Intel today launched its Xeon W-3500 series and Xeon W-2500 series workstation processors. These chips are based on the "Sapphire Rapids" microarchitecture featuring the enterprise version of "Golden Cove" P-cores. These are a refresh over the Xeon W-3400 series and W-2400 series, as they feature higher CPU core counts, L3 cache, and clock speeds, at given price-points. Intel has also slightly de-cluttered its lineup with this series. The key difference between the W-3500 series and the W-2500 series, is that the former comes with 8-channel DDR5 memory interface and 112 PCI-Express Gen 5 lanes; while the latter offers a 4-channel DDR5 memory interface, along with 64 PCI-Express Gen 5 lanes. The W-2500 series also comes with lower CPU core counts compared to the W-3500, which is somewhat made up for with higher CPU clock speeds. Perhaps the highlight of this refresh is that now Intel sells CPU core counts of up to 60-core/120-thread in the workstation segment. The W-3400 series had topped off at 36-core/72-thread.

The series is led by the Xeon W9-3595X. This beast maxes out the "Sapphire Rapids" chip, with a 60-core/120-thread configuration, with each of the 60 cores featuring 2 MB of dedicated L2 cache, and sharing 112.5 MB of L3 cache. The chip comes with a base frequency of 2.00 GHz, and a maximum boost frequency of 4.80 GHz. The next highest SKU sees a rather steep drop in core-counts, with the Xeon W9-3575X coming in with a 44-core/88-thread configuration, along with 97.5 MB of shared L3 cache, besides the 2 MB of dedicated L2 cache per core. This chip ticks at 2.20 GHz base, along with 4.80 GHz maximum boost. There's yet another steep drop in core-counts with the Xeon W7-3545, featuring a 24-core/48-thread configuration, 67.5 MB of shared L3 cache, 2.70 GHz base frequency, and 4.80 GHz maximum boost.

Intel's 5th generation Xeon Scalable processors codenamed Emerald Rapids, have been shipping since late 2023 and are installed at numerous servers today. However, Emerald Rapids appears to possess more performance and efficiency tricks than it initially revealed at launch. According to the report from Phoronix, reporting on a Linux kernel patch sent to the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), there is a chance for up to 38% performance increase while using up to 18% less power on all Intel 5th generation Xeon machines. Thanks to Canonical (maker of Ubuntu Linux) engineer Pedro Henrique Kopper, who explained the patch on the LKML, we found out that changing a single line of code yielded this massive increase.

Ubuntu Linux, as well as many other distributions, ship with Energy Performance Preference (EPP) for Emerald Rapids with a "balance_performance" value of 128. However, changing the value to 32 now yields a massive performance improvement alongside using less power. The EPP "balance_performance" is the default out-of-the-box setting for many Linux distributions. Users manually setting the "performance" mode in the EPP are not expecting any increase from this patch, as the "balance_performance" mode had issues balancing power and efficiency. Introducing this new setting yields more performance for machines that run at default settings, and this is especially important for data centers where the need for lower power and increased performance is constantly surging. Especially at hyperscalers like Amazon, Google, and Meta, which may run tens of thousands of these CPUs at default settings to keep them stable and well-cooled, who can now enjoy a massive performance increase with less power consumed.Below, you can see the patch quote as well as more performance/power measurements.

TrendForce reports that the three largest DRAM suppliers are increasing wafer input for advanced processes. Following a rise in memory contract prices, companies have boosted their capital investments, with capacity expansion focusing on the second half of this year. It is expected that wafer input for 1alpha nm and above processes will account for approximately 40% of total DRAM wafer input by the end of the year.

HBM production will be prioritized due to its profitability and increasing demand. However, limited yields of around 50-60% and a wafer area 60% larger than DRAM products mean a higher proportion of wafer input is required. Based on the TSV capacity of each company, HBM is expected to account for 35% of advanced process wafer input by the end of this year, with the remaining wafer capacity used for LPDDR5(X) and DDR5 products.

It turns out that the 60-core Xeon W9-3595X leak from last week is part of a 14-SKU mid-lifecycle refresh of the Xeon W LGA4677 series targeting the workstation and HEDT markets. The underlying microarchitecture and silicon at the heart of these is "Sapphire Rapids Refresh," it's essentially the same as "Sapphire Rapids," but with CPU core-count increases across the SKUs. If you recall, the "Sapphire Rapids" MCM has a maximum core-count of 60-core/120-thread which is maxed out in Xeon Scalable server processors, but only hit up to 56-core/112-thread with the original W3400 and W2400 series HEDT/workstation chips. This unused 4-core headroom, combined with increases in clock speeds, is how Intel plans to create these 14 SKUs across the new W3500 and W2500 product lines.

As with the original W3400 and W2400 series; what set the W3500 series chips apart from the W2500 series, is the I/O. The W3500 series gets 8-channel DDR5 memory and 128 PCIe Gen 5 lanes, while the W2500 series chips get 4-channel DDR5 memory and 64 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. As we mentioned, this refresh is all about increasing the CPU core counts at existing price points. The top W9-3595X is a 60-core/120-thread chip, compared to the 56-core/112-thread W9-3495X it's replacing. The new W9-3575X gets a massive 8-core uplift, and is now a 44-core/88-thread processor, compared to the 36-core/72-thread W9-3475X. The W7-3565X is 32-core/64-thread, compared to the 28-core/56-thread W7-3465X.

Intel's upcoming high-end desktop (HEDT) processor lineup for enthusiasts and prosumers is around the corner, and today, we managed to see the flagship SKU - the Xeon W9-3595X. Spotted recently on Geekbench benchmarks, this new chip packs a whopping 60 cores and 120 threads, making it Intel's highest core count HEDT offering yet. The Xeon W9-3595X is based on Intel's advanced Sapphire Rapids architecture, built using the Intel 7 process node. It succeeds the previous flagship 56-core W9-3495X, with four additional cores crammed into the new 350 Watt TDP envelope. Clock speeds have taken a slight hit to accommodate the extra cores, with the maximum turbo frequency lowered from 4.8 GHz on the 3495X to 4.6 GHz on the new 3595X.

However, with more cores, the 3595X should still offer a significant multi-threaded performance uplift for heavily parallel workloads. The Xeon W9-3595X will drop into existing LGA-4677 motherboards, like the ASUS PRO WS 790-ACE, after a BIOS update. It features 112 MB of L3 cache, 120 MB of L2 cache (2 MB per core), and continues Intel's push towards higher core counts for enthusiasts, content creators, and workstation users who need maximum multi-threaded horsepower. Pricing and availability details remain unannounced as of now. But with an appearance on public databases, an official launch of the 60-core HEDT juggernaut seems imminent. These new Sapphire Rapids SKUs will likely have extra AI features, like dedicated AI acceleration engines, in the same manner that server-class SKUs do.

Yesterday, Intel unveiled its latest Xeon data center processors, codenamed Emerald Rapids, delivering the new Xeon Platinum 8592+ flagship SKU with 64 cores and 128 threads. Packed into its fresh silicon, Intel promises boosted performance and reduced power hunger. The comprehensive tech benchmarking website Phoronix essentially confirms Intel's pitch. Testing production servers running the new 8592+ showed solid gains over prior Intel models, let alone older generations still commonplace in data centers. On average, upgrading to the 8592+ increased single-socket server performance by around 23.5% compared to the previous generation configs of Sapphire Rapid, Xeon Platinum 8490H. The dual-socket configuration records a 17% boost in performance.

However, Intel is not in the data center market by itself. AMD's 64-core offering that Xeon Platinum 8592+ is competing with is AMD EPYC 9554. The Emerald Rapids chip is faster by about 2.3%. However, AMD's lineup doesn't stop at only 64 cores. AMD's Genoa and Genoa-X with 3D V-cache top out at 96 cores, while Bergamo goes up to 128 cores. On the power consumption front, the Xeon Platinum 8592+ was pulling about 289 Watts compared to the Xeon Platinum 8490H average of 306 Watts. At peak, the Xeon Platinum 8592+ CPU managed to hit 434 Watts compared to the Xeon Platinum 8490H peak of 469 Watts. This aligns with Intel's claims of enhanced efficiency. However, compared to the 64-core counterpart from AMD, the EPYC 9554 had an average power consumption of 227 Watts and a recorded peak of 369 Watts.

Intel's upcoming Sierra Forest Xeon server chip has debuted on Geekbench 6, showcasing its potential in multi-core performance. Slated for release in the first half of 2024, Sierra Forest is equipped with up to 288 Efficiency cores, positioning it to compete with AMD's Zen 4c Bergamo server CPUs and other ARM-based server chips like those from Ampere for the favor of cloud service providers (CSP). In the Geekbench 6 benchmark, a dual-socket configuration featuring two 144-core Sierra Forest CPUs was tested. The benchmark revealed a notable multi-core score of 7,770, surpassing most dual-socket systems powered by Intel's high-end Xeon Platinum 8480+, which typically scores between 6,500 and 7,500. However, Sierra Forest's single-core score of 855 points was considerably lower, not even reaching half of that of the 8480+, which manages 1,897 points.

The difference in single-core performance is a matter of choice, as Sierra Forest uses Crestmont-derived Sierra Glen E-cores, which are more power and area-efficient, unlike the Golden Cove P-cores in the Sapphire Rapids-based 8480+. This design choice is particularly advantageous for server environments where high-core counts are crucial, as CSPs usually partition their instances by the number of CPU cores. However, compared to AMD's Bergamo CPUs, which use Zen 4c cores, Sierra Forest lacks pure computing performance, especially in multi-core. The Sierra Forest lacks hyperthreading, while Bergaamo offers SMT with 256 threads on the 128-core SKU. Comparing the Geekbench 6 scores to AMD Bergamo EPYC 9754 and Sierra Forest results look a lot less impressive. Bergamo scored 1,597 points in single-core, almost double that of Sierra Forest, and 16,455 points in the multi-core benchmarks, which is more than double. This is a significant advantage of the Zen 4c core, which cuts down on caches instead of being an entirely different core, as Intel does with its P and E-cores. However, these are just preliminary numbers; we must wait for real-world benchmarks to see the actual performance.

Thanks to the leaked slides obtained by @InstLatX64, we have more details and some performance estimates about Intel's upcoming 5th Generation Xeon "Emerald Rapids" CPUs, boasting a significant performance leap over its predecessors. Leading the Emerald Rapids family is the top-end SKU, the Xeon 8592+, which features 64 cores and 128 threads, backed by a massive 480 MB L3 cache pool. The upcoming lineup shifts from a 4-tile to a 2-tile design to minimize latency and improve performance. The design utilizes the P-Core architecture under the Raptor Cove ISA and promises up to 40% faster performance than the current 4th Generation "Sapphire Rapids" CPUs in AI applications utilizing Intel AMX engine. Each chiplet has 35 cores, three of which are disabled, and each tile has two DDR5-5600 MT/s memory controllers, which operate two memory channels each and translating that into eight-channel design. There are three PCIe controllers per die, making it six in total.

Newer protocols and AI accelerators also back the upcoming lineup. Now, the Emerald Rapids family supports the Compute Express Link (CXL) Types 1/2/3 in addition to up to 80 PCIe Gen 5 lanes and enhanced Intel Ultra Path Interconnect (UPI). There are four UPI controllers spread over two dies. Moreover, features like the four on-die Intel Accelerator Engines, optimized power mode, and up to 17% improvement in general-purpose workloads make it seem like a big step up from the current generation. Much of this technology is found on the existing Sapphire Rapids SKUs, with the new generation enhancing the AI processing capability further. You can see the die configuration below. The 5th Generation Emerald Rapids designs are supposed to be official on December 14th, just a few days away.

The 62nd edition of the TOP500 reveals that the Frontier system retains its top spot and is still the only exascale machine on the list. However, five new or upgraded systems have shaken up the Top 10.

Housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, USA, Frontier leads the pack with an HPL score of 1.194 EFlop/s - unchanged from the June 2023 list. Frontier utilizes AMD EPYC 64C 2GHz processors and is based on the latest HPE Cray EX235a architecture. The system has a total of 8,699,904 combined CPU and GPU cores. Additionally, Frontier has an impressive power efficiency rating of 52.59 GFlops/watt and relies on HPE's Slingshot 11 network for data transfer.

FinalWire Ltd. today announced the immediate availability of AIDA64 Extreme 6.92 software, a streamlined diagnostic and benchmarking tool for home users; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Engineer 6.92 software, a professional diagnostic and benchmarking solution for corporate IT technicians and engineers; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Business 6.92 software, an essential network management solution for small and medium scale enterprises; and the immediate availability of AIDA64 Network Audit 6.92 software, a dedicated network audit toolset to collect and manage corporate network inventories.

The latest AIDA64 update introduces AVX-512 optimized benchmarks for Intel Sapphire Rapids processors, and supports the latest AMD and Intel CPU platforms as well as the new graphics and GPGPU computing technologies by AMD, Intel and NVIDIA.,

DOWNLOAD: FinalWire AIDA64 Extreme v6.92

Intel's advanced packaging prowess demonstration took place this week—attendees were able to get an early-ish look at Team Blue's sixth Generation Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids" processors. This multi-tile datacenter-oriented CPU family is projected to hit the market within the first half of 2024, but reports suggest that key enterprise clients have recently received evaluation samples. Coincidentally, renowned hardware leaker—Yuuki_AnS—has managed to source more information from industry insiders. This follows their complete blowout of more mainstream Raptor Lake Refresh desktop SKUs.

The leaked slide presents a bunch of evaluation sample "Granite Rapids-SP" XCC and "Sierra Forest" HCC SKUs. Intel has not officially published core counts for these upcoming "Avenue City" platform product lines. According to their official marketing blurb: "Intel Xeon processors with P-cores (Granite Rapids) are optimized to deliver the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) for high-core performance-sensitive workloads and general-purpose compute workloads. Today, Xeon enables better AI performance than any other CPU, and Granite Rapids will further enhance AI performance. Built-in accelerators give an additional boost to targeted workloads for even greater performance and efficiency."

Intel's Xeon Sapphire Rapids CPU series has had a bumpy ride so far, with the discovery of bugs resulting in delays pushing proceedings back by more than two years. Units have been shipping out for the past couple of months, but Team Blue ran into more issues in late June—a subset of fourth Generation Intel Xeon Medium Core Count Processors (SPR-MCC) could interrupt normal system operation under certain conditions. Intel confirmed to Tom's Hardware that they were actively investigating the latest bugs, and had paused shipment of affected MCC die-based models (featuring up to 32 cores).

The publication has very recently received an update from their contact at Intel. A company spokesperson stated: "Last week, we informed you (Tom's Hardware) of an issue on a subset of 4th Generation Intel Xeon Medium Core Count Processors (SPR-MCC) that could interrupt system operation under certain conditions. Out of an abundance of caution, we temporarily paused some SPR-MCC shipments while we thoroughly evaluated a firmware mitigation. We are now confident the firmware mitigation addresses the issue. We have resumed shipping all versions of SPR-MCC and are working with customers to deploy the firmware as needed." Specifics about the latest mitigations efforts have not been divulged, but Intel is confident that these fixes will not impact processor performance.

Intel's Xeon Sapphire Rapids processors have been coated with numerous delays, and today, we learn that the company is stopping shipment of certain SKUs, mostly driven by the discovery of a new bug. After plenty of delays, Sapphire Rapids has been shipping for a few months now. However, SemiAnalysis's Chief Analyst, Dylan Patel, tipped Tom's Hardware that certain SKUs haven't been shipping since June. What this translates into is the additional delays to the 4th generation Xeon Scalable line, which was already in a difficult position. Some estimates claimed that it did 12 steppings, meaning that it took 11 times to perfect the silicon for the mass production run. The impacted CPUs are models with up to 32 cores, based on MCC die. These SKUs represent a huge amount of the total Xeon volume.

Intel's spokesperson published the following statement for Tom's Hardware: "We became aware of an issue on a subset of 4th Generation Intel Xeon Medium Core Count Processors (SPR-MCC) that could interrupt system operation under certain conditions and are actively investigating. This issue was not observed when running commercially available software, and other 4th Generation Intel Xeon processor SKUs (i.e., XCC and HBM) have not exhibited the issue. Out of an abundance of caution, we did temporarily pause some SPR MCC shipments while we gained confidence in the expected firmware mitigation and expect to release remaining shipments shortly."

Chinese tech tipster Enthusiast Citizen (ECSM) has posted on Bilibili about future Intel product refreshes with a rough timeline spanning from late to 2023 to early 2024. We have been hearing a lot lately about Team Blue's Raptor Lake Refresh, with reports from this week suggesting that this lineup will be the last to sport Team Blue's traditional naming scheme—as 14th Gen Core. ECSM claims that Raptor Lake Refresh-K SKUs are due for launch this October, and non-K units will follow them a month or two later. Team Blue will likely be happy to keep LGA 1700 and 1800 sockets alive for another generation.

ECSM also brings up seemingly new information with an alleged Sapphire Rapids Refresh lined up for early 2024—suggesting that updated HEDT Xeon W2500 and W3500 series processors are incoming. The Intel W790 chipset should be able to run this rumored replacement lineup. ECSM's proposed product roadmap also presents wholly new product ranges including Meteor Lake offerings, albeit with desktop MTL-S SKUs cancelled—mobile-oriented Meteor Lake-H seems to be alive and well with an alleged Q4 2023 launch window. Finally Arrow Lake-S is predicted to launch in the final quarter of 2024 or early 2025—so we will likely have to wait another year and a half for upgraded Intel mainstream desktop SKUs.

Tech tipster momomo_us yesterday spotted that ASRock Rack had listed a new and interesting looking motherboard on its product website, albeit in a "preliminary" category—so pricing and availability have "to be determined" status currently. The W790D8UD-1L1N2T/BCM is a new addition to the company's selection of compact workstation boards, but it distinguishes itself by being the first example of a W790 chipset Deep Micro ATX mainboard with platform support for Intel's latest "Sapphire Rapids" Xeon W-2400 and W-3400 processors. The single E-type socket (LGA 4677) looks absolutely huge relative to the overall dimensions of its surroundings (264 × 266 mm). The Deep Micro ATX form factor is exclusive to AsRock Rack so it could be tricky to build with a W790D8UD-1L1N2T/BCM board, given that mainstream PC cases may not provide full compatibility with this proprietary configuration.

ASRock Rack W790D8UD-1L1N2T/BCM is capable of running up to 56 cores (the minimum being 6) and 2 TB of DDR5-4800 modules (eight DIMM slots) with a peak bandwidth of 307.2 GB/s, via the platform's advanced memory subsystem. Sapphire Rapids Xeon W processors can control up to 112 PCIe Gen 5 lanes (W-3400) and 64 PCIe Gen 5 lanes (W-2400). Tom's Hardware has kindly collated the rest of the specifications into sentence form: "As for the physical connectivity, the motherboard is equipped with four PCIe x16 slots, one M.2-2280 slot with a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface attached to the W790 PCH, and two OCuLink connectors for SSDs. Network connectivity includes two 10GbE ports controlled by Broadcom BCM57416, a GbE connector managed by the Intel I226, and another GbE handled by the Intel I210. In addition, it has a dedicated GbE port for remote management with the support of Aspeed AST2600 BMC, that is handled by the Realtek RTL8211F. The board also has an SPI connector for TPM modules, USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a COM port, and a D-Sub VGA display connector."

ENERMAX came to the Computex 2023 in full force, showcasing a wide range of new products including new PSUs with ATX 3.0 certification, as well as the new LIQTECH and LIQMAXFLO AIO liquid CPU coolers with new pump design.

ENERMAX definitely had a lot to show at the Computex 2023 event and there were some rather unique and innovative new products on display, including the PLATIMAX GEMINI, a PSU that meets both ATX 3.0 and Intel's new ATX12VO (12 V-only) standards. PLATIMAX GEMINI is an 80 Plus Platinum 1200 W power supply, that surpasses efficiency standards of the ATX12VO standard. ENERMAX also had the who new REVOLUTION D.F. X PSU lineup that is ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5 ready with a native 600 W 12VHPWR cable and an extra dual 8-pin to 12VHPWR 600 W cable, and features new patented Dust-Free Rotation (D.F.R) technology, a new feature that promises to significantly reduce the accumulation of dust around the fan blades. It also features an ARGB side panel with 14 built in lighting modes, and an RGB control button. ENERMAX was showcasing the SPLAVE X REVOLUTION D.F. X PSU, a special edition 1200 W PSU designed in cooperation with a well-known overclocker Splave.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, an industry analyst known for making accurate predictions about Apple, we have some new information regarding Intel's Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors. As Kuo notes, Intel's major Cloud Service Provider (CSP) client, Microsoft, has notified the supply chain that the company is cutting orders of Sapphire Rapids Xeons by 50-70% in the second half of 2023. Interestingly, Intel's supply chain has notified the company to cut chip orders by around 50% amidst weak server demand. This comes straight after Intel's plans to start shipping Sapphire Rapids processors in the second quarter of 2023 and deliver the highly anticipated lineup to customers.

Additionally, Kuo has stated that Intel isn't only competing for clients with AMD but also with Arm-based CPUs. Microsoft also plans to start buying Arm-based server processors made by Ampere Computing in the first half of 2024. This will reduce Microsoft's dependence on x86 architecture and induce higher competition in the market, especially if other CSPs follow.

All eyes - especially investors' eyes - are on Intel's data center business today. Intel's Sandra Rivera, Greg Lavender and Lisa Spelman hosted a webinar focused on the company's Data Center and Artificial Intelligence business unit. They offered a big update on Intel's latest market forecasts, hardware plans and the way Intel is empowering developers with software.

Executives dished out updates on Intel's data center business for investors. This included disclosures about future generations of Intel Xeon chips, progress updates on 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids) and demos of Intel hardware tackling the competition, heavy AI workloads and more.

Xeon Roadmap Roll Call
Among Sapphire Rapids, Emerald Rapids, Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids, there is a lot going on in the server CPU business. Here's your Xeon roadmap updates in order of appearance:

A set of detailed photos has been uploaded to a blog on the Chinese Bilibili site, and the subject matter is an engineering sample of a motherboard that features Intel's next generation LGA 7529 socket. Specifications and photos relating to this platform have cropped up in the past, but the latest leak offers many new tidbits of information. The Bilibili blogger placed a Sapphire Rapids Xeon Processor on top of the the new socket, and this provides an interesting point of reference - it demonstrates the expansive physical footprint that the fifth-generation platform occupies on the board.

This year's Sapphire Rapids LGA 4677 (Socket E) is already considered to be a sizeable prospect - measuring at 61 × 82 mm. The upcoming Mountain Stream platform (LGA 7529) is absolutely huge in comparison, with eyeball estimates placing it possessing rough dimensions (including the retention arm) of 66 × 92.5 mm. The fifth generation platform is designed to run Intel's Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest CPUs - this family of Xeons featuring scalable microarchitecture is expected to launch in 2024. The code name "Avenue City" has been given to a reference platform that features a dual socket configuration.

Kingston today unveiled the FURY Renegade Pro DDR5 RDIMM memory for workstations based on the Intel W790 platform (Xeon W-3400 and W-2400 series "Sapphire Rapids" processors). The company is marking these as "overclockable" registered ECC DIMMs, as they come with Intel XMP 3.0 profiles that enable their advertised speeds on Intel platforms. The FURY Renegade Pro series comes in DDR5-6000 (32-38-38 1.35 V), DDR5-5600 (36-38-38 1.25 V), and DDR5-4800 (36-38-38 1.1 V) speed; with module densities of 16 GB and 32 GB (per DIMM); making up single-module kits, 4-module kits (for W-2400 platforms), and 8-module kits (for W-3400 platforms). The modules themselves are bare—lacking in heatspreaders, with a thin decal covering the DRAM chips. These are standard-height DIMMs.

Intel's latest Xeon processors based on Sapphire Rapids uArch have arrived in the hands of overclockers. Last week, we reported that the Intel Xeon W9-3495X is officially a world record holder for achieving the best scores in Cinebench R23 and R20, Y-Cruncher, 3DMark CPU test, and Geekbench 3. However, today we have another extreme overclocking attempt to beat the world record, with little more details about power consumption and what the new SKU is capable of. Elmor, an overclocker working with ASUS, has tried to break the world record and overclocked the Intel Xeon W9-3495X CPU to 5.5 GHz on all 56 cores. What is more impressive is the power that the processor can consume.

With a system powered by two Superflower Leadex 1,600 Watt power supply units, the CPU consumed almost 1,900 Watts of power from the wall. To manage to cool this heat output, liquid nitrogen was used, and the CPU stayed at a cool negative 95 degrees Celsius. The motherboard of choice for this attempt was ASUS Pro WS W790E-SAGE SE, paired with eight GSKILL Zeta R5 DDR5 R-DIMMs modules. And results were incredible, as the CPU achieved 132,220 points in Cinebench R23. However, the world record of the previous week has remained intact, as Elmor 's result is a bit behind last week's score of 132,484 points. Check the video below for more info.

ASRock, with the help of legendary overclocker Splave have used their new W790 WS to take Intel's Sapphire Rapids based Xeon w7-2495X as high as 5.3 GHz to grab a pile of first place global performance scores on HWBOT. In total they've secured 14 global records in the 24-core category, and 18 more records in the w7-2495X hardware category. What is perhaps slightly more impressive is that they managed to exceed the officially supported DDR5-4800 by 2000 MT/s, achieving a frequency of 3400 MHz (6800 MT/s) with a CAS Latency of 32. The results were all produced with a custom water cooled configuration, with many benchmarks needing below 5 GHz clocks to remain stable enough for validation, so there is certainly room for higher scores under more exotic cooling solutions.

One of the more interesting details presented in the screenshots of certain benchmark results such as Y-Cruncher and Cinebench R15 is the gargantuan power draw exhibited by the w7-2495X. With a rated Vcore of 1.22v the 24-core sucks down over 500 W. We have already seen the 56-core w9-3495X pull a full kilowatt in early overclocking sessions, so the power draw here is not entirely without merit. Needless to say while Intel is finally offering a compelling HEDT lineup of unlocked processors, you may not necessarily be able to squeeze much out of them before tripping your breakers. As for ASRock's records it's still early days for the new Xeon W lineup and there will be a revolving door of world record holders before the final ounce of performance is squeezed from these chips.

On Jan. 10, 2023, Intel officially launched its 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids) for data center customers around the globe. Fueled by years of hard work and focus, Intel delivered its highest quality Xeon product ever, and is already seeing a rapid ramp and the greatest-ever level of customer and partner support.

Launch day brought to market a new Intel leadership product bolstered by significant advancements in performance with industry-leading accelerators, increased core count and improved performance per watt. With a strong new product in the market, customer adoption of these new technologies has been swift. In just eight weeks since launch, Intel has executed the most ever design wins for any Xeon family and the most ever platforms available and shipping in this short time-to-market window.

Microsoft Azure announced their new ND H100 v5 virtual machine which packs Intel's Sapphire Rapids Xeon Scalable processors with NVIDIA's Hopper H100 GPUs, as well as NVIDIA's Quantum-2 CX7 interconnect. Inside each physical machine sits eight H100s—presumably the SXM5 variant packing a whopping 132 SMs and 528 4th generation tensor cores—interconnected by NVLink 4.0 which ties them all together with 3.6 TB/s bisectional bandwidth. Outside each local machine is a network of thousands more H100s connected together with 400 GB/s Quantum-2 CX7 InfiniBand, which Microsoft says allows 3.2 Tb/s per VM for on-demand scaling to accelerate the largest AI training workloads.

Generative AI solutions like ChatGPT have accelerated demand for multi-ExaOP cloud services that can handle the large training sets and utilize the latest development tools. Azure's new ND H100 v5 VMs offer that capability to organizations of any size, whether you're a smaller startup or a larger company looking to implement large-scale AI training deployments. While Microsoft is not making any direct claims for performance, NVIDIA has advertised H100 as running up to 30x faster than the preceding Ampere architecture that is currently offered with the ND A100 v4 VMs.

Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABYTE and an industry leader in high-performance servers, server motherboards, and workstations, today announced two new workstation motherboards, GIGABYTE MW83-RP0 and MW53-HP0, built to support the Intel Xeon W-3400 or Intel Xeon W-2400 desktop workstation processors. The new CPU platform, developed on the Intel W790 chipset, is the first workstation platform in the market that supports both DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technology, and this platform excels at demanding applications such as complex 3D CAD, AI development, simulations, 3D rendering, and more.

The new generation of Intel "Sapphire Rapids" Xeon W-3400 & W-2400 series processors adds some significant benefits to its workstation processors when compared to the prior gen of "Ice Lake" Xeon W-3300 processors. Like its predecessor, the new Xeon processors support up to 4 TB of 8-channel memory; however, the new Xeon CPUs have moved to DDR5, which is incredibly advantageous because of the big jump in memory bandwidth performance. Second, higher CPU performance across most workloads, partially due to the higher CPU core count and higher clock speeds. As mentioned before, the new Xeon processors support PCIe Gen 5 devices and speeds for higher throughput between CPU and devices such as GPU.