Intel’s Top Granite Rapids Xeon Workstation CPU Leaked: 86 Cores & 172 Threads On The W890 Platform

Intel's next-generation Xeon Workstation platform has leaked out with its top Granite Rapids-WS chip packing up to 86 cores.

Intel Granite Rapids-WS "Xeon Workstation" CPUs Coming To W890 Platform Soon With Up To 86 Cores

Earlier this year, it was reported that Intel was working on its next-gen Xeon workstation family, the Granite Rapids-WS. This new lineup would be aiming at the HEDT, Workstation, and Content Creator segments, featuring high-end IO capabilities and lots of cores to work with. The lineup will compete against AMD's Threadripper family, such as the Threadripper 9000 series.

While nothing official has been announced yet, it looks like samples of the Intel Xeon Granite Rapids-WS CPUs have already been sent to partners who have started evaluating these chips. One such chip has shown up at the OpenBenchmarking database with the ES "Intel 0000" designation. This chip features a total of 86 cores, 172 threads, and has a clock speed of 2.1 GHz. The low clock speed represents the early nature of this engineering sample.

As you can see, the CPU was tested on an Intel "GNR-WS" reference evaluation platform, which refers to Granite Rapids-Workstation. The platform featured 512 GB of DDR5 memory and featured networking capabilities on par with the Arrow Lake-S platforms. The GPU used was an NVIDIA RTX 3090, along with 1 TB of storage.

Now, if we look at the core configuration, it looks like Intel's Granite Rapids-WS Xeon CPUs will be very similar to the Xeon 6700P lineup, which maxes out at 86 cores. The top SKUs in the 6700P server family are the Xeon 6787P and the 6788P. Both features 86 cores, 172 threads, base clocks of 2-2.1 GHz, TDPs of up to 350W, and up to 336 MB of cache. Each chip features up to 88 usable PCIe Gen5 lanes and supports up to DDR5-8000 speeds.

While Intel has been getting close to AMD's Threadripper in terms of core count, the Threadripper 9000 chips still offer 12% more cores (96 vs 86). Furthermore, Zen 5 is a very efficient architecture, so it will be interesting to see how the next-gen Intel Xeon Workstation fares against the competition. AMD's CPUs also offer 80-128 PCIe Gen 5 lanes, up to 384 MB of cache, and up to 350W TDPs. So it looks like the fight is going to be really close.

However, one thing to consider is that both AMD and Intel segment their workstation lineups into two tiers. For Intel, they have their new W890 platform coming with Granite Rapids-WS Xeon CPUs, with the mainstream tier offering 4-channel DDR5 support and 80 PCIe Gen5 lanes, while the Expert tier is offering 8-channel DDR5 support and 128 PCIe Gen5 lanes. The W890 chipset itself has 24 PCIe Gen4 lanes and 8 lanes dedicated to GMI.

The W890 platform will also feature the newer LGA 4710 socket, which means that AMD users have an advantage as they can easily upgrade their Threadripper 7000 to the new Threadripper 9000 lineup, while those who invested in current Xeon Workstation platforms will have to upgrade their entire platforms when moving to Granite Rapids-WS Xeon.

Intel HEDT/Workstation Processor Families:

Intel HEDT Family	Granite Rapids	Sapphire Rapids Refresh	Sapphire Rapids	Cascade Lake	Skylake	Skylake	Skylake	Broadwell	Haswell	Ivy Bridge	Sandy Bridge	Gulftown
Process Node	Intel 3	10nm ESF	10nm ESF	14nm++	14nm+	14nm+	14nm+	14nm	22nm	22nm	32nm	32nm
Flagship SKU	TBD	Xeon W9-3595X Xeon W7-2595X	Xeon W9-3495X Xeon W7-2495X	Core i9-10980XE	Xeon W-3175X	Core i9-9980XE	Core i9-7980XE	Core i7-6950X	Core i7-5960X	Core i7-4960X	Core i7-3960X	Core i7-980X
Max Cores/Threads	86/172?	60/120 26/52	56/112 24/48	18/36	28/56	18/36	18/36	10/20	8/16	6/12	6/12	6/12
Clock Speeds	TBD	4.8 GHz	4.8 GHz	3.00 / 4.80 GHz	3.10/4.30 GHz	3.00/4.50 GHz	2.60/4.20 GHz	3.00/3.50 GHz	3.00/3.50 GHz	3.60/4.00 GHz	3.30/3.90 GHz	3.33/3,60 GHz
Max Cache	TBD	105 MB L3	105 MB L3	24.75 MB L3	38.5 MB L3	24.75 MB L3	24.75 MB L3	25 MB L3	20 MB L3	15 MB L3	15 MB L3	12 MB L3
Max PCI-Express Lanes (CPU)	128 Gen 5	112 Gen 5	112 Gen 5	44 Gen3	44 Gen3	44 Gen3	44 Gen3	40 Gen3	40 Gen3	40 Gen3	40 Gen2	32 Gen2
Chipset Compatiblity	W890	W790	W790	X299	C612E	X299	X299	X99 Chipset	X99 Chipset	X79 Chipset	X79 Chipset	X58 Chipset
Socket Compatiblity	LGA 4710?	LGA 4677	LGA 4677	LGA 2066	LGA 3647	LGA 2066	LGA 2066	LGA 2011-3	LGA 2011-3	LGA 2011	LGA 2011	LGA 1366
Memory Compatiblity	DDR5-6000?	DDR5-4800	DDR5-4800	DDR4-2933	DDR4-2666	DDR4-2800	DDR4-2666	DDR4-2400	DDR4-2133	DDR3-1866	DDR3-1600	DDR3-1066
Max TDP	350W?	350W	350W	165W	255W	165W	165W	140W	140W	130W	130W	130W
Launch	2025?	2024	2023	Q4 2019	Q4 2018	Q4 2018	Q3 2017	Q2 2016	Q3 2014	Q3 2013	Q4 2011	Q1 2010
Launch Price (Top SKU)	TBD	TBD	$5889	$979 US	~$4000 US	$1979 US	$1999 US	$1700 US	$1059 US	$999 US	$999 US	$999 US

News Source: Momomo_US

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