Update - 1/31/24 1:50 p.m. ET: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the W9-3495X had 58 cores. The story has been updated to reflect that the W9-3495X has 56 cores, not 58.
Rumors of a W-3500 series HEDT refresh are apparently legitimate. A new Geekbench 6 listing was spotted by Benchleaks on X (formerly Twitter), featuring benchmark results of a mysterious new Xeon HEDT part: the Xeon W9-3595X (with 60 cores). The new chip is, however, slower than its predecessor, the W9-3495X (with 56 cores) in both single- and multi-core benchmarks — but at least now we know that a potential W-3500 Fishhawk Falls refresh is on the horizon.
The 60-core W9-3595X scored 1,611 points in the single-core benchmark and 17,118 points in the multi-core benchmark. Intel's W9-3495X was 22% quicker in the single-core test, with 2,088 points, and 9% faster in the multi-threaded benchmark, with 18,872 points.
It is a shame that the newer part is slower than its predecessor in this particular benchmark, but it is obvious that the W9-3595X spotted in Geekbench 6 is a prototype of some sort. Geekbench 6 recorded a peak CPU clock frequency of just 2.884GHz, which explains the performance disparity. The W9-3495X has a maximum-rated boost clock of 4.8GHz with Turbo Boost Max 3.0 — twice the frequency of what the W9-3595X achieved.
Regardless, the new Geekbench 6 result does point to a Fishhawk Falls refresh for Intel's outgoing HEDT workstation platform. We first heard rumors of this refresh several months ago, for the W-3500 series as well as a new W-2500 series. The leaks regarding the W-2500 series, in particular, noted that the series would be gaining two additional cores, higher clocks, and more cache, to better differentiate the W-2500 from the W-2400 series.
We haven't seen any noteworthy spec leaks for the W-3500 series until now — apparently the W-3500 series will receive a similar update. The W9-3595X seen in the Geekbench 6 listing has 60 cores (vs. the W9-3495X's 56 cores) and more cache.
The minute spec bump shows that Intel is desperately trying to stay competitive in the HEDT space. With the launch of AMD's new Threadripper 7000 series and 7000WX Pro CPUs several months ago, Intel has been completely outmatched — primarily from a core count disadvantage. The top chip in AMD's mainstream Threadripper 7000 series lineup, the 7980X, has 64 cores — six more cores than the W9-3495X, which is aimed at workstation builds. AMD's workstation-focused flagship, the 7995WX, features a whopping 96 cores and 129 threads.
Four additional cores won't do much to alleviate Intel's current issues, but it's better than nothing.
