The benchmark result originated from @BenchLeaks, with the W9-3495X scoring 36,990 points in the multi-core stress test, and 1,284 points in the single core test. While the multi-core results are impressive, the single-core performance is an insignificant upgrade, just 6.6% faster than the Xeon W-3375. For the Xeon W-3375 Geekbench scores, we are averaging the chip’s score across all the results uploaded in the Geekbench 5 browser. The Xeon W9-3495X is an upcoming workstation CPU, featuring Intel’s new Sapphire Rapids server microarchitecture. According to Tom’s Hardware, this architecture represents a massive improvement over the previous generation Ice Lake hardware, with a 50% improvement in core counts – going from 40 to 60 cores – support for DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0, and support for other advanced features like the AVX-512 instruction set, DL Boost and AMX instructions. For all intents and purposes, Sapphire Rapids is the server/workstation version of Alder Lake, utilizing the same Golden Cove performance cores. But unlike Alder Lake and Raptor Lake, Sapphire Rapids will not utilize a mixture of P cores and E cores. Intel has already started to release server versions of Sapphire Rapids into the market, but is still preparing the workstation versions. Workstation models like the W9-3495X are meant for professionals asking for high performance computing in a normal ATX form factor. The platform will utilize W790 chipset motherboards, based on the LGA 4677 socket. The W9-3495X is the flagship part, and one of four SKUs that will support overclocking. If these Geekbench 5 results are to be believed, the W9-3495X will be a substantial upgrade to Intel’s previous generation Xeons thanks to the higher core counts yielding much higher multi-threaded performance. Just don’t expect single-threaded workloads to benefit much from the newer architecture. Sadly, we can’t make straight comparisons with AMD’s flagship Threadripper Pro 5995WX 64-core competitor and the W9-3495X results just yet, since the listed Geekbench benchmarks are all over the place. Some are significantly faster or slower than the W9-3495X, while others are almost the same. We must stress that all this information is based on just a single Geekbench 5 run, so take it with a grain of salt. We’ll have to wait for an actual release and third-party testing to see how it really performs.
