Intel’s Xeon 600 Brings Granite Rapids Muscle To High-End Desktops

Some folks act as if Intel and AMD have killed off the "high-end desktop" or HEDT market, but that's never really been the case. Instead, what happened is that mainstream desktops went from a maximum of four cores to 16 - 24 cores basically overnight, propelling HEDT systems out of reach for most enthusiasts. If you want a processor with more cores than you can shake a stick at, though—exclusively P-cores, too—as well as a humongous pile of PCI Express connectivity and memory bandwidth, Intel and AMD will gladly sell you one.

What Make Intel's Xeon 600 Processors Unique?

Indeed, that's exactly what Intel is announcing today: the Xeon 600 Processors for Client Workstations, which replace both the extant Xeon W-2500 and Xeon W-3500 series CPUs. As Intel says, it's doing a bit of product stack compression with this release, but we'll get into ...