Intel Xeon W5580 workstation desktop processor
Worth sticking in your PC?
13th May 2009 12:02 GMT
The final benchmark is Geekbench which is a quick summary of the capabilities of the processor and memory and the results reinforce our feelings about Xeon W5580. There’s not much to choose between the processor performance of Xeon W5580 and Core 2 Extreme but when you run software that leverages SSE 4.2 or HyperThreading, the new processor leaps ahead.
Geekbench Results

Longer bars are better

It’s a similar story with the memory bandwidth. The integrated triple channel controller in the W5580 is absolutely epic. However, we wonder how many people will notice the difference between the 8GB/s you get with Core 2 and the 18GB/s achieved by a single Xeon W5580 or 30GB/s with a pair.
Verdict
Right now, the 16 cores and triple-channel DDR 3 memory support of the Xeon W5500 look like an expensive luxury but we predict it will become the de facto workstation hardware for 2010. ®
More CPU Reviews...
Intel 'Nehalem' Xeon 5500 series |
AMD Phenom II Socket AM3 |
VIA Nano |
AMD Phenom II Socket AM2+ |
Intel Xeon W5580
Way expensive, but it's the peak of performance.
- Suggested Price:
- £1300 per CPU
- More info:
- Intel's Xeon 5000 page




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