Intel Xeon 658X Review: Granite Rapids For Workstations - ServeTheHome
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Home Workstation Intel Xeon 658X Review: Granite Rapids For Workstations
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Intel Xeon 6 658X 2
Somewhere between the shift in demand from desktops to laptops in the consumer world and the AI-based explosion in demand for high-end processors in the server world, Intel’s Xeon workstation parts have ended up in an unusual lull between the two extremes. Though a long-standing pillar of Intel’s CPU lineup for generations, the Xeon workstation lineup has not attracted the same degree of public attention it once did. Which is not to say it is not still important – as evidenced by the significant number of high-end workstations still sold for the traditional engineering and art markets as well as the burgeoning AI market – but Xeon workstation chips have certainly been treated as a more niche product in recent years.
Perhaps this is why Intel has been retooling the Xeon workstation brand. For its latest generation of workstation processors, the company has ditched its longstanding Xeon W-2xxx/W-3xxx processor branding, which, for several generations, was the naming scheme used for Intel’s server-based workstation chips. Fittingly, perhaps, it has been replaced by a variant of the branding Intel uses for its server chips, the Xeon 6 brand, giving rise to the Xeon 600 branding for their newest workstation chips.
Intel Xeon 6 658X 3<br>But whatever the reason, Intel has finally brought their Granite Rapids silicon to the workstation market. The first new silicon for workstation processors in over three years, the Xeon 600 family is intended to deliver a modest boost to single-threaded performance and a major boost to multi-threaded performance, while modernizing the rest of the platform built around them. With chips offering up to 86 CPU cores, 43% more than the previous generation, the Xeon 600 family is a much-needed update to Intel’s workstation platform.
To that end, following their announcement earlier this year, today we are finally taking a hands-on look at Intel’s latest workstation processors. With Granite Rapids cascading down from servers to workstations, we have already seen what Intel’s most recent high-end silicon can do in servers, but now it is time to see what it can do in a workstation. We are also looking to see how well it holds up against the stiff competition from Intel’s loyal opposition, AMD, and its rival Threadripper processors.
Granite Rapids In Brief
The release of the Granite Rapids Xeon 600 processors comes after an extended break in Intel’s Xeon workstation processor releases. After bringing Sapphire Rapids to the workstation market in early 2023 as the Xeon W-34xx/W-24xx series processors, Intel never brought Sapphire Rapids’ successor, Emerald Rapids, to the workstation market, likely because of the die configuration. Instead, the company rolled out a refreshed lineup of chips in 2024 that were based on the same silicon, with a slight bump in clock speeds and the number of CPU cores enabled.
As a result, Intel’s workstation platform has grown a bit long in the tooth over the years. In effect, it is similar to the...