Intel’s 128-core wonder processor is also the most expensive CPU right now, the Xeon 6980P costing more than double its AMD’s 128-core rival, the EPYC 9754
Intel’s new Xeon 6900P “Granite Rapids” CPU family is here, and early reviews say it offers solid competition to AMD’s EPYC processors. The top model, the 6980P, has 128 powerful cores and 256 threads, with a clock speed of 2.0 GHz and 504 MB L3 cache.
We know a lot about the 6980P processor, but until now we didn’t know how much it would cost.
Based on estimates from other processors and some educated guesswork, The next platform suggested it would bring in about $24,980. Intel has since added the cost for its new Xeon 6 6900 series CPUs to its Ark database, and it’s actually more affordable than expected. That doesn’t mean it’s cheap, far from it.
Not cheap
The flagship Xeon 6980P costs $17,800, making it the most expensive modern x86 CPU currently available. By comparison, AMD’s EPYC 9754 “Bergamo” processor, with 128 cores, has a list price of $11,900 – a substantial difference of almost $6,000, and if you shop around you can easily get it for $8,500, half the price of Intel’s processor.
We also have prices for the other models in the 6900 series. The 120-core Xeon 6979P costs $15,750 ($131 per core), and the 96-core Tom’s hardware points out that this is $2,795 more than AMD’s 96-core EPYC 9654 ($123 per core). The 72-core Xeon 6960P costs $13,750 ($191 per core), making it one of the most expensive per-core options in the range, despite the lower core count.
Interestingly enough, Tom’s hardware notes that Intel’s 96-core Xeon 6952P, priced at $11,400 ($119 per core), is the only Granite Rapids CPU currently cheaper than AMD’s EPYC 9654.
Historically, Intel has not priced its processors as high as AMD’s multi-threaded performance on the market. This shift could indicate a new pricing strategy from Intel in an attempt to position itself as a premium option, but it could also be an indication of the high production costs associated with creating this new generation of CPUs.