Core counts for client CPUs have been growing lately, however have you ever checked out what’s taking place on the workstation/server facet? Intel has simply launched a CPU with a whopping 86 cores.
Intel has formally expanded its Xeon 6 processor household, introducing the brand new Xeon 6500P and 6700P collection. These processors be a part of the beforehand launched Intel Xeon 6900P “Granite Rapids” collection, introduced final September, and are mainly meant to scale right down to lower-end servers that do not require as a lot computing energy or scale as much as servers that require a number of of those chips. Do not get us unsuitable—these are nonetheless some loopy chips. The newly launched Xeon 6500P and 6700P processors provide configurations scaling as much as 86 cores per socket. That is an enormous step up from the 24 cores now we have on the high-end Intel Core Extremely 9 285K, and makes the processor uniquely suited for lots of compute functions the place multi-core efficiency is extraordinarily excessive on the record of priorities.
These are Xeon chips, so this is not simply one thing you’ll be able to throw into your common desktop pc. They require a particular socket in addition to particular, business-focused motherboards. There’s additionally technically nothing stopping you from constructing a PC with these enterprise components, however it won’t be value it—the {hardware} is extraordinarily costly and, for a house pc, you are higher served by desktop chips anyway. They’re higher suited to the stuff you use a PC at dwelling for, and server chips are at a heavy drawback for issues like gaming, the place single-core efficiency issues simply as a lot, if no more, than multi-core efficiency.
That is nonetheless fairly cool {hardware}, although. The 6500P and the 6700P each characterize a step down from the top-tier Xeon 6980P, which boasts a most of 128 cores. That’s an insane quantity, however the 6500P and 6700P collection have extra variations and, notably, are designed to work on extra techniques. In contrast to the 6900P collection, the 6500P and 6700P processors, designated as “scalable” SKUs, are designed to help 4 and eight-socket platforms, permitting for better system flexibility in knowledge middle environments. The vary of chips itself can be obtainable with as little as eight cores.
In addition to the core rely distinction, the brand new processors additionally differ in how a lot reminiscence they help, and the configurations wherein that reminiscence is supported. The 6500P and 6700P collection help eight channels of DDR5 reminiscence, whereas the 6900P collection presents twelve channels. Each new and previous processors proceed to help MRDIMM reminiscence expertise. By way of I/O capabilities, the 6500P and 6700P processors present as much as 88 lanes of PCI Specific 5.0, barely lower than the 96 lanes obtainable on the 6900P collection. The variety of UPI 2.0 hyperlinks can be decreased, with 4 hyperlinks on the brand new processors in comparison with six on the 6900P collection.
Importantly, the brand new Granite Rapids processors keep characteristic parity with the 6900P collection relating to their instruction set structure (ISA). This contains help for AVX-512, AMX (Superior Matrix Extensions), and different related capabilities, so software program/{hardware} compatibility needs to be equivalent throughout the entire Xeon 6 household. This tends to be one thing you are taking with no consideration on desktop PCs, however on server/workstation PCs, it is an especially necessary factor to take note of.
The one dangerous half about these, nonetheless, is the worth. The upper-end Xeon 6787P which options 86 cores, a 3.8GHz turbo frequency, and has a 350-watt TDP, additionally has an insane record value of $10,400. The Xeon 6788P, which presents equivalent core rely, clock, and energy traits (the one distinction being that it helps eight-socket motherboards) is priced at a bonkers $19,000. That is typical pricing for these sorts of chips, and it is a massive motive why they are not even remotely thought of for non-server functions. The lower-end Xeon 6507P with simply eight cores additionally prices $765—not that loopy, however mainly the identical value as Intel’s Core Extremely 9.
And we also needs to remind you that these aren’t even the higher-end chips with 128 cores, which had been introduced earlier. So , there’s that.