Intel Launches their Xeon E series of Coffee Lake processors

Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors

Intel Launches their Xeon E series of Coffee Lake processors

Intel has officially launched their new Xeon E series of processors, CPUs that are intended for entry-level workstation products for professional use cases where reliability is key. 

The new Xeon E-series sit between Intel’s Mobile Xeon offerings and their high core count LGA-2066 Xeon W series of processors. This new series of products can also be seen as a direct replacement for Intel’s former E3 V6 series of processors, updating their processor architecture from Kaby Lake to Coffee Lake. 

Coffee Lake Xeon processors already exist in the form of Intel’s mobile-oriented Xeon E-2186M and E-2176M, both of which offer six total processing cores. 
 

Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors

Like all Xeon-class processors, Intel delivers customers increased product validation to ensure reliability and support for error correcting code (ECC) DDR4 memory, making these processors suitable for products where stability is a primary concern and system downtime could result in substantial costs to businesses.    

With the new Xeon E series, Intel delivers an unprecedented generation-over-generation upgrade, offering support for what Intel lists as a 1.36x performance boost over their previous-generation hardware and a 1.73x boost over their products from four years ago. This performance leap makes 2018 an excellent year for a system refresh. 

The upgrade to Intel’s Coffee Lake architecture allows Intel to offer increased core counts over their last-generation counterparts, upping maximum core counts from four total cores to six total processing cores. This change mirrors the leap made by Intel’s 8000-series of desktop processors. 

Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors

Intel estimates that the company’s new Xeon E-2186G processor can offer between a 1.36-1.45% boost over their last-generation Xeon E3 1285 v6 CPU. This is a substantial generation-over-generation leap for Xeon users and can deliver user significant productivity improvements and reduce waiting times for work completion. 

  
Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors

Intel has also highlighted that their new Xeon E processors are VR ready and suitable for the world’s growing professional VR market, offering compatibility with both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. VR has become more commonly used in arcade-style applications in recent years, dramatically increasing the need for high-performance professional-grade processors for VR and other pro-gaming applications. 

This release comes not long after the launch of HTC’s Vive Pro headset, which also delivers an improved SteamVR 2.0 tracking system that can provide a larger play area for future commercial VR applications. Intel sees this as an ideal market for their new Xeon E series of products. 

  
Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors

In professional workloads, time is everything, especially for video editors and high-end editing applications. Multitasking is also a desirable quality for high-end workstations, as this will allow workers to complete further work on systems that would otherwise be unusable. 

In a heavy 4K VR video merging workload, Intel has stated that their new Xeon E series of processors can offer time savings of 24%, delivering a lot of potential for increased productivity. 

  
Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors
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Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors

Specifications and similarities to the consumer 8000-series and H370 

When looking at Intel’s new Xeon-E series of processors, the Coffee Lake comparison is obvious, offering the same core counts and thread counts as Intel’s latest 8th generation consumer processors, at least on the high-end. 

Like previous-generation Xeon processor, Intel promises increased reliability and support for ECC DDR4 memory with speeds of up to 2666MHz, attributes that make these products useful for professional-grade workstations and other stability focused systems. Intel is not offering support for overclocking with their Xeon-E series of processors, which makes sense given their focus on stability with this new product lineup.   
 

Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors

Below are the specifications of Intel’s new Xeon E series of processors, delivering up to six cores, twelve threads and support for up to 64GB of 2666MHz ECC DDR4 memory. Like Intel’s 8000-series of desktop processors, Intel is continuing to use their LGA 1151 socket, though the company is moving to their new C246 chipset. 

Much like Intel’s new H370 chipset on the desktop side, the new C246 chipset offers support for USB 3.1 Gen 2 in silicon and integrated support for Intel Wireless AC, features that are not available on Intel’s Z370 chipset. 

  
Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors

Intel’s new Xeon E-2100 series of processors are not supported on the company’s older Xeon E6-compatible LGA 1151 motherboards, requiring an upgrade to C246. This new platform supports CPUs with up to six cores and a TDP of 95W and can sport up to six USB 3.1 ports, 10 USB 3.0 ports and eight SATA 3.0 ports. The chipset also supports four PCIe Gen 3 lanes over its DMI interface. 

  
Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors

Below are the specifications of Intel’s new Xeon E-2100 series of processors, delivering TDPs that range from 95W to 71W and pricing that spans from $193 to $450. 

As you can see below core/thread counts of 4/4, 4/8, 6/6 and 6/12 are available, with 4/8 core/thread counts being absent Intel’s current desktop processor lineup. Most of these processors offer support on Intel’s professionally certified USH 630P graphics, with some select SKUs like the E-2136 lacking an internal graphics component. 

Interestingly, Intel’s new Xeon-E 2086G processor offers slightly higher specifications than Intel’s i7 8700K desktop processor, providing an increased base clock of 3.8GHz, a 100MHz boost over its desktop counterpart. 

  
Intel Launches their 8th Generation of Xeon E processors 

Intel’s new entry-level Xeon users will see a substantial generational performance boost when upgrading to the company’s latest processors, mostly thanks to the increased core/thread counts that are offered by the Coffee Lake CPU architecture. 

You can join the discussion on Intel’s new entry-level Xeon E-2100 series of professional-grade processors on the OC3D Forums.Â