Intel Launches Xeon 600 Series Workstation CPUs

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After a long wait, Intel has launched its Xeon 600 Series processors dedicated to workstations. Codenamed Granite Rapids-WS, the new lineup is targeting single-socket workstations, with a strong emphasis on high core counts, large memory capacity, and extensive I/O for multi-GPU and storage-heavy configurations. The new chip family will replace the existing Sapphire Rapids?based Xeon W-2500 and W-3500 Series workstation chips and will go up against AMD high-end workstation equivalent, the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9000 Series. In total, Intel has 11 SKUs for Xeon 600 series and all are built around Redwood Cove P-cores, with no E-cores present. At the top of the stack sits the Xeon 698X, featuring 86 cores and 172 threads, backed by 336 MB of L3 cache. The chip runs at a 2.0 GHz base clock, boosting up to 4.8 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 3.0, or 4.6 GHz under Turbo Boost 2.0. Intel confirms that the 698X is fully unlocked, allowing overclocking, something still relatively rare in the Xeon workstation space.

They are paired with the Intel W890 chipset that offers up to 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes directly from the CPU. It features eight memory channels supporting DDR5-6400 RDIMMs, and up to 4 TB of system memory. Compared to the previous Xeon WS generation, Granite Rapids-WS brings larger L2 and L3 caches, CXL 2.0 support and updated platform features. Intel also highlights support for vPro Enterprise, as well as Intel Deep Learning Boost, including VNNI, AVX-512, and AMX, targeting AI inference and advanced compute workloads.

Intel claims up to 9% higher single-thread performance and up to 61% higher multi-thread performance compared to previous Xeon W-3500 and W-2500 processors. One slide also compares Xeon 600 to the Core Ultra 5 245K, where the Core chip leads in single-threaded and some CAD workloads, while Xeon pulls ahead in 3D scene rendering, photo-realistic rendering, and linear algebra, reflecting the expected trade-offs between desktop and workstation-class CPUs.

Pricing starts at $499 for the 12-core Xeon 634 and goes up to $7,699 for the flagship Xeon 698X. Several models will be available as boxed CPUs, while others remain OEM-focused.