Intel Introduces Unlocked 28 Core Xeon and Refreshes Skylake X

AlphaAtlas

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In addition to bumping up the core count of their consumer desktop lineup, Intel launched a new high end Xeon and refreshed their "prosumer" Skylake-X lineup today. The Core i9-9980XE features a 165W TDP, a $1979 MSRP, a 3.0ghz base clock and a 4.5Ghz Turbo Boost 3.0 speed, up from the 18 core 7980XE's 2.6Ghz base and 4.2Ghz boost speed. The rest of the Skylake-X lineup got similar clockspeed boosts in their respective price brackets. Meanwhile, Intel also launched a monster of a workstation chip: the Xeon W-3175X. Unlike the Skylake-X lineup, this chip only drops into LGA 3467 sockets on server motherboards. It features 6 memory channels, 28 cores running at a base speed of 3.1Ghz, a 4.3Ghz two-core turbo speed, an unlocked multiplier for tuning those speeds, and a 255W TDP that would put some GPUs to shame. Intel demoed a processor like this before, and didn't list an official MSRP. But, seeing how the Xeon Platinum 8180 goes for over $10k a pop, a whole system with one of these probably falls into the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" category.

For the select, highly threaded and computing-intensive applications such as architectural and industrial design and professional content creation, Intel will deliver the unlocked Intel Xeon W-3175X processor. This new 28-core Intel Xeon processor was built with real-world performance in mind for these large, intensive workloads with up to 4.3 GHz single-core turbo frequency, 56 threads and unlocked for those who want to push performance even higher. This platform also provides 38.5 MB Intel Smart Cache, 6-channel DDR4 memory support with up to 512 GB at 2666 MHz, and ECC and standard RAS support. The new Intel Core X-series processors will be available in November; the Intel Xeon W-3175X processor will ship from Intel in December.
 
And here is why Intel has problems supplying cheap cpus. They turned their production into making as many mega-cpus as possible to bettle threadripper-epyc infinity fabric brilliance.
 
So why would one buy any of this over AMD? Intel sat on their hands way to long and have nothing to come back with to beat AMD. You would think a company that's been at it this long and been in the lead this long would have something for just in case they got their ass handed to them. But it looks like they are just going to slap lipstick on a server chip and call it gaming. Oh i'm sorry put it in a new shipping box.
 
Per: "PC Perspective" this is what Intel had to say about mitigations in the refreshed Skylake X and the new Xeon:

While the new 9th generation consumer CPUs feature a combination of hardware, software, and microcode updates for side-channel attack vulnerabilities like Spectre and Meltdown, both the new X-series CPUs as well as the Xeon W-3175X only feature microcode and software fixes as detailed below:

  • Speculative side channel variant Spectre V2 (Branch Target Injection) = Microcode + Software
  • Speculative side channel variant Meltdown V3 (Rogue Data Cache Load) = Microcode
  • Speculative side channel variant Meltdown V3a (Rogue System Register Read) = Microcode
  • Speculative side channel variant V4 (Speculative Store Bypass) = Microcode + Software
  • Speculative side channel variant L1 Terminal Fault = Microcode + Software
So who knows at this point. Improved but not fixed.
 
And here is why Intel has problems supplying cheap cpus. They turned their production into making as many mega-cpus as possible to bettle threadripper-epyc infinity fabric brilliance.
upload_2018-10-8_15-42-51.png

So why would one buy any of this over AMD? Intel sat on their hands way to long and have nothing to come back with to beat AMD. You would think a company that's been at it this long and been in the lead this long would have something for just in case they got their ass handed to them. But it looks like they are just going to slap lipstick on a server chip and call it gaming. Oh i'm sorry put it in a new shipping box.
¿Qué? Last I checked AMD's marketshare has flatlined at 20% for the at least the last 4 quarters.

And Intel has been reselling Xeon rejects as gaming chips for a very long time.
 
At least they did not refresh the quad cores, but in all seriousness should they not have launched coffee lake-X, not that it is much different from skylake, but it might have allowed a bigger clockspeed bump.
 
Per: "PC Perspective" this is what Intel had to say about mitigations in the refreshed Skylake X and the new Xeon:

While the new 9th generation consumer CPUs feature a combination of hardware, software, and microcode updates for side-channel attack vulnerabilities like Spectre and Meltdown, both the new X-series CPUs as well as the Xeon W-3175X only feature microcode and software fixes as detailed below:

  • Speculative side channel variant Spectre V2 (Branch Target Injection) = Microcode + Software
  • Speculative side channel variant Meltdown V3 (Rogue Data Cache Load) = Microcode 9th Gen Desktop: Hardware
  • Speculative side channel variant Meltdown V3a (Rogue System Register Read) = Microcode
  • Speculative side channel variant V4 (Speculative Store Bypass) = Microcode + Software
  • Speculative side channel variant L1 Terminal Fault = Microcode + Software 9th Gen Desktop: Hardware
So who knows at this point. Improved but not fixed.

To make it easier on folks to see the actual differences between SKL-X and 9th gen Core chips, I added the Core (Desktop line, 9900K, 9700K and lower, 9th generation) in Orange.
The rest of the variant fixes remain the same. Source: https://i.imgur.com/fiDQPBl.jpg

Some of the upcoming HEDT look pretty nice, if a tad expensive. But I'll be damned before I buy a brand new >$600 chip that has zero mitigations in hardware.

The 9900K actually does tempt me for its raw speed on stock clocks, but the upgrade is too pricey for me, and I can't justify it with my workloads. Plus, the platform is just shit. Still only 16 PCI-E lanes from the CPU (plus DMI) no thank you.

I mostly need the speed in games, and the 7700K does plenty well there. By the time I need more threads, I'll be looking at Threadripper based on Zen2. That is probably going to be very awesome.
 
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