Following Mac Pro Launch, Intel Rolls Out Xeon W 3000-series Lineup

Intel had quite a lot to talk about at last week’s Computex, and we covered most of it right here. The star of the show was the company’s new Ice Lake 10th-gen Core processors, even though all we’re seeing for the moment is a quad-core model at the top-end. We hate to harp on 10nm issues, but it’s clear why Intel chose notebooks to launch 10th-gen with. For enthusiasts hoping for something bigger on the desktop, we’re still waiting. 10th-gen deserves a super-fast 10-core flagship, does it not?

Following the collective product unveiling at Computex, Intel has decided to follow Apple’s updated Mac Pro launch with its updated Xeon W lineup, consisting of the beefiest chips in the company’s line-up.

Both the Xeon W (workstation) and Core X-series are fairly comparable, so both have been included in this table. The Core X-series doesn’t have a 28-core model, but the enthusiast-targeted Xeon W-3175X took care of that for last-gen, priced at a cool $2,999. That’s a price tag that seems like a bit of a bargain when compared to the W-3275’s $4,449 sticker.

The W-3175X has a higher TDP, but a side-benefit it has that might not be obvious is that it’s also overclockable – hence the X in its name. The W-3275 isn’t overclockable, or it’s at least not being advertised as such. Both chips have the same cores and cache counts, but the W-3275 peaks at 400MHz higher with Turbo.

Versus the Core X-series, all of these Xeons support a six-channel memory controller, which is great for those with seriously bandwidth-heavy workloads. To that end, the “M” variants of the top Xeons are required for up to 2TB memory support; otherwise, you’ll be stuck to a pathetic 1TB (yes, we’re kidding).

None of these new Xeons support Optane DC, which might not be surprising since these are not meant for server use. Similarly, all of the chips use the LGA3647 socket, so if you’re an LGA2066 user tempted by these bigger chips, you’ll need to be aware that you’ll be needing a different motherboard. And probably more memory in order to take full advantage of the six-channel memory controller.

One other notable difference between this and last-gen Xeon W is that the new ones include 64 PCIe lanes. That’s up from the 48 a chip like the W-3175X gave us, and 44 provided from the Core i9-9980XE. Of all the features exclusive to the second-gen Xeon Scalable series, the new Xeon Ws supports Intel’s Deep-Learning Boost (DL Boost for short), but some specific server features like Resource Director remain exclusive to Scalable SKUs. For other features like Speed Select, you’ll need to look at very specific models, as we covered in April.

You can dig deeper into the nitty gritty of the new lineup over at Intel’s ARK website.