Intel Launches 56 Core Xeon Platinum 9282 CPU to Counter AMD Epyc Rome

At Computex 2019, AMD’s new Zen 2 based Epyc Rome processor was able to squish the competing Intel Xeon chip, offering twice the performance at the same price point. Sure, Intel did say something about optimizations, but even after that, the 7nm part was significantly faster. So team blue was forced to fire up the 56-core Cascade Lake-AP processor to retain the performance crown, something they’re not used to doing. Continuing efforts on that front, Intel today announced the Cooper Lake family, packing 32 to 56 cores. However, unlike the latter, these parts will be socketed and use the LGA4189 design.

The same socket will also be supporting the 10nm Ice Lake based SP processors coming in 2020 Q2 or Q3. Under the hood, the Cascade Lake-AP and Cooper Lake carry the same two dies, each with 28 cores, essentially pairing two of the Xeon Gold chips that Rome easily crushed. However, unlike the former, CPX will be limited to 2S configurations with 8 memory channels per chip and 16 per machine.

This launch comes right before the Epyc launch tomorrow, but considering the efficiency and pricing, I doubt it’ll have a notable impact on AMD’s server ambitions. For example, the Xeon Platinum 9282 has a TDP of 400W and a cache size of 71.5MB while the top-end Rome chip tops out at around 225W and a massive cache stash of 256MB. Sure, the Cooper Lake part is going to be notably faster. But we’re also looking at 3-4 times the price. The new Epyc processors cost a maximum of $10K for the 64 core offerings while the Intel product is expected to be priced somewhere between $25K to $50K. That’s a lot of mullah.

Further Reading:

• No, Dr. Lisa Su Isn’t Leaving AMD for IBM
• AMD EPYC “Rome” 64 Core CPU Crushes Competing Intel Xeon Chips