I get it... CPU design is a complex issue of balancing core designs of different instruction sets and power utilization.
In this case, they're all x86 cores. Or, perhaps you're referring to which ISA extensions (like AVX-512) they support?
Designing a CPU involves assumptions regarding what types of applications it will be used to run.
Yes, also lightly-threaded vs. heavily-threaded, I/O-heavy vs. compute-heavy, integer vs. floating point, scalar vs. vector, strong locality vs. weak. The points about threading & locality impact decisions about cache size, memory bandwidth, and NUMA topology.
Every desktop PC CPU I've ever purchased from Intel in the last 8 years (or so) has an integrated graphics processor that has never been used.
If you buy a KF-series CPU, the iGPU is disabled (presumably, some of them are defective), which gives you a tiny more clock speed budget in the CPU cores. They also tend to be a little bit cheaper, but mostly to an extent that only OEMs would care about.
I assume almost all of the Intel HEDT CPUs with integrated graphics are never used. Why does Intel sell HEDT CPUs with integrated graphics?
The only Xeon models with an iGPU are the ones that are essentially the same as mainstream processors, but with a few "pro" features enabled. And not even all of
those have it! Check all of these, if you want, and you'll see they all have a mainstream socket like LGA1200 or LGA1700:
Intel® product specifications, features and compatibility quick reference guide and code name decoder. Compare products including processors, desktop boards, server products and networking products.
ark.intel.com
What most people mean by HEDT are the CPUs with a non-mainstream socket, and those never had an iGPU. You can see this in Intel's online database entries for them. If you adjust the above query to exclude processors with graphics, you'll find nearly all of the hits use a LGA2066, LGA3647, or LGA4189 socket.
based on my understanding of the issue, low power cores do not belong on Intel's HEDT CPUs - just like integrated graphics do not belong on Intel's HEDT CPUs.
Well, the E-cores aren't currently (or even about to) be offered in a HEDT CPU, so maybe that puts your mind at ease. However, I think there's an argument for doing it (if we overlook the lack of AVX-512), because the E-cores scale up better and HEDT are mostly about heavily-threaded applications.
As for the lack of iGPUs, that's mostly because the HEDT products started out as an offshoot of the server CPUs, which don't have an iGPU. Also, the cost of adding a dGPU is not a big deal for HEDT users, so Intel would rather use the entire CPU die for compute.
As an FYI... I'm using terms like RISC and HEDT very loosely to convey ideas in an inexact but efficient way. I don't really want to engage in pedantic discussions of the exact meaning of RISC and HEDT.
We need common definitions, if we're to have a meaningful discussion. I don't know what you're using loosely, or how loosely. As for RISC, you could just delete it from your previous post with no detriment. It wasn't adding anything, which made it seem all the more confusing.
As for HEDT, that's a market segment generally defined by socket, memory channels, and core count. The socket is bigger than a mainstream socket, the core counts tend to be higher, there are usually at least 4 memory channels (enabling at least 2x the amount of RAM, as well as more bandwidth) and they have more I/O lanes, as well. They also cost a lot more, usually starting near $1000 and going as high as about $5000 or so.
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