Intel launches Xeon W-2500 and W-3500 CPUs, the refresh of Sapphire Rapids

Intel has launched the new W-2500 and W-3500 series of its professional-grade Xeon processors. The models are a refresh of the Sapphire Rapids architecture, offering SKUs with more cores for basically the same price as the original releases.

As the numbers in the names indicate, the W-3500 series features the most advanced models. These are Xeon processors that start at 16 cores and go up to 60, all with hyperthreading – unlike Intel’s domestic solutions. In general terms, the variants here received between 4 and 8 more cores compared to their predecessors.

Moving on to the W-2500 we have more affordable variants that start under $1,000. The options here have received 2 cores over the previous models, starting with the W3-2525 with a total of 8 cores, up to the W7-2595X which offers 26. Also all with hyperthreading.

There are 7 new SKUs in each series of Xeon Sapphire Rapids Refresh processors. Each family also has four unlocked overclocking models, which are the variants that appear with an X in the name in the tables.

Xeon for more basic workstations

Like most “refresh” processors, the new Xeon W-2500 and W-3500 are not the most expensive and advanced processor options that Intel offers in the professional segment. In fact, they are among the basic and intermediate solutions for those looking for this type of product.

More high-performance processors:

This year we saw the launch of the Xeon 6, which achieves an even more impressive core count. The Xeon 6900P (Granite Rapids), for example, will arrive this year with 128 cores. Going into next year we will have the Xeon 6900E (Sierra Forest) reaching up to 288 cores.

But it’s always worth remembering that core count alone doesn’t guarantee a processor’s performance. We recently heard that Amazon’s exclusive CPU, Graviton4, beats several current Xeons in synthetic tests.

Source: Tom’s Hardware