Intel’s Sapphire Rapids-AP Golden Cove HEDT CPUs could be launching in 2022
Intel is gearing up to duke it out against Threadripper
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Intel’s dominance over the CPU market was up for a fairly rude awakening after AMD’s Ryzen began to eat away at their market share. In the HEDT space, AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper and Threadripper PRO CPUs have dominated this category for some years now, but it’s looking like Intel is about to bite back against the red menace. According to TweakTown, Intel’s Sapphire Rapids-based Xeon CPUs are going to be using an MCM (multi-chip module) design and brand-new Golden Cove CPU cores. Poised to contain up to 56 physical Golden-Cove-based CPU cores, some of these cores will be able to reach GHz and beyond.
This is a great time for Intel to release brand-new workstation CPUs, as the segment has stagnated somewhat since the Zen 2-based Threadripper WX processors were released in 2021. But, with a new generation of systems, will come a new generation of high-powered workstation CPUs that we’ll hopefully have our hands-on later this year.
Intel Sapphire Rapids HEDT CPUs release date
Right now, there is no concrete release date for the Golden Cove-based CPUs, aside from the fact that we have a leaker, who says that the CPU will be out ‘by the end of this year’. This comes from leaker YuuKi_ANS, who has mentioned that these CPUs will be donated as ‘AP’ variants, instead of the ‘X’ moniker that we’ve seen previously. Previous rumors have suggested that we’ll see consumer-focussed SKUs released first, before then diversifying into the commercial CPUs that usually live in a server farm somewhere. Further details about these CPUs remain relatively light, and to stress, this SKU on the consumer side should be for the power-users only. It will also support extremely fast DDR5 RAM, meaning that this platform may be pretty spicy. In addition to this, these chips are expected to run around 350w for the highest-end SKU, meaning that there’s going to drink a significant amount of power.
What’s next for Intel’s workstations?
Intel is clearly preparing to dethrone Threadripper with their next workstation CPUs, so expect their release alter in 2022. However, AMD is clearly poised to also come in hot with their own next-generation Threadripper systems, which are going to be primed to stoke up some competition between the two teams in the premium consumer and workstation markets. Obviously, expect a new socket and motherboard along with the release of these new CPUs. WE’ll be sure to keep a keen eye on what Intel is going to have in store for us later this year, so watch this space. Some may be concerned about Intel’s capacity for being able to get a decent number of the CPUs actually manufactured, as there’s a global chip shortage and all, but rest assured that it’s likely that these CPUs will be fairly low-volume, meaning that you’re not going to have to wait around to get your hands on one if you actually have a need for a workstation-level CPU, then you should be able to get one. But, don’t hold us to that, as yields on a chip like this for next-generation hardware can get fairly messy, very quickly.
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