Intel getting back into HEDT? Sapphire Rapids coming the mainstream

[Grim5]

 

[tommoT.Striker]

I guess Intel will have spare dies from Sapphire Rapids as Epyc has eaten into demand for their CPUs. Intel long abandoned HEDT with the 10980XE being beaten by the 3950X and of course the 5950X. Threadripper 3000 operated on a different level that meant the 10980XE and X299 HEDT died quietly in the corner. Personally when I moved from my 3900X I would have gone for whoever offered the most cores at a non exorbitant price and only AMD were in the game, the W-3175X was a bit of a joke really.

But we know Intel loves to boast so they'll love to be able to say they have the most powerful CPUs like they used to. So, I welcome them back into the game, they can finally scale CPU cores. AMD thinks they can drop TR and only deal with the Xeon competing pricey TR Pro platform. Will they be happy if Intel comes in with 30+ core HEDT Sapphire Rapid CPUs with only Zen 2? I hope not.

When it comes to Sapphire Rapids though I wonder, as they crank up the clock speeds near 5Ghz how high the power usage will go. Servers are fine they can operate in the 3-4Ghz range.

 

[Journey]

AMD only need to re-badge a Milan-X EPYC CPU, then do an 'official' launch and it would end up beaten again, so seems like a headline grab from Intel as opposed to a serious long term contender.

Nice to see them throwing their hat into the ring again though, can win if you choose not to compete!

 

[Grim5]

Something MLID doesn't mention, he doesn't go into too much depth on archer . Sapphire rapids uses gracemont cores (the same big cores found on alder lake) and there is no little cores.

I find that very interesting because I'm amazed that they have engineering samples of sapphire rapids with 56 big cores at just 350 to 400w.must be some seriously high quality silicon

Doing some quick backnof the napkin math, taking alder lakes big core performance and adjusting down as the rumour says sapphire rapid reaches only 4ghz and then adjusting down some more for a lower bound (3ghz) I can get the likely range of performance for such a chip.


If real the 56 core sapphire rapid chip would score anywhere between 80k and 105k points in cinebench R23 depending on how high the all core clocks go. The 3990x scores 75k at stock and 3970x 45k at stock

 

[tommoT.Striker]

56 gracemont cores fully loaded, will surely be running well below 4Ghz, even at 3.4Ghz. Intel could only put 8 of them in Alder Lake to keep within a reasonable power limit.

Can't see it touching a 3990X, but wait with interest.

 

[LePhuronn]

Sapphire rapids uses gracemont cores (the same big cores found on alder lake) and there is no little cores.

The P cores are Golden Cove, the E cores are Gracemont.

He also mentions there are a few tweaks too, so the Golden Cove in Sapphire Rapids is not the same as the Golden Cove used in Alder lake's P cores.

 

[LePhuronn]

56 gracemont cores fully loaded, will surely be running well below 4Ghz, even at 3.4Ghz. Intel could only put 8 of them in Alder Lake to keep within a reasonable power limit.

Can't see it touching a 3990X, but wait with interest.

56 tweaked Golden Cove cores, not Gracemont; there are no E cores in Sapphire Rapids. To that end, up to 56 P cores should be hella tasty, but monstrously hungry and hot. Especially if Intel do go balls-to-the-wall and do a 5GHz boost as MLID posits. Over 400W I think he mentioned?

However, I don't think the 56 core is HEDT Sapphire Rapids, that's still the server part. The HEDT part falls into the "MCC" category (mid core count), so probably capped at 36 or maybe 40. That'll be easier for the 400W 5GHz boost.

 

[Grim5]

The P cores are Golden Cove, the E cores are Gracemont.

He also mentions there are a few tweaks too, so the Golden Cove in Sapphire Rapids is not the same as the Golden Cove used in Alder lake's P cores.

My bad mixed up the names, Intel is so confusing with all their code names

 

[Grim5]

56 tweaked Golden Cove cores, not Gracemont; there are no E cores in Sapphire Rapids. To that end, up to 56 P cores should be hella tasty, but monstrously hungry and hot. Especially if Intel do go balls-to-the-wall and do a 5GHz boost as MLID posits. Over 400W I think he mentioned?

However, I don't think the 56 core is HEDT Sapphire Rapids, that's still the server part. The HEDT part falls into the "MCC" category (mid core count), so probably capped at 36 or maybe 40. That'll be easier for the 400W 5GHz boost.

5ghz all core with 56 P cores, while I doubt it's possible without LN2 and way over 400w, it would score crazy high - somewhere around 135k in Cinebench R23, nearly double the score for a stock 3990x.

Perhaps it can do 5ghz on one or a few cores but I suspect all core clocks will be somewhere between 3ghz and 4ghz

 

[LePhuronn]

My bad mixed up the names, Intel is so confusing with all their code names

Don't worry, Raptor Lake uses Raptor Cove for the P cores, so at lest you have 1 gen with the same names