Intel's 56-Core Sapphire Rapids Tested: Faster Than 64-Core EPYC

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First benchmark results for Intel's Xeon Platinum 8480+ emerge.

Sapphire Rapids
(Image credit: Intel)
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Without any doubt, Intel's 4th Generation Xeon Scalable 'Sapphire Rapids' server processors are among the highly anticipated products in 2022. The CPUs were delayed several times, and their specifications remain a mystery. But as Intel's partners are testing samples of the new processors, their benchmark results inevitably emerge in various databases. This time around, someone posted results from Intel's 56-core Xeon Platinum 8480+ processor to Primate Labs's Geekbench 5 database. 

As the name suggests, Intel's 56-core Xeon Platinum 8480+ with 112MB L2 cache and 105MB L3 cache belongs to the company's crème-de-la-crème server CPUs with all cores and features (AMX, AVX-512, CXL, DSA, etc.) enabled. Considering Intel's 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable nomenclature, we may be dealing with the new top-of-the-range SKU.  

Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Hooda Thunkett
    I'm wondering how their multi-core results can be so much higher with 56 cores than Epyc at 64 cores if their single core results are so much lower? Can these cores run more than 2 threads each or something?
    Reply
  • jeremyj_83
    Hooda Thunkett said:
    I'm wondering how their multi-core results can be so much higher with 56 cores than Epyc at 64 cores if their single core results are so much lower? Can these cores run more than 2 threads each or something?
    Considering how much faster the 7763X is compared to the 7763 my guess is memory bandwidth. The SPR chip has 8 channel DDR5-4800. That gives it 307GB/sec bandwidth or 5.5GB/sec/core compared to 205GB/sec or 3.2GB/sec/core on the Epyc. With the inclusion of the 3D V-cache the 7763X is able to get around some of the bandwidth constraints seen in the 7763. Similar to how the Infinity Cache in the Radeon 6000 series helps reduce traffic on the VRAM bus so it can use a 256bit bus instead of a 384bit like nVidia.
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    useless benchmark however since nobody runs geekbench on a server.
    Reply
  • jeremyj_83
    Makaveli said:
    useless benchmark however since nobody runs geekbench on a server.
    That is absolutely correct. Geekbench by itself is a garbage metric but places still use it.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    Hooda Thunkett said:
    I'm wondering how their multi-core results can be so much higher with 56 cores than Epyc at 64 cores if their single core results are so much lower? Can these cores run more than 2 threads each or something?
    Looks like the xeon was locked at 2Ghz in both single and multi, while the epyc was running 3.5 in single but 2.5 in multi.
    Maybe the xeon is still an ES that doesn't have turbos implemented.

    If you divide the multi score of the xeon by 56 you get very close to the single core which would confirm that both where run at the same speed, while for the epyc it's way way off.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    Hooda Thunkett said:
    I'm wondering how their multi-core results can be so much higher with 56 cores than Epyc at 64 cores if their single core results are so much lower? Can these cores run more than 2 threads each or something?

    Since this is still a limited production test sample the boost parameters might not be correctly optimized yet. It could be turbo boost isn't kicking in for single core at all, but is functional for multicore actions. Until we know more about the specs of the CPU, there are a lot of possible reasons why this could happen.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    This server SoC won't be fighting Milan (or Milan-X for that matter), but Turin and Turin-X (plus the other Zen4 variants). From what we're seeing here (crappy test; agreed, but a test none the less), it's going to be a bloodbath. Intel needed this CPU/SoC out in the wild yesterday.

    Regards.
    Reply
  • jeremyj_83
    -Fran- said:
    This server SoC won't be fighting Milan (or Milan-X for that matter), but Turin and Turin-X (plus the other Zen4 variants). From what we're seeing here (crappy test; agreed, but a test none the less), it's going to be a bloodbath. Intel needed this CPU/SoC out in the wild yesterday.

    Regards.
    Considering how ICL only got Intel to Rome they needed SPR released when Milan was released. SPR will still be at a RAM density disadvantage compared to Genoa since AMD is 12 channel vs Intel 8 channel.
    Reply
  • Mr_Bond007
    jeremyj_83 said:
    Considering how much faster the 7763X is compared to the 7763 my guess is memory bandwidth. The SPR chip has 8 channel DDR5-4800. That gives it 307GB/sec bandwidth or 5.5GB/sec/core compared to 205GB/sec or 3.2GB/sec/core on the Epyc. With the inclusion of the 3D V-cache the 7763X is able to get around some of the bandwidth constraints seen in the 7763. Similar to how the Infinity Cache in the Radeon 6000 series helps reduce traffic on the VRAM bus so it can use a 256bit bus instead of a 384bit like nVidia.
    More likely those results are a load of crap for the Intel or are for a dual socket system. The multicore performance is higher per core than for the single if only 56 cores in the system.
    Reply
  • jeremyj_83
    Mr_Bond007 said:
    More likely those results are a load of crap for the Intel or are for a dual socket system. The multicore performance is higher per core than for the single if only 56 cores in the system.
    You do realize that MT performance can be higher than the equivalent of just 56c due to these having SMT. That means there are 112 threads running and overall SMT can improve performance by about 20%.
    Reply