4th Gen Intel Xeon W9-3495X – It’s a monster

Closing Thoughts

Before we started testing for this review we deliberately tempered our hopes. After all, we are effectively dealing with the P-cores from seven 12th Gen Core i7 or Core i9 CPUs in a very large package, and that sounds like a very curious combination. Even so, we were shocked to see a CPU power draw of 495W at a mere 2.9GHz and this is especially true when you consider the W-3400 family of CPUs are officially rated at 350W.

Our takeaway is that 4th Gen Xeon can easily run at higher clock speeds, however the brutal power draw is a major limitation. We have to hope the Emerald Rapids update will move things in the correct direction and after that Granite Rapids on the Intel 4 process should make further progress on power efficiency. The obvious point is that AMD is a moving target and Intel has an obligation to hit its targets and deliver on its promises.

Pros:

• Impressive performance from the high core count models.
• The price is competitive with AMD.
• CPU temperatures are icy cold.

Cons:

• Clock speeds are held back by the high power draw.
• The power draw is far too high compared to AMD.
• Sapphire Rapids has suffered delay after delay.

KitGuru says: Intel has returned to HEDT but we need improvements from their 5th Gen technology later this year.

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