The Intel Xeon W-3175X Review: 28 Unlocked Cores, $2999
by Ian Cutress on January 30, 2019 9:00 AM ESTTest Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
We changed Intel's reference system slightly from what they sent us, for parity. We swapped out the storage for our standard SATA drive (mostly due to issues with the Optane drive supplied), and put in our selection of GPUs for testing.
Xeon W-3175X System As Tested | |
Item | |
CPU | Intel Xeon W-3175X |
CPU Cooler | Asetek 690LX-PN |
Motherboard | ASUS Dominus Extreme |
Memory | 6 x 8GB Samsung DDR4-2666 RDIMM |
Storage | Crucial MX200 1TB |
Video Card | Sapphire RX 460 2GB for CPU MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8GB for Gaming |
Chassis | Anidees AI Crystal XL AR |
Power Supply | EVGA 1600W T2 Titanium |
Other systems tested followed our usual testing procedure.
Test Setups | |||||
Intel HEDT | i9-9980XE i9-7980XE |
ASRock X299 OC Formula |
P1.40 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x4GB DDR4-2666 |
AMD TR4 | TR2 2970WX TR2 2920X |
ASUS ROG X399 Zenith |
1501 | Enermax Liqtech TR4 |
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 4x8GB DDR4-2933 |
TR2 2990WX TR2 2950X |
ASUS ROG X399 Zenith |
0508 | Enermax Liqtech TR4 |
G.Skill FlareX 4x8GB DDR4-2933 |
|
EPYC SP3 | EPYC 7601 | GIGABYTE MW51-HP0 |
F1 | Enermax Liqtech TR4 |
Micron LRDIMMs 8x128GB DDR4-2666 |
GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
||||
PSU | Corsair AX860i Corsair AX1200i |
||||
SSD | Crucial MX200 1TB | ||||
OS | Windows 10 x64 RS3 1709 Spectre and Meltdown Patched |
||||
VRM Supplimented with SST-FHP141-VF 173 CFM fans |
136 Comments
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eva02langley - Thursday, January 31, 2019 - link
Forget to mention Omnium Gatherum - The Burning ColdPeachNCream - Thursday, January 31, 2019 - link
"On the power side of the equation, again the W-3175X comes in like a wrecking ball, and this baby is on fire."It's more like a Miley Cyrus licking a sledgehammer thing to me.
sgeocla - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
Computex 2018: Intel 28 core 5 Ghz out by end of year.February 2019: Intel 28 core 4.5 Ghz, costs 70% more than competing product.
Intel is early on promises and late on delivery as always.
BigMamaInHouse - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
The CPU is 3000$ + 1500$ MB+ ECC + eXtreme case/PSU/AIO.Thanks Ian Cutress for the honest review!
(unlike "JustBuyIt that gave this fail product(Total System) 4.5/5 rating vs 2990WX 3.5/5 because its expensive!")
Morawka - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
oh wow, i didn't realize the Dominus Extreme was so expensive.tamalero - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
We're getting a ton of "sponsored" BS articles lately that are cynical.eva02langley - Thursday, January 31, 2019 - link
WCCFtech gave the MSI 2080 TI lightning 1600$ GPU a 10/10 for value...FMinus - Friday, February 1, 2019 - link
RX 570 is 10/10 along with maybe the GTX 1060, everything else is going down the value ladder pretty fast from that point on. For any consumer/gaming oriented GPU that passes the $500 mark I'd give it -1/10 value score.DanNeely - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
The on stage demo was using a chilled water setup, that they managed to push that system higher than Ian could with room temperature water is only to be expected.jardows2 - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
This seems like a really good processor for a productivity station. I think, especially at the expected price, it would sell really well. That has me puzzled then as to why Intel would have such a limited run. The supposed figures is barely enough to send to review sites around the world, let alone have a profitable product line. If they produced 10X the amount of these, they'd probably sell them all. Why is Intel leaving easy money on the table? Something doesn't seem right about this picture.