A notable feature of the Xeon line is its integration with vPro technology, which simplifies operating system redeployment through Active Management, offering significant benefits in enterprise settings.
Key Updates in the Sapphire Rapids Refresh: Despite the architectural similarities with previous models, the new Xeon processors include enhancements such as faster DDR5 memory support and an increase in core count—up to 60 cores in the top-tier W9-3595X model. These updates are estimated to boost performance by about 10% for multi-threaded tasks over the previous generation. This makes the new processors an attractive option for users who haven't upgraded their workstations since 2019. Performance in specific applications, like architectural simulations and media rendering, has seen significant improvements.
Power Consumption and Pricing: The power requirements have increased, with the Xeon W-3500 series needing up to 385W and the W-2500 series up to 250W. These figures are on par with AMD's Threadripper series. The core and cache size increases in the new models also lead to higher thermal design power (TDP) ratings.
I/O and Memory Specifications: The number of PCIe 5.0 lanes remains the same as previous generations, with 112 lanes for the W-3500 series and 64 for the W-2500 series. Both series support up to eight and four DDR5 memory channels, respectively, and can handle up to 4TB and 2TB of DDR5 memory.
Roger Chandler from Intel highlights that the new CPUs are especially beneficial for generative AI and other data-heavy tasks without GPU acceleration. Features like Advanced Matrix Extensions and the AVX-512 instruction set greatly enhance performance in certain applications.
