Intel Xeon Gold 6146 12-Core/24-Thread Processor Review

Bohs Hansen / 7 years ago

Final Thoughts and Pricing

Pricing

The official MSRP for Intel’s Xeon Gold 6146 is $3286.00. At the time of review, I could not find this actual CPU listed on Amazon. There are pre-built servers with the CPU, so it is possible to get it. Other shops might also have it in stock, so check your favourite server-hardware retailer. Other SKUs from the Xeon Gold lineup are available.

Conclusion

The Intel Xeon Gold 6146 is no cheap processor and neither are the rest of the components you’ll need. That said, it is well worth it in every way. At least if you need the performance it has to offer, and it does have a lot of that. The computing power is amazing on its own, but you don’t have to stick with just one. With the scalability of the series, you can set up a system with two, four, or eight instead.

While the performance of the Xeon Gold 6146 is great, there is a thing to keep in mind. This isn’t the best of the new series. You can go even further, but only if you need to. We get a strong performance with the Gold 6146 beating dual-CPU setups of the previous generation in most scenarios. That’s impressive! A job well-done!

First-Time Features

The new Xeon Scalable architecture is available with integrated Omni-Path Architecture. The Host Fabric Interface in the CPU offers end-to-end high-bandwidth and low-latency for an optimized performance and ease of deployment. It eliminates the need for a discrete host fabric interface card in your HPC clusters.

We also get chipset-based hardware acceleration through Intel QAT. With it, you get a greater efficiency when working with compression and cryptographic workloads.

Improved Features

There are the obvious improvements when we compare to the predecessor such as higher per-core performance. The memory bandwidth and capacity were increased by 50% and we get a six-channel memory setup vs a four channel of the predecessor.

There are more PCIe 3.0 lanes too. 48 lanes of PCIe 3.0 bandwidth allows you to run intensive I/O workloads. The Ultra Path Interconnect (UPI) offers up to three channels, allowing for an interconnection of up to eight sockets.

General performance is increased through features too. Intel worked on the AVX-512 vector extension too which offers double the flops per clock cycle when compared to AVX2. You also get a near-zero encryption overhead, thus eliminating the choice between safety and performance.

Pros

Good Scalability
Great Performance
48 PCIe 3.0 Lanes
Six-Channel Memory
Lower TCO when compared to predecessor

Cons

Difficult to get hold of at the time of review

“Intel is back to show how server processors should be made. The Xeon Gold 6146 performs so well, it beats dual-core setups from the previous generation.”