Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 48 Core “Sapphire Rapids” Processor Benchmarks Leaked, Tied With AMD’s Milan 64 Core Chips

New Sapphire Rapids 48-core Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 CPU SKUs have been leaked, showing competitive performance against AMD’s Milan.

Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 48-core “Sapphire Rapids” processor trades blows with AMD EPYC 7763 64-core “Milan” chips

The reference discovered by HXL (@9550pro) shows us a technical sample of the Intel Xeon Platinum 8468, one of several Sapphire Rapids-SP processors. Based on the spec sheet that leaked earlier, the Xeon Platinum 8468 will feature 48 cores and 96 threads while using the 10nm ESF process node and Golden Cove core architecture. The processor is expected to feature 105MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 350W. The processor is listed with clocks of 2.1 GHz in Cinebench R23 and 800 MHz in CPU-z, suggesting that the clock speeds are only not close to retail figures.

The processor tested is the 6th Stepping and we know from previous reports that the Sapphire Rapids-SP chips have gone through various stages to fix various bugs the chips have encountered so far. It is reported that the processor was tested in two benchmarks, one being Cinebench R23 and the other being V-Ray. The CPU was tested in a dual-socket configuration with 96 cores and 192 total threads.

As of Cinebench R23, the chip scored 90411 points in multi-core and 1351 points in single-core. The processor is significantly faster than retail EPYC Milan single-core chips and comparable in multi-core tests as the best EPYC 7763 scores around 90,000-95,000 points in the same test. This means that the EPYC 7763 is at best 8.5% faster in terms of multithreaded performance, a difference that can easily be overcome by the final retail clock speeds. The EPYC chip also features 33% more cores.

Compared to an early ES EPYC Genoa chip, the Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 processor with 48 cores and 96 threads or 96 cores and 192 total threads is around 18% slower, but again the Genoa chip offers 33% more threads in more. The full potential of the 96-core EPYC Genoa chips is limited to 256 threads, as this is the maximum thread limit.

We also have V-Ray where the 48-core Intel Xeon Platinum 8468 processors are listed in a 4-socket configuration, but it was actually running a 2-socket configuration. The CPU clock speed is rated a bit higher at 3.0 GHz and the score is rated at 85,766 samples. Here’s how the performance compares to other server chips:

Intel has moved the launch of the Sapphire Rapids-SP Xeon processor to early 2023, so it looks like they will be competing with the EPYC Genoa-X and Bergamo processors by the time they become widely available to x86 server customers. This kind of performance would have been competitive a few years ago against Milan, but with Zen 4 on the horizon, things look bleak for Intel despite the major uplift from Ice Lake-SP now looking too little.

Intel Xeon SP Families (Preview):

Family branding	Skylake-SP	Lac Cascade-SP/AP	Cooper Lake-SP	Ice Lake-SP	sapphire rapids	emerald rapids	granite rapids	Diamond Rapids
Process node	14nm+	14nm++	14nm++	10nm+	Intel 7	Intel 7	Intel3	Intel 3?
Platform name	Intel Purley	Intel Purley	Intel Cedar Island	Intel Whitley	Intel Eagle Stream	Intel Eagle Stream	Intel Mountain Stream Intel Birch Stream	Intel Mountain Stream Intel Birch Stream
Basic Architecture	celestial lake	Cascades Lake	Cascades Lake	sunny cove	golden cove	Raptor Cove	Redwood Bay?	Lion’s Cove?
Improved CPI (Vs Prev Gen)	ten%	0%	0%	20%	19%	8%?	35%?	39%?
References MCP (Multi-Chip Package)	Nope	Yes	Nope	Nope	Yes	Yes	To be determined (maybe yes)	To be determined (maybe yes)
Socket	LGA 3647	LGA 3647	LGA 4189	LGA 4189	LGA 4677	LGA 4677	To be determined	To be determined
Maximum number of cores	Up to 28	Up to 28	Up to 28	Up to 40	Up to 56	Up to 64?	Up to 120?	Up to 144?
Maximum number of threads	Up to 56	Up to 56	Up to 56	Up to 80	Up to 112	Up to 128?	Up to 240?	Up to 288?
Maximum L3 Cache	38.5 MB L3	38.5 MB L3	38.5 MB L3	60 MB L3	105 MB L3	120 MB L3?	240 MB L3?	288 MB L3?
Vector engines	AVX-512/FMA2	AVX-512/FMA2	AVX-512/FMA2	AVX-512/FMA2	AVX-512/FMA2	AVX-512/FMA2	AVX-1024/FMA3?	AVX-1024/FMA3?
Memory Support	6 channel DDR4-2666	DDR4-2933 6 channels	Up to 6 DDR4-3200 channels	Up to 8 DDR4-3200 channels	Up to 8 DDR5-4800 channels	Up to 8 channels DDR5-5600?	Up to 12 DDR5-6400 channels?	Up to 12 DDR6-7200 channels?
PCIe generation support	PCIe 3.0 (48 lanes)	PCIe 3.0 (48 lanes)	PCIe 3.0 (48 lanes)	PCIe 4.0 (64 lanes)	PCIe 5.0 (80 lanes)	PCIe 5.0 (80 lanes)	PCIe 6.0 (128 lanes)?	PCIe 6.0 (128 lanes)?
TDP range (PL1)	140W-205W	165W-205W	150W-250W	105-270W	Up to 350W	Up to 375W?	Up to 400W?	Up to 425W?
Xpoint Optane 3D DIMMs	N / A	Apache pass	Barlow Collar	Barlow Collar	Raven Pass	Raven Pass?	Donahue Pass?	Donahue Pass?
Competition	AMD EPYC Naples 14nm	AMD EPYC Rome 7nm	AMD EPYC Rome 7nm	AMD EPYC Milan 7nm+	AMD EPYC Genoa ~5nm	AMD EPYC Bergamo	AMD EPYC Torino	AMD EPYC Venice
Launch	2017	2018	2020	2021	2022	2023?	2024?	2025?