Online retailers have also pointed to this as Intel’s next move, and Dell has posted information on the new Sapphire Rapids “Xeon W-3500 & W-2500” workstation CPUs. Dell has implemented BIOS support for their Precision 7960 & 5860 workstation systems, enabling a plug-and-play upgrade path for users looking to migrate to the upcoming Xeon W-3500 & Xeon W-2500 CPU lineup.
More About the Intel Xeon W-3500 and W-2500
Besides, several Intel Xeon W3500 CPUs are currently listed by UK retailer EET Group (before the sanction of the corps), including the W9-3575X, W7-3565X, W7-3555, W7-3545, W5-3525 & the W-3535X. We don’t have pricing on it yet, but we can assume provided by Lenovo that the chips are indicative of an imminent launch.
The new “Sapphire Rapids-112L” powered Intel Xeon W-3500 family of processors features seven SKUs and its flagship addition is the W9-3595X with 60 cores & 120 threads. Each CPU is a relatively minor step up in core counts over its predecessor and equipped with 290W-350W TDPs, from anywhere as low as 16 cores up to 44 cores.
Meanwhile, the Intel Xeon W-2500 “Sapphire Rapids-64L” CPU family consists of at least seven SKUs — all with core counts between 8 and 26. All SKUs benefit from a nominal core count uplift over previous models, at 175W to 250W TDPs.
The required pricing for the Intel Xeon W-3500 and Xeon W-2500 CPU families should keep them competitive against current SKUs, but AMD’s Threadripper families continue to throw a wrench in the works With as many as 96 cores and even faster DDR5 memory support, the Threadripper brand of CPUs from AMD has long offered exceptional multi-threaded performance and efficiency for workstation and HEDT tasks.
To sum it up, the updated Sapphire Rapids CPUs may bring a competitive edge through new features, but AMD Threadripper CPUs are most likely to continue to dominate the workstation and HEDT market through their higher performance and feature set.
