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 | |||||
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Icehawk - Thursday, January 31, 2019 - link
Yup. At the desktop level we have things like Adobe for $1k/seat/yr.Our big iron costs an order of magnitude more than these machines (recent orders were $150k ea and were mid-spec HP boxes). In the end most of the costs of a big server are memory and storage (SSDs). The high heat/energy consumption of this setup would be a concern, especially if in a colo.
jardows2 - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
What are you rambling on about? It's a solid performing product, at a much reduced price than Intel's normal markup. I don't get where you come off thinking this is a fanboy post, and you totally missed my point - why is it limited to so few pieces? In Intel's lineup, it's a winner, and there are plenty of people in workstation markets who will only buy systems with Intel CPUs. So for Intel to make a good performing product, at a much lower than normal for Intel price, but only make a couple thousand of them? What's going on over there?edzieba - Thursday, January 31, 2019 - link
Because this is a cherry-picked part from a low-run die production. Intel don't make many XCC dies, and only a handful will be able to tolerate the high voltages and frequencies of this part across all 28 cores. It's also not going to be a big earner at $3000, that may break even on production but probably a loss overall when you take R&D into account.mapesdhs - Saturday, February 2, 2019 - link
A movie company I know buys systems in such bulk, a CPU/system like this wouldn't even show up on their radar. They prefer systems they can buy lots of, for multiple sites with a common setup.People are arguing here about A vs. B, about the CPU cost, but as many have pointed out it's often the sw cost and availability which determine what a company will purchase. As for workstation use, especially the prosumer market, that has its own set of issues, especially whether a particular app is written well enough to exploit so many cores. Blender is, but Premiere isn't.
FMinus - Friday, February 1, 2019 - link
Or you can get two TR 2970W system and make them work in tandem for what I would think would be almost half the price at this point, considering you can buy this Intel gem only pre-built for probably well bloated prices.SanX - Friday, February 1, 2019 - link
Intel are killing good at particle movement -- 4x faster then TR2. Till AMD makes AVX512 they are still dead for scienceET - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
I find it amazing how application dependent performance is. Whether a product is a good buy depends so much on precisely what you're going to do with it, down to the application level.Still, on the whole, it looks like Intel has little to offer over AMD's much cheaper Threadripper platform.
BigMamaInHouse - Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - link
I think soon we gonna see "Leaks" about new TR64 cores, this "5GHZ 28C" stunt made AMD to release 2990WX instead just 24C 2970WX, now after the Fail attempt by Intel - We gonna see new leaks :-).FMinus - Friday, February 1, 2019 - link
Considering AMD was attending the same trade show, where Intel announced this 28 core chip and AMD a day later announced the new TR lineup, I'd say AMD planned to release the 2990WX regardless of what Intel had.mapesdhs - Saturday, February 2, 2019 - link
Yes, but the tinfoil hat industry is strong. :D