Intel Xeon 6: A Game-Changer for AI Performance with 90% Improvement Over Previous Generation, Introducing Xeon 6900P “Granite Rapids-AP” This September
Intel has revealed the first MLPerf performance metrics for its upcoming Xeon 6 CPUs, confirming that the Xeon 6900P models will debut in September. The company highlighted significant AI performance boosts with the new Granite Rapids AP “Xeon 6” processors in the recent MLPerf Inference v4.1 benchmarks.
The new Xeon 6 CPUs, Intel claims, offer up to 1.9 times the geometric mean performance improvement in AI inference when compared to the 5th generation Xeon “Emerald Rapids” processors. More impressively, the performance uplift is up to 17 times greater compared to the 3rd generation Xeon “Cascade Lake” series. These gains are attributed to integrated AI accelerators and newer instructions, including AVX-512 VNNI.
Intel submitted results across six MLPerf benchmarks for the 5th generation Xeon and the latest Granite Rapids “Xeon 6900P,” with tests available at MLCommons. These benchmarks—ResNet50, RetinaNet, 3DUNet, BERT, DLRM v2, and GPT-J—showed that the flagship Xeon 6980P achieved 1.9 times higher AI inference performance. Specifically, compared to the 3rd generation CPUs released in 2021, the new processors delivered roughly 17 times higher performance on BERT and up to 15 times higher on ResNet50.
Pallavi Mahajan, Intel’s corporate vice president and general manager of Data Center and AI Software, emphasized the importance of continuous investment for AI performance improvements. She highlighted the 17-fold increase in AI performance over the past four years, based on MLPerf benchmarks, and expressed excitement about ramping up Xeon 6 production with partners and customers.
The Intel Xeon 6 6980P features an impressive 128 cores, 256 threads, and clock speeds ranging from 2.0GHz to 3.2GHz. It offers 504 MB of L3 cache and has a TDP of 500W. This series includes additional models, with cores and threads ranging from 72 cores/144 threads to 120 cores/240 threads. September marks the launch of the high-end P-Core family Xeon 6900P, to be followed by the Xeon 6900E and the Xeon 6700P in early 2025.
Intel’s robust AI performance is critical for collaborating with its OEM partners—Cisco, Dell Technologies, HPE, Quanta, and Supermicro—who rely on Intel’s Xeon processors for their computing and server products. More details about the Granite Rapids AP “Xeon 6” CPUs will be disclosed during the official launch event in September.
