Intel Xeon 6700E “Sierra Forest” CPUs Launched: Up To 144 E-Cores, 330W TDP, 34% More Efficient Versus AMD EPYC Bergamo

Intel is kicking off its next-gen server announcements with the launch of Xeon 6700E "Sierra Forest" CPUs with up to 144 cores.

The Intel Xeon 6700E "Sierra Forest" lineup is the first of the new server chips featured in the Xeon 6 family. This family will include both P-Core and E-Core variants launching at their respective timelines and for respective platforms. Intel states that the Xeon 6700E CPUs are optimized for performance per watt in high-density compute and scale-out workloads. These CPUs are said to be based around an open ecosystem with an open software & open platforms approach.

So what brought the need to separate the Xeon lineup into P-Core and E-Core offerings? Intel states that each CPU will be addressing a unique workload requirement. For the Xeon E-core chips, these workloads include:

Before diving into the details, Intel provides us with a brief layout of its performance uplifts with the Xeon 6700E lineup which is as follows:

Based on its presentation, Intel targets the Xeon 6700E E-Core line to data center customers who are running a 2nd Gen Xeon or older platform. Intel states that the new chips not only provide up to 4.2x faster performance and up to 2.6x perf/watt versus those, but users can save a lot of space, power, & money. A 66-rack Intel Xeon 6700E data center will provide the same performance as a 200-rack 2nd Gen Xeon-based platform while saving 84k Mwh of power through an operation time of 4 years and reducing Co2 footprint by 34k mt.

Intel Xeon 6700E E-Core Platform & Architectural Details

All of this sounds great but let's take a deep dive into the Xeon 6700E "Sierra Forest" E-Core family. Starting with the platform, Xeon 6700E CPUs will feature support on the LGA 4710 docketed platforms first in 1S & 2S configurations. This platform will feature up to 144 cores, up to 350W CPU TDPs, up to 8-channel DDR5-6400 and 8000 MT/s MCR DIMM support, up to 88 PCIe Gen 5.0 lanes and 4 UPI 2.0 links (rated at 24 GT/s).

Coming to the chips themselves, the Intel Xeon 6700E will only come in a singular compute die configuration with dual I/O dies within a singular package. The CPU is segmented into the following aspects:

The Modular Compute Die architecture houses the cores, CHA, LLC & Mesh Fabric along with the DDR5/MCR memory IMC on the compute tile. The Modular I/O die architecture features universal I/O stacks such as UPU, PCIe, CXL, and Intel Accelerator Engines on the same die and there are two of these on the Xeon 6700E CPUs.

Now for an architectural deep-dive into the Intel Xeon 6 E-Core family. The chips are based on the Intel 4 process node and use the Crestmont E-Core architecture which comes with a single-threaded core design, houses 4 MB of L2 cache per 4-core cluster, Enhanced AVX2 for AI & Vector operations (2x128), 64 KB L1i and 32 KB ECC L1d cache. The architecture is a 6-wide decode, 6-wide allocate and 8-wide instruction retire design with a 256 instruction out-of-order execution engine and 16 FP32 Flops per cycle.

Some of the newly added features to the Xeon 6700E E-Core CPU lineup include VNNI Int8 & BF16/FP16 (with faster convert) support and AES-256-bit / 2048 encryption key support.

Intel Xeon 6700E E-Core SKUs Overview

Moving over to the actual products, the Intel Xeon 6700E "Sierra Forest" CPU family will include a total of 7 SKUs which range from 64, 96, 112, 128, and up to 144 cores. These chips will offer up to 3.2 GHz clock speeds, L3 cache ranging from 108-96 MB, and up to 330W TDPs.

All CPUs will be available in 1S and 2S socketed configurations that will support up to DDR5-6400 (1DPC) speeds, and 88 PCIe Gen 5.0 / CXL 2.0 lanes across the entire family. The default accelerators on the lineup include 2 Intel DSA, 2 Intel IAA, 4 Intel QAT & 4 Intel DLB engines. The flagship SKU will be the Xeon 6780E & that along with the 6766E, 6740E, and 6710E will have a long-life availability of over 7 years.

Intel Xeon 6700E Performance - Sierra Forest Pitted Against AMD EPYC Bergamo

Intel also shares a few performance benchmarks & the perf/watt aspect of the Xeon 6700E E-Core lineup. First up, we have those generational comparisons against the 2nd Gen chips, offering up to 5.8x performance gain at 3.4x higher efficiency. Compared to the 5th Gen Xeon "Emerald Rapids" family, you are looking at up to 49% better performance at 66% higher efficiency 6780E vs 8592+).

Intel also shares performance comparisons against AMD's EPYC Bergamo CPUs which can be seen as the direct competitor to the Sierra Forest lineup as they tackle a similar market segment. The Xeon 6700E is said to offer similar performance which in some instances is up to 8% ahead (SVT-HEVC transcode) and in some cases, offers 83% of the performance (Server-side Java Throughput) but in all these tests, the 6700E E-Core CPUs offer much higher performance per watt, leading by up to 34% and 3% at the minimum.

Intel also highlights the lower power utilization across its Xeon 6700E portfolio in various server utilization scenarios. The sweet spot is mentioned to be 40-60% utilization which can offer up to 280W power reductions per chip while delivering an 18% uplift in performance versus 5th Gen Emerald Rapids CPUs.

This can lead to lower cooling costs in data centers too with the default out-of-the-box settings requiring no additional modifications or adjustments to get these efficiency benefits.

Some early customer testimonials are also shared with eBay mentioning up to +25% pref/watt vs the current competitive solutions and +90% pref/watt vs 3rd Gen Intel Xeon chips. SAP also highlights that they are seeing a 60% power reduction with the Xeon 6700E lineup which is quite impressive. As of right now, Intel has started shipping its Sierra Forest CPUs with up to 144 E-Cores to customers but that's not all, the company also has the higher-end 288 E-Core chips coming out in the first quarter of 2025 so stay tuned for those.