Intel’s Workstation Refresh Chips Brace For Threadripper 7000. The Intel Xeon W-2500 series lineup has leaked, and it’s purportedly an update of the current generation W-2400 series based on Sapphire Rapids, but with a few additional cores enabled. This appears to be the company’s response to AMD’s impending Threadripper 7000 workstation CPUs, which will undoubtedly be a powerhouse.
Intel’s Workstation Refresh Chips Brace For Threadripper 7000
The leak comes from Yuuki Ans on X (previously Twitter) and includes the entire lineup for the W-2500 series. Every SKU on the list appears to have two more cores, a greater cache, and faster clock speeds than the W-2400 counterpart. However, these CPUs appear to still only have four memory channels and 64 PCIe 5.0 lanes.
This is supposedly all Intel has planned for Xeon W in the near future, as the leaker stated he was unaware of a possible W-3500 upgrade, which they theorised either does not exist or is postponed. The leaker also stated that Emerald Rapids (which is similar to Sapphire Rapids but not the same as Raptor Lake) may not come on Xeon W at all. Both statements contradict a previous leak that suggested a W-2500 and W-3500 series based on Emerald Rapids.
In terms of performance, this does not appear to be a significant upgrade for Intel. The w9-3495X is the fastest member of the W-3400 family, however, it only has 56 cores compared to the Threadripper 7980X’s 64 cores. The Threadripper Pro 7995WX has 96 cores, however, it is significantly more expensive than the 7980X and w9-3495X. With 26 cores, the leaked w7-2595X can only compete with the 24-core 7960X.
However, Intel’s plan appears to be solid here, as the W-2500 series dives beneath Threadripper 7000 rather than competing directly with it. Threadripper 7000 starts at $1,499 with the 7960X, while the cheapest CPU in the W-2400 is $359. The W-2500 could potentially be discounted in order to make the w7-2595X in line with the 7960X. Furthermore, Intel has AMD beat on PCIe 5.0 lanes, since non-Pro Threadrippers only have 48 lanes, whilst even the most basic W-2400 (and now W-2500) CPUs have 64.
Intel’s comeback to HEDT occurred a little under a year ago, and it appears that the Xeon W is now again in trouble. Ideally, Intel would have some CPU to oppose Threadripper 7000, but that CPU does not appear to exist currently. At the very least, Intel may concentrate on the low-end HEDT CPU area, which AMD currently does not compete in.
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