News Intel Roadmap Leaks: Raptor Lake Refresh, HEDT Replacement in 2023

[bit_user]

But, your feedback has pointed me into thinking more seriously about making Xeon may next PC build. Is that a realistic idea - to use Xeon for a home PC build where the cost is not an important factor? I've got some serious googling to do on that idea.

There are different tiers of Xeon CPUs for workstations. The bottom tier is basically a mirror of the mainstream desktop CPUs.

Intel® Xeon® E Processor Product Specifications

Intel® Xeon® E Processor product listing with links to detailed product features and specifications.

ark.intel.com

For the time being, Intel seems to have paused their updates to this product line, and you can now simply use a regular Alder Lake or Raptor Lake CPU in their W680-chipset workstation motherboards.


Next, there's a middle tier, the W-2000 series, that has a bigger socket with 4 memory channels. Then, the top tier, the W-3000, is similar to the server CPUs but limited to single-processor configurations.

Intel® Xeon® W Processor Product Specifications

Intel® Xeon® W Processor product listing with links to detailed product features and specifications.

ark.intel.com

Intel hasn't been updating the middle-tier, for a couple generations. That looks set to change, in 2023, with the so-called Sapphire Rapids generation. We will also see W-3000 series Sapphire Rapids CPUs, probably with up to 56 cores.

Thanks - I really have enjoyed your feedback.

That's what we're here for!
: )

 

[boe]

It is a shame you have to buy a hobbled environment to get more PCIe lanes. I wish Intel would start releasing mainstream processor and chips that support enough lanes for a 100gb nic, high end RAID controller and a great video card. What is the point of making main stream motherboards with 3 PCIe 16 lane slots but you've pretty much used up all your lanes as soon as you put in your video card.

 

[bit_user]

It is a shame you have to buy a hobbled environment to get more PCIe lanes. I wish Intel would start releasing mainstream processor and chips that support enough lanes for a 100gb nic, high end RAID controller and a great video card.

If you can afford a 100 Gbps NIC + stuff to connect it with and a high-end video card, why are you complaining about having to buy a workstation-grade CPU and motherboard? That's not going to increase your total cost by more than probably 25%.

Plus, I'll bet you want more than 8 P-cores, which you'd get with a workstation CPU.

What is the point of making main stream motherboards with 3 PCIe 16 lane slots but you've pretty much used up all your lanes as soon as you put in your video card.

If you had a PCIe 5.0 GPU, you could run it at x8 with no deficit. Even PCIe 4.0 x8 should have only a couple % impact on most games.

It sounds to me like you want Intel to sell you champagne for the price of beer. If you really want a premium solution, you'll just have to pay for it. With the addition of PCIe 5.0, their mainstream platform is already overspec'd for what most of their users actually need.

 

[JayNor]

On the Meteor Lake comments ... My guess is that its tGPU is requiring more layout space and thermal load than originally planned. Some early slides showed N3 processing and a higher GPU core count. Recent slides show N5 processing and lower GPU core count.

I believe these tGPUs will be DirectX 12U capable, possibly with some AI functionality cut vs the discrete ARC cards, if the leaks are true. CES announcements could resolve all the questions.

 

[bit_user]

On the Meteor Lake comments ... My guess is that its tGPU is requiring more layout space and thermal load than originally planned. Some early slides showed N3 processing and a higher GPU core count. Recent slides show N5 processing and lower GPU core count.

You're suggesting that's maybe why the P-core count dropped from 8 to 6?

 

[bit_user]

Wow, I just noticed the W9-3495X won't be retail-boxed. So, the only way to get one of those will probably be to buy a pre-built, from a reseller. That's rather like taking a page out of AMD's Threadripper Pro playbook.

It's also the only "Unlocked" CPU model, in the Xeon W range, that's not retail-boxed.