Intel Granite Rapids CPU breaks cover with 120 P-cores in new benchmark — Xeon 6900P wields 120 cores, 240 threads, and 744MB cache

Intel's upcoming Granite Rapids chip has been spotted on Geekbench and shared on X (formerly Twitter) by user BenchLeaks . The Xeon 6900P chip, which boasts 120 P-Cores and 240 threads, received a 1,021 single-core score and a 7,155 multi-core score in a dual-CPU configuration while running Geekbench 6.2.1. for Linux AVX2.

The Xeon 6900P was running on the Intel AvenueCity RVP (Reference Evaluation Platform), which has two LGA7529 sockets. Each processor has 120 P-cores, equivalent to 240 threads. The Xeon 6900P also wields 744MB of cache, distributed in a 240MB L2 cache and 504MB L3 cache. It's a significant upgrade over Intel's previous Emerald Rapids processors. In a dual-socket configuration, we're looking at 240 cores, 480 threads, and close to 1.5GB cache. The test platform was also utilizing 2TB of memory. Granite Rapids supports DDR5-6400 and DDR5-8800 (MCR) memory modules.

The benchmark results were somewhat disappointing, but there was a reason for that. The Xeon 6900P was an engineering sample so that the final specifications could vary. However, the Geekbench 6 logs revealed that the 120-core chip was running at the base clock speed of 1.8 GHz. The actual performance is unknown since the Xeon 6900P didn't hit the boost clock speeds.

The Granite Rapids chip is the more performance-oriented processor in the Intel Xeon 6 lineup. On the other hand, Intel has already launched the E-Core-only Sierra Forest chip. This version of the Intel Xeon 6 is optimized for high-density computing and comes with 144 cores, although 288-core chip versions are expected to arrive next year.

The Granite Rapids chip's massive number of 128 P-cores makes it one of Intel's most powerful chips. However, this also means it has an enormous power draw, with leaks pointing to a 500-watt TDP. In a dual-socket setup, we could look at a power consumption of up to 1,000W. It won't be an issue since data centers procuring these chips also look for novel cooling solutions to accommodate the TDP power and cooling requirements.

Granite Rapids should hit the market before the end of this year. The Intel Xeon 6 chips will compete against AMD's EPYC (Turin) lineups, which consist of two branches. Granite Rapids, which goes up to 128 cores, will battle it out with the Zen 5 SKUs up to 128 cores. Meanwhile, Sierra Forest, with up to 288 cores, will contend with the Zen 5c parts that scale up to 192 cores.