Intel Unveils Xeon 600 Workstation CPUs With up to 86 Cores

Rumors around Intel possibly restricting Arc branding based on memory speed have circulated for weeks, but the company also rolled out new workstation hardware. Intel has now officially launched the Xeon 600 Series workstation processors, codenamed Granite Rapids-WS, aimed squarely at high-end professional systems.

As TechPowerUp reports, the Xeon 600 Series replaces the Sapphire Rapids–based Xeon W-2500 and W-3500 lineup and targets single-socket workstations. Intel positions the new family directly against AMD’s AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9000 Series in the premium workstation segment.

Xeon 600 Series focuses on pure P-core design

Intel built the Xeon 600 Series exclusively around Redwood Cove P-cores, skipping E-cores entirely. The lineup includes 11 SKUs, scaling from entry-level models up to an unusually aggressive flagship.

At the top sits the Xeon 698X, which packs 86 cores and 172 threads alongside a massive 336 MB L3 cache. The chip runs at a 2.0 GHz base clock and boosts up to 4.8 GHz using Turbo Boost Max 3.0, or 4.6 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0. Intel also confirmed that the Xeon 698X supports full overclocking, a rare move for a Xeon workstation processor.

New W890 platform unlocks PCIe and memory bandwidth

Granite Rapids-WS introduces the new W890 chipset and delivers up to 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes directly from the CPU. Intel pairs this with eight-channel DDR5-6400 RDIMM memory support, allowing configurations up to 4 TB of system memory.

Intel also expanded cache sizes compared to the previous Xeon workstation generation and added CXL 2.0 support. These changes target multi-GPU builds, high-speed storage arrays, and data-heavy professional workflows.

AI and content creation remain core targets

Intel highlights broad platform features such as vPro Enterprise and Intel Deep Learning Boost, including VNNI, AVX-512, and AMX. The company aims these processors at AI inference, advanced compute tasks, and professional content creation workloads.

According to Intel’s internal data, the Xeon 600 Series delivers up to 9% higher single-thread performance and up to 61% higher multi-thread performance compared to Xeon W-2500 and W-3500 chips. Intel notes that Core Ultra 5 245K can still lead in some single-threaded and CAD scenarios, while Xeon 600 excels in 3D rendering, photorealistic workloads, and linear algebra tasks.

Pricing starts at $499 for the 12-core Xeon 634 and climbs to $7,699 for the flagship Xeon 698X. Intel will sell some models as boxed CPUs, while others will ship exclusively through OEM workstation systems.

In related developments, Intel recently brought XeSS 3 to Arc GPUs through a driver update. Enthusiast users have already discovered a workaround that enables XeSS 3 on unsupported hardware, keeping Intel’s graphics ecosystem in active flux alongside its new workstation push.