Intel Boosts Granite Rapids Xeon CPU Cache Up To 480 MB, 50% Increase Over Emerald Rapids

Intel Granite Rapids-AP "LGA 7529" CPU Specs Leak: Xeon 6980P With Up To 128 P-Cores, 3.2 GHz At 500W 1

Intel is bringing big cache uplifts to its next-gen Granite Rapids Xeon CPUs with top variants fitted with up to 480 MB of L3 capacities.

When Intel launched its 5th Gen Emerald Rapids Xeon CPUs last month, they brought a massive 3x uplift in cache capacities, jumping straight from 105 MB to 320 MB L3 cache. But the company will be offering another big improvement in cache capacities with its upcoming 6th Gen Granite Rapids Xeon CPUs which are expected to be released later this year (2H 2024).

According to a recent entry within the SDE 9.33.0 (Software Development Emulator) update, Intel has listed up to 480 MB of L3 cache for its Granite Rapids Xeon CPUs. A 480 MB L3 cache marks a 50% uplift over the Emerald Rapids CPUs which is a big increase and shows that Intel is keeping up with rivals from the AMD camp.

According to #Intel SDE 9.33.0, the L3-cache in #GraniteRapids increases to 480MB which is 1.5 times 320MB of #EmeraldRapids https://t.co/8dQo4RyWZN pic.twitter.com/jJw0zDCsVB

— InstLatX64 (@InstLatX64) January 20, 2024

For comparison, the standard AMD EPYC 9004 CPUs offer up to 384 MB of L3 cache so that's 25% more cache than the existing Zen 4 variants which have been available since early 2023. AMD also offers its Genoa-X 3D V-Cache boosted parts which offer a gargantuan 1152 MB L3 cache and Intel currently has no variants with such high cache capacities that compete with those though the blue team has stated that they plan on embedding 3D stacked cache on future chips. Whether we will see Granite Rapids use that technology remains to be seen but AMD has an edge & has a solution for those customers who prefer going the higher cache route.

Furthermore, Granite Rapids Xeon CPUs will be competing against AMD's EPYC Turin chips based on the Zen 5 core architecture which is planned for release this year. Those are expected to offer even higher cache capacities and will also come in the same 3D V-Cache "X" SKUs. So 480 MB of L3 cache may not be a huge deal by the time AMD releases its offerings.

Emerald Rapids 64 Core - 320 MB L3 Cache

Sapphire Rapids 60 Core - 112.5 MB L3 Cache

AMD EPYC Genoa 96 Core - 384 MB L3 Cache

AMD EPYC Genoa-X 96 Core - 1152 MB L3 Cache

It seems like Intel might still be playing catch up with AMD who offers more cores in the classic server ecosystem with up to 96 cores and 192 threads whereas its Zen 4C "Bergamo" chips offer 128 cores and 256 threads. Intel's answer to Bergamo comes in the form of Sierra Forest with up to 288 cores and bigger cache count too but the final numbers are still yet to be revealed. Intel looks very positive about its Granite Rapids P-Core and Sierra Forest E-Core Xeon CPU offerings for this year and AMD has a very solid portfolio to extend upon with Zen 5 so it appears that server CPU segments will see very good solutions from both companies in 2024.