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Golden Cove comes to workstations

VideoCardz (opens in new tab) has posted the potential specifications for Intel's upcoming Sapphire Rapids-WS processors. However, it's crucial to highlight that these core-heavy chips target the workstation demographic, unlike Sapphire Rapids-SP, which caters to data centers.

Sapphire Rapids utilizes the same Intel 7 (rebranded 10nm Enhanced SuperFin) process and Golden Cove cores as Intel's mainstream Alder Lake lineup. The original plan for Sapphire Rapids was to compete against AMD's EPYC 7003 (Milan) processors. However, Sapphire Rapids has suffered multiple delays and, by how things look, will likely end up taking on the Zen 4-powered EPYC 9003 (Genoa) lineup. On the other hand, Sapphire Rapids-WS targets Team Red's Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-series (Chagall) army. The Zen 3-powered processors are on TSMC's 7nm FinFET process, while Sapphire Rapids is a product of a 10nm process node.

According to the document that VideoCardz obtained, which the publication didn't share, Sapphire Rapids-WS support DDR5-4800 memory natively. The 10nm chips only support 1S configurations. The document reportedly didn't confirm the number of memory slots or PCIe 5.0 lanes. However, Sapphire Rapid-WS allegedly comes with 8-channel support and 112 PCIe 5.0 lanes. If comparison, Chagall is still on DDR4 memory and offers 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes.

Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids-WS Specifications* (unconfirmed)

Sapphire Rapids-WS retain the same hierarchy as Intel's mainstream chips, but logically, substituted the Core branding for the Xeon moniker. Therefore, the stack consists of the W9, W7, and W5 SKUs. As always, we should treat the specifications with caution since Sapphire Rapids-WS is unreleased hardware and we don't know they state of the workstation processors.

The Xeon W9-3495X, one of the top SKUs, wields 56 cores, 112 threads and 105MB of L3 cache. The chip reportedly has a 1.9 GHz clock speed with a 350W TDP. It's still a few steps behind Ryzen Threadripper, though. For comparison, the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX has 64 cores, 128 threads and 256MB of L3 cache. AMD's chip has a 280W TDP. which is lower than the Xeon W9-3495X.

The W7 tier include SKUs with core counts spanning from 20 to 28 Golden Cove cores. The L3 cache varies from 52.5MB to 75W with TDP ranges between 270W and 300W. The W5 category. for example, houses chips with 12 to 16 cores. The L3 cache is more modest with parts sporting 30MB up to 45MB. The TDP for the Xeon W5-series ranges from 200W to 270W.

It's unknown when Sapphire Rapids-WS processors will hit the retail market. AMD's latest desktop processor roadmap reveals the chipmaker's plans to bring its Zen 4 cores over to the Ryzen Threadripper family next year. Sapphire Rapids-WS will face some tough competition ahead.
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