- Intel’s Xeon 600 series returns desktop workstations with up to 86 cores
- Eight-channel DDR5 and MRDIMM support delivers unprecedented memory bandwidth speeds
- All cores use Hyper-Threading for consistent performance in demanding workloads
Intel has returned to the desktop workstation market after almost three years with its new Xeon 600 series processors, offering up to 86 cores and clock speeds reaching 4.9 GHz.
Built on the Granite Rapids architecture, these chips expand the 2025 Xeon 6700P series and support up to eight channels of DDR5 memory and 128 lanes of PCIe 5.0 connectivity.
The line spans 12 to 86 cores, with memory capacities ranging from 4GB to 4TB, depending on DIMM configuration.
Memory and bandwidth improvements
These processors use the Redwood Cove microarchitecture, which Intel first introduced in its mobile chips and later expanded to deliver greater desktop performance.
All Xeon 600 CPUs support eight-channel memory officially rated at 6400 MT/s, while all five major SKUs include MRDIMM support capable of reaching 8000 MT/s.
This marks the first introduction of MRDIMM in desktop workstations, allowing memory from multiple ranks to be combined for higher transfer speeds.
Each CPU can handle up to 4TB of memory, doubling the capacity of AMD’s Threadripper Pro 9000 WX and quadrupling that of the standard Threadripper 9000 series.
These changes benefit data-intensive workloads on desktop workstations and high-end content creation systems.
The flagship Xeon 698X offers 86 cores and 172 threads, while other SKUs drop to 12 cores.
Unlike previous heterogeneous Xeon designs, all Xeon 600 CPUs use only performance cores with Hyper-Threading enabled, ensuring consistent execution across workloads.
The Xeon 600 processors also feature 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes and support for CXL 2.0. AMX accelerators on each core now support FP16 instructions, improving AI performance.
Intel claims up to 9% better single-threaded performance and 61% better multi-threaded performance compared to the previous Xeon W-2500 and W-3500 chips.
SPEC Workstation 4 benchmarks indicate gains in AI, financial services, energy, and life sciences workloads.
Apps like Blender and Topaz Labs reportedly benefit from built-in AMX accelerators.
Although these claims point to performance improvements, Intel has not released direct comparisons to AMD’s Threadripper 9000, leaving performance per dollar and real-world advantages uncertain.
Series
The new W890 motherboards from Dell, Lenovo, Supermicro and Puget are expected to arrive in late March 2026, although Intel has not confirmed a launch window for the boxed chips.
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