New Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 48-Core Sapphire Rapids CPU benchmarks have been leaked showing competitive performance against AMD’s Milan.
Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 48-Core “Sapphire Rapids” CPU Deals Blowing With AMD’s EPYC 7763 64-Core “Milan” Chips
The standard discovered by HXL (@9550pro) Shows us an engineering sample of the Intel Xeon Platinum 8468, one of Multiple Sapphire Rapids-SP CPUs. Based on a previously leaked spec sheet, the Xeon Platinum 8468 will have 48 cores and 96 threads while using a 10nm ESF process node and Golden Cove infrastructure. The CPU is expected to have 105MB of L3 cache and 350W TDP. The CPU clocks are listed at 2.1GHz inside the Cinebench R23 and 800MHz inside CPU-z indicating that clock speeds are not even close to retail numbers.
The CPU tested is step six and we know from previous reports that the Sapphire Rapids-SP chips have gone through. Different steps to fix different bugs Which chips have encountered so far. It is reported that the CPU was tested under two benchmarks, one of which is Cinebench R23 and the other is V-Ray. The CPU was tested in a dual-socket configuration with 96 cores and 192 threads in total.
Starting with the Cinebench R23, the chip scored 90,411 points in the multi-core and 1351 points in the single-core. The CPU is definitely faster than retail EPYC Milan chips in a single core and comparable in multi-core tests since the EPYC 7763’s top score is around 90,000-95,000 points in the same test. This means that the EPYC 7763 is 8.5% faster in multi-threaded performance, a difference that can easily be overcome by the final retail hour speeds. The EPYC chip also includes 33% more cores.
0
19357
38714
58071
77428
96785
116142
Compared to the early ES EPYC Genoa chip, the Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 CPU with 48 cores and 96 threads or 96 cores and 192 threads in total is about 18% slower but again, the Genoa chip offers 33% more threads. The full potential of EPYC Genoa 96-core chips is limited to 256 threads as this is the maximum thread count.
We also have V-Ray where Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 48-Core CPUs are listed in a 4-socket configuration but were actually running in a 2-socket configuration. The CPU clock speed is rated slightly higher at 3.0 GHz and the score is rated at 85,766 samples. Here’s how the performance compares to other server chips:
0
16667
33334
50001
66668
83335
100002
Intel has moved the launch of the Sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon CPU to early 2023 so it looks like it will compete with EPYC Genoa-X & Bergamo CPUs by the time it’s widely available to x86 server customers. That kind of performance could have been competitive a few years ago against Milan but with a Zen 4 on the horizon things are looking bleak for Intel despite the surge in Ice Lake-SP that now looks pretty slim.
Intel Xeon SP families (initial):
| family brand | Skylake-SP | Cascade Lake-SP / AP | Copper Lake – SP | Ice Lake-SP | Sapphire Rapids | Emerald Rapids | Granite cliffs | Diamond Rapids |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operation knot | 14 nm + | 14 nm++ | 14 nm++ | 10 nm + | Intel 7 | Intel 7 | Intel 3 | Intel 3? |
| Platform name | Intel Borley | Intel Borley | Intel Cedar Island | Intel Whitley | Intel Eagle Stream | Intel Eagle Stream | Intel Mountain Stream Intel Birch Stream |
Intel Mountain Stream Intel Birch Stream |
| basic architecture | Skylake | Lake Cascade | Lake Cascade | Sunny Cove | Golden Cove | Raptor Cove | Redwood Cove? | Lion Cove? |
| Improved IPC (vs. previous generation) | 10% | 0% | 0% | 20% | 19% | 8%? | 35%? | 39%? |
| MCP (Multi-Slide Package) SKU | number | yes | number | number | yes | yes | TBD (maybe yes) | TBD (maybe yes) |
| Plug | LGA 3647 | LGA 3647 | LGA 4189 | LGA 4189 | LGA 4677 | LGA 4677 | to be announced later on | to be announced later on |
| Max core count | up to 28 | up to 28 | up to 28 | up to 40 | up to 56 | up to 64? | up to 120? | Up to 144? |
| Maximum number of threads | up to 56 | up to 56 | up to 56 | up to 80 | up to 112 | up to 128? | up to 240? | Up to 288? |
| Max L3 cache | 38.5 MB L3 | 38.5 MB L3 | 38.5 MB L3 | 60MB L3 | 105MB L3 | 120 MB L3? | 240 MB L3? | 288 MB L3? |
| vector engines | AVX-512 / FMA2 | AVX-512 / FMA2 | AVX-512 / FMA2 | AVX-512 / FMA2 | AVX-512 / FMA2 | AVX-512 / FMA2 | AVX-1024 / FMA3? | AVX-1024 / FMA3? |
| Memory support | DDR4-2666 6 channels | DDR4-2933 6 channels | Up to 6 channels DDR4-3200 | Up to 8 channels DDR4-3200 | Up to 8 channels DDR5-4800 | Up to 8 channels DDR5-5600? | Up to 12 channels DDR5-6400? | Up to 12 channels DDR6-7200? |
| PCIe Gen support | PCIe 3.0 (48 slots) | PCIe 3.0 (48 slots) | PCIe 3.0 (48 slots) | PCIe 4.0 (64 slots) | PCIe 5.0 (80 lanes) | PCIe 5.0 (80 slots) | PCIe 6.0 (128 lanes)? | PCIe 6.0 (128 lanes)? |
| TDP Range (PL1) | 140W – 205W | 165W – 205W | 150W-250W | 105-270 W | up to 350 watts | Up to 375 watts? | Up to 400 watts? | Up to 425 watts? |
| 3D Xpoint Optane DIMM | Unavailable | apache corridor | Barlow Pass | Barlow Pass | raven lane | raven lane? | Donahue Pass? | Donahue Pass? |
| Competition | AMD EPYC Napoli 14nm | AMD EPYC Rome 7nm | AMD EPYC Rome 7nm | AMD EPYC Milan 7nm + | AMD EPYC Genoa ~5 nm | AMD EPYC Bergamo | AMD EPYC Turin | AMD EPYC Venice |
| release | 2017 | 2018 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023? | 2024? | 2025? |
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