Prices of Xeon E5-4600 microprocessors

One month ago Intel introduced Romley platform and Xeon E5 microprocessors. The new platform and CPUs replaced 2+ year old Tylersburg platform and Xeon 5500/5600-series chips, targeted at mid-range dual-processor servers. Not only that, but the new platform already offers more selection choices, including single socket chips from E5-1600 series, and in the second quarter it will add quad-socket E5-4600 products. We published specifications of Xeon E5-4600 lineup at the end of March, and now we have their pricing details.

Xeon E5-4600 processors are built on Sandy Bridge-EP 4S core, and they pack from 4 to 8 cores, up to 20 MB L3 cache, quad-channel DDR3 memory controller and 2 QPI links. The CPUs are compatible with socket 2011 platform. As already been mentioned, the E5-4600 CPUs support quad-processor configurations, effectively doubling the number of cores per server in comparison with E5-2600 chips. Higher server performance comes with premium price, and Xeon E5-4600s will be 50% - 100% more expensive than E5-2600 microprocessors with comparable characteristics.

The least expensive from the series is an entry-level E5-4603, priced at $551. This SKU has 4 cores and 10 MB L3 cache, and runs at 2 GHz. The CPU supports Hyper-Threading (HT) technology.

Xeon E5-4607 and E5-4610 six-core chips will be clocked higher than the 4603, at 2.2 GHz and 2.4 GHz respectively, integrate bigger L3 cache, while staying within 95 Watt power envelope. The processors will support Hyper-Threading, and the E5-4610 will also feature Turbo Boost technology. Official prices for these two parts are $885 and $1219. The third six-core model, E5-4617, will come with much higher 2.9 GHz core frequency, although it will lack Hyper-Threading technology, and it is going to have higher TDP. This processor will cost $1611.

Eight-core Xeons from E5-4600 series will start at $1611 for E5-4620. Xeon E5-4640 will be priced at $2725, and the top performers E5-4650 and E5-4650L will cost as much as $3616. Last level cache on Intel E5-4620 will be 16 MB, and three remaining parts will boast larger 20 MB cache. Common features for these four models are HT and Turbo Boost technologies, as well as Vpro. Looking at the specifications below, you may notice that the E5-4650 has close specs to Xeon E5-2680, which had $1723 introduction price. Similarly, E5-4650L and E5-2670 share the same number of cores and threads, L3 cache size and TDP, however the 4650L has 130% price premium over the 2670.

Model	Cores	Threads	Frequency	L3 cache	Memory	TDP	Price
Xeon E5-4603	4	8	2 GHz	10 MB	DDR3-1066	95 Watt	$551
Xeon E5-4607	6	12	2.2 GHz	12 MB	DDR3-1066	95 Watt	$885
Xeon E5-4610	6	12	2.4 GHz	15 MB	DDR3-1333	95 Watt	$1219
Xeon E5-4617	6	6	2.9 GHz	15 MB	DDR3-1600	130 Watt	$1611
Xeon E5-4620	8	16	2.2 GHz	16 MB	DDR3-1333	95 Watt	$1611
Xeon E5-4640	8	16	2.4 GHz	20 MB	DDR3-1600	95 Watt	$2725
Xeon E5-4650	8	16	2.7 GHz	20 MB	DDR3-1600	130 Watt	$3616
Xeon E5-4650L	8	16	2.6 GHz	20 MB	DDR3-1600	115 Watt	$3616