The impressive 128-core processor from Intel becomes the most expensive, the Xeon 6980P is priced more than double that of its AMD competitor, the EPYC 9754.
Intel aims to position the 6900P family as a high-end option.
The new Intel Xeon 6900P "Granite Rapids" processor family has been launched, and initial assessments indicate that it presents strong competition against AMD's EPYC processors. The flagship model, the 6980P, features 128 high-performance cores and 256 threads, operating at a clock speed of 2.0 GHz and with an L3 cache of 504MB.
Until now, many details about the 6980P processor were known, but its price remained a mystery. Based on estimates of other processors and some well-founded conjectures, it had been suggested that it could reach a surprising cost of $24,980. However, Intel has updated its Ark database with the prices of its new Xeon 6900 series, revealing that it is more affordable than anticipated, although it still isn't considered cheap.
The Xeon 6980P is priced at $17,800, making it the most expensive x86 CPU on the current market. In contrast, AMD's EPYC 9754 "Bergamo" processor, which also has 128 cores, has a list price of $11,900, representing a significant difference of nearly $6,000; in fact, it can be found for around $8,500, or half the price of Intel’s processor.
Prices for other models in the 6900 series are also noteworthy. The Xeon 6979P with 120 cores is listed at $15,750 ($131 per core), and the Xeon 6972P with 96 cores at $14,600 ($152 per core), which, according to Tom’s Hardware, is $2,795 more than AMD's EPYC 9654 with 96 cores ($123 per core). Meanwhile, the Xeon 6960P, which features 72 cores, is offered at $13,750 ($191 per core), positioning itself as one of the most expensive options per core within its range despite having fewer cores.
Interestingly, Intel is presenting the Xeon 6952P with 96 cores at a price of $11,400 ($119 per core), making it the only Granite Rapids processor currently cheaper than AMD's EPYC 9654.
Historically, Intel processors have not had prices as high as the growing demand for multi-thread performance from AMD. This shift could indicate a new pricing strategy from Intel to establish itself as a premium option or reflect the high production costs of this new generation of processors.
