Skip to main content

Intel’s 48-thread, 24-core Xeon superchip will cost nearly $9,000

intel announces xeon e7 8894 v4 processor
Image used with permission by copyright holder
There is plenty of debate over whether AMD’s Ryzen release represents a real challenge for Intel’s CPU business. Recently leaked information implies that AMD is so confident about Ryzen’s performance that it may not be relying solely on lower prices to combat Intel.

That doesn’t mean that Intel doesn’t have any market segments where it can be fully confident of remaining the performance leader. Its Xeon line remains the stuff of servers and other high-performance applications today and Intel fully intends on maintaining its superiority with the new Xeon E7-8894 v4, according to The Tech Report.

On Thursday, the Xeon E7-8890 v3 is Intel’s high-end option, running on the Haswell architecture and offering 18 cores and 32 threads with Hyper-Threading and a thermal design power (TDP rating of 165W). Now, Intel announced the E7-8894 v4, which manages to pack in 24 cores — running 48 threads given its Hyper-Threading support — at 2.4GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz, all of it staying within the same 165W TDP as the previous generation.

Intel pegs the increase at “3.69 times faster” than the Westmere Xeon E7 8870 and, compared more directly against the E7-8890 v3, performance increases of 25 to 50 percent can be expected. Regardless, the E7-8894 v4 will be a monster when plugged into servers supporting up to eight sockets and 24TB of RAM per node.

Of course, Intel’s new performance leader will be a price leader as well, coming in at a hefty $8,898. A fully stocked server with eight CPUs installed and plugging away crunching some serious numbers will, therefore, run more than $71,000 before any other system costs are considered.

Intel likely justifies that pricing level given support for all of the usual Xeon goodies such as NetBurst microarchitecture, along with the fact that anyone who needs this kind of performance will be willing to pay for it. For those people, the new chips are expected to be available for purchase in the first quarter of 2017.

Editors' Recommendations

Mark Coppock
Mark has been a geek since MS-DOS gave way to Windows and the PalmPilot was a thing. He’s translated his love for…
Intel Core i3 vs. Core i5 CPUs
Acer Aspire R7 core i5

As impressive as Intel's high-end Core i7 and Core i9 CPUs are, the value of performance per dollar is much better on the lower end of things. Core i3 and Core i5 CPUs offer powerful cores for gaming and work at a much more modest price than their higher-end counterparts. But which is best for your next system?

To help you decide, we put together a deep-dive look at the newest and best CPUs from Intel in both the Core i3 and Core i5 range. Whether you want to game all night on a prebuilt system or build a new PC for work-related productivity, this guide will help you find the right CPU for you.

Read more
Intel’s 28-core monster Xeon CPU might cost upwards of $4,000
intel could make billions off meltdown spectre insecure exploits processor

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich Intel

Intel's latest doomsday weapon in the CPU core-count arms race will release before the end of the year in the form of the Xeon W-3175X, which will be one of the most capable chips the company has ever created. Set to sport 28 cores and the ability to overclock to 5GHz (if industrial cooling is applied), it doesn't come cheap. The price tag looks set to be an eye-watering $4,000, at least.

Read more
Best Buy deals: Save on laptops, TVs, appliances, and more
best buy shuts down insignia line smart home products store 2 768x768

One of the best places to shop for almost anything involving electronics says so right in its name: Best Buy. The retail giant has a ton of departments with some of today’s most popular devices, components, and appliances for sale. It also offers a lot of these at a discount, which is certainly what we’re seeing right now. Some of the best TV deals, best tablet deals, best laptop deals, and best phone deals can currently be found at Best Buy, and those are just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve tracked down all of the best deals you can shop at Best Buy right now, so read onward for some gift ideas for yourself or a loved one and for some great ways to save.
Best Buy TV deals

There may be no better place to purchase one of the best TVs than Best Buy. There is almost always some huge savings to find on TVs at Best Buy, and that’s certainly the case right now. You’ll find deals top TV brands like Sony, Samsung, and LG, and more budget-friendly brands like TCL and Hisense are in play, too.

Read more