Intel Releases Kaby Lake Based Xeon E3-1200 v6 Processors

With every new generation of processors, Intel usually follows up their consumer release with mainstream Xeon processors. Based on the same LGA 1151 platform, the Xeon E3 processors are meant for workstations, small business servers. With the new Xeon E3-1200 v6 lineup, Intel is releasing a total of 8 processors based off of the Kaby Lake architecture launched earlier this year.

At the bottom of the stack, we have the E3-1220 v6 with 4 cores, 3.0 GHz base clock and 3.5 GHz boost clock. At the top end, we have E3-1280 v6 with 4 cores and 8 threads with Hyper-Threading, 3.9 GHz base clock and 4.2 GHz boost clock. The  E3-1220 v6 costs a mere $193 which is barely higher than the comparable i5 while the  E3-1280 v6 costs an exorbitant $612. Interestingly enough, the next one down, the  E3-1270 v6 clocked at 3.8 GHz base and 4.2 GHz boost with 4 cores and 8 threads costs just $328.

In addition to the regular pure CPU chips, we also have the E3-12×5 v6 chips with an iGPU as well. We have the E3-1225 v6, E3-1245 v6, and E3-1275 v6 with the P630. The P630 is just the professional version of the HD630 clocked at 1150 MHz. The Gen9 iGPU raises the TDP from 72W to 73W and adds H.265 encode/decode. Enterprise features like vPro, SGX and ECC memory support are enabled. Unfortunately, Intel is limiting the Xeons to just the C232/C236 though Optane Memory is supported via a simple BIOS update. With the increased competition from AMD’s Ryzen and Intel’s other budget enterprise offerings, it remains to be seen if this pricing and market segmentation will remain viable going forward.