now give us the real i9's so we can game also on them.

 

[HBSound]

Be careful with boards like that. It's using Intel X550-AT2 from 2015 that only supports NBASE-T (2.5/5GBit/s) under Linux - Windows is 1/10Gbit/s, doesn't support EEE at all and is quite power-hungry. I have no idea why would they use this part in a new design.

I will see what SuperMicro offers. Thank you so much!

 

[Minus Infinity]

Shouldn't the headline read "The penultimate solution", seems like an epyc mistake to make.

 

[claes]

With Zen4 supporting AVX512, I feel like Xeon Workstation just lost their biggest advantage.

It does support AMX, which is capable of significant performance gains for optimized software, as benchmarked by Phoronix:

Granted there's more software supporting AVX-512 than AMX, but Intel has always been good with software support. For example Microsoft ONNX Runtime supports AMX already thanks to oneDNN.

They support AVX-512 as well

Intel® Xeon® W Processors - Workstation Processors

Intel® Xeon® W processors specifications, benchmarks, features, Intel® technology, reviews, pricing, and where to buy.

www.intel.com

 

[lexluthermiester]

You can't trick professionals with Efficiency cores, so only Performance cores here.

No E-Cores because these are using Sapphire Rapids silicon slices. They never had E-Cores to begin with.

IMPO, These new Xeons should have a set of ECores. 2 sets of 4 would be enough to get the best of both worlds.

Shouldn't the headline read "The penultimate solution", seems like an epyc mistake to make.

Why?

 

[johnspack]

The answer to this would be epyc.... heh

 

[ixi]

So ultimate that first time hearing xD.

Takes a shovel for Ultime cpu to get burried.

 

[Wirko]

IMPO, These new Xeons should have a set of ECores. 2 sets of 4 would be enough to get the best of both worlds.

What would be the benefit? Power saving?

 

[lexluthermiester]

What would be the benefit? Power saving?

No. ECores are great at handling back-end, core-kernel workloads that would leave the PCores free to handle the heavy workloads. It's already a proven dynamic when properly optimized. Servers & Workstations don't need more than 8 ECores, yet doing without them entirely might be unwise, but that's just my perspecive based on observations.

 

[ncrs]

No. ECores are great at handling back-end, core-kernel workloads that would leave the PCores free to handle the heavy workloads. It's already a proven dynamic when properly optimized.

Introducing E-cores would negate the P-cores having AVX-512 and AMX, just like Alder Lake where P-cores physically have AVX-512 present. Even with Meteor Lake the E-cores won't have AVX-512.
Making the OS handle non-uniform instruction sets is probably too expensive if viable at all.

Servers & Workstations don't need more than 8 ECores, yet doing without them entirely might be unwise, but that's just my perspecive based on observations.

Intel disagrees
Sierra Forest will be a high core count E-core only Xeon and it won't support AVX-512 or AMX either.

 

[mrnagant]

Dang, 3rd generation AI cores. I didn't realize Intel was already doing that. Not on consumer chips yet I presume? 8-channel DDR5 is pretty cool.

As far as having E/P cores on the same processor. I think they if they could demonstrate solid efficencies obtained, it would be pretty cool. I could see it being beneficial if they worked with applications like VMware and Hyper-V. A lot of VMs that I spin up don't need a lot of CPU. They run a single process that uses 5% of the CPU. Flag what CPU type you want a given processor to use. Maybe even have a threshold or time/day switch. For things like say registration. You can have the VM run on the E cores when registration isn't open, so traffic to the site is minimal, then kick it over to the P cores when you open registration and expect traffic to increase. Or say you have a database on physical hardware. Going back to the registration example, you might only open up registartion for say 2 months out of the year, for like a school. Something like 16E cores might be more than enough for 10 months out of the year, but those 2 months you need extra performance. Having a CPU with say 8 P-Cores could handle the load increase. But again, need to be able to demonstrate significant energy savings in such configurations.

 

[fevgatos]

That's my point. In CPUs for home users you can advertise 16-24 cores and hide reality behind the fact that the vast majority of software doesn't use more than 6-8 cores.
In workstations and servers all cores need to be equal.

Not that you are going to admit you are wrong, but regardless have you heard of sierra forest? It's a full ecore server cpu

 

[The Von Matrices]

This - would be - nice in an ASROCK RACK - https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=SPC741D8UD-2T/X550#Specifications

MicroATX with a couple of professional GPUs! Watercool - Small Format!

Nice!!!

According to ASRock it's "deep micro ATX", which I've never heard of before. After looking, it is much taller than micro ATX. It's the size of a board with 6 PCIE slots (mATX has 4, ATX has 7) - so it won't fit in micro ATX cases.