Currently the top-of-the-range desktop processor sector is dominated by AMD’s Threadripper after a long absence from Intel, and therefore a lack of competition. Well, within the road map that the multinational founded by Gordon Moore has, there are mentions about the W790 chipset, which will be designed for high-power workstations in the Xeon Sapphire Rapids architecture.
This processor will be launched for the market called Prosumer, the high-end or premium consumer range, which is made up of professionals who require a CPU power greater than what the most powerful desktop processor can offer at all times. Because of this, these computers make use of trimmed server central processing units, which at the same time make use of different motherboards than the rest of the desktop range.
New information from Alder Lake and Sapphire Rapids HEDT
The information comes from the hand of a certain Enthusiastic Citizen Stroke Monster, who in the Chinese forum Bilibili has dropped very juicy information from both Alder Lake and the Sapphire Rapids for HEDT. Starting with the desktop CPUs under the Alder Lake-S architecture (which will appear in a few weeks) the information that has been dropped is the following:
- i9-12900K (P8 + E8), 30 MB third-level cache and 12 MB second level, base frequency of 3.2 GHz and Boost of 5.2 GHz, Thunderbolt 3.0.
- i7-12700K (P8 + E8), 25 MB third-level cache and 12 MB second level, base frequency of 3.6 GHz and Boost of 5 GHz, Thunderbolt 3.0.
- i5-12600K (P8 + E8), 20 MB third-level cache and 9.5 MB top-tier, base frequency of 3.6 GHz and Boost of 5 GHz, Thunderbolt 3.0
- The integrated graphics is an Intel UHD 770, based on Xe-LP or DG1 architecture.
- They have a double memory controller, DDR4-3200 and DDR5-4800.
- As for the non-K versions of the processors, these have a maximum frequency that is 100 MHz below the models specified above.
- Heading into launch, all motherboards will be available this year with the Z690 being the first to appear, while the H670, B660 and H610 chipsets will do so later in the year.
The rest of the information is about the W750 chipset, which will be used with the version HEDT from Sapphire Rapids that will be launched in the third quarter of 2022 and therefore we will see them later than the Intel Xeon Scalable Processors on servers. That release date will coincide with that of the thirteenth-generation notebook and desktop CPUs, prompting us to rethink one question in particular.
Intel’s Upcoming HEDT CPUs Late?
If the rumors are true then we would find that Intel would release its Core Gen 13 for desktop at the same time as the core-based HEDT version for the twelfth generation, Golden Cove. Of course, in the number of high-performance cores, the Sapphire Rapids HEDT will have a greater processing capacity thanks to a greater number of Cores (it is speculated with 56 in total) and the fact of not using the so-called E-Cores.
The market for very high-end desktop CPUs is currently dominated unopposed by AMD and its Threadripper and this saves as a silver bullet the version with V-Cache of Zen 3 with which it could create a new family of its processor HEDT to block Intel’s attempt to return to that market.
We’ll see how things play out, but we’re surprised Pat Gelsinger’s aren’t launching their high-end desktop Sapphire Rapids at the same time as the Alder Lake-S.
