Intel launches Xeon 6980P processor for US$17,800

The market for processors high-performance model has just gained a new protagonist that is attracting attention not only for its power, but also for its stratospheric price. THE Intel recently launched its newest high-end processor, the Xeon 6980P from the Granite Rapids series, with a value that will make many technology enthusiasts open their eyes wide open: US$ 17.800.

This release marks a new price record for modern x86 CPUs, significantly surpassing the US$11,805 price tag of AMD 96-core EPYC 9654 ‘Genoa’, its main competitor. With 128 high-performance cores, the Xeon 6980P represents Intel’s bid to regain leadership in multithreaded performance, a dominance that AMD has had in recent years.

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Other CPUs in the Granite Rapids line

The series Granite Rapids It’s not just limited to the top-of-the-line model. Intel also introduced other impressive processors, such as the 120-core Xeon 6979P, with a suggested retail price of $15,750, and the 96-core Xeon 6972P, priced at $14,600. These high prices reflect a change in Intel’s pricing strategy, which previously avoided such extreme price tags.

It is interesting to note that the Xeon 6972P, with its 96 cores, costs US$2,795 more than the AMD EPYC 9654, which has the same number of cores. This represents a cost of US$152 per core for the Intel chip, compared to US$123 per core for AMD.

Historically, Intel has maintained a more conservative stance on core counts, arguing that an excessive number could lead to contention, blocking, and cache overflow issues. However, competitive pressure from AMD, which adopted an aggressive core increase strategy, appears to have forced Intel to follow suit.

The only model in the new line that is more affordable than its AMD competitor is the 96-core Xeon 6952P, which has a lower base clock. This chip appears to be strategically positioned to offer a more competitive option in terms of price-performance.

Intel pricing change

It is worth remembering that in 2019, Intel launched the Xeon Scalable 8280L for US$17,906, but soon reduced its price to US$14,898. Around the same time, the 56-core Xeon Platinum 9282 ‘Cascade Lake-AP’ was released, but with limited availability and no public price disclosed.

Intel’s aggressive pricing raises questions about the company’s strategy to regain market share in the server segment, where AMD has made significant advances. It also highlights the growing importance of high core count processors in data center environments, where virtualization and compute-intensive workloads are increasingly common.

For consumers and businesses looking for massive processing power, these new chips offer impressive capabilities, but at a considerable cost. The decision to invest in such processors will largely depend on the specific needs of each application and the ability to effectively take advantage of all these cores.

Source: Tom’s Hardware