Intel is introducing new Xeon W processors. The company is releasing the processors in the Xeon W-3500 and Xeon W-2500 series with a maximum of 60 and 26 cores, respectively. These are updates to the existing Sapphire Rapids CPUs, which were released last year.

As far as updates go, the two new processor series are very similar to their predecessors, the Xeon W-3400 and W-2400 series. CPUs are becoming more like chips once again. Tileswhich is again produced using Intel’s 7-core process. Intel said during a press conference with reporters that the W-3500 is intended for high-end workstations, while the W-2500 is intended for more mainstream systems.

Both series are now equipped with more cores and in many cases also with slightly higher clock speeds. Intel is releasing W-3500 CPUs with up to 60 cores, compared to the previous maximum of 56. The maximum number of cores in the W-2500 series has also been increased: from 24 to 26.

The lower-end SKUs also have more cores than before. All of the new W-3500 processors have four to eight more cores than their immediate predecessors in the W-3400 series. All of the W-2500 chips have two more cores than before. Due to the higher core counts, the CPUs also have a larger L3 cache than before, as well as a higher TDP.

The number of PCIe 5.0 lanes remains the same across both series: 112 for the W-3500 series and 64 for the W-2500 variants. Memory support is also unchanged, with eight DDR5 memory channels for the W-3500 series and four for the W-2400 series. This translates to a maximum of 4TB and 2TB DDR5 memory respectively. Both series support ECC memory with DDR5-Rdimms. The higher the Udimms are not supported, the Intel confirms to media.

Intel shares several performance claims for its new processors. For example, the company claims that the 60-core Xeon w9-3595X is up to 2.8x faster than the Xeon W-2295 CPU in Chaos VRay export in Autodesk 3Ds Max. However, the W-2295 is based on the older Cascade Lake architecture and has 18 cores. The manufacturer also shared some benchmarks that compare the top-of-the-line Xeon W model to the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7985WX with 64 Zen 4 cores. For example, Intel claims that its CPU is up to 2x faster when upscaling video in Topaz Labs Video AI Pro and some Python workloads.

The new Xeon W processors once again use Intel’s existing LGA-4677 platform. They are therefore also compatible with existing motherboards using the W790 chipset, Intel confirmed to reporters. The manufacturer said that several companies will offer new W790 motherboards.