The Intel Xeon 6746E is a server/workstation processor with 112 cores, launched in June 2024, at an MSRP of $5929. It is part of the Xeon 6 lineup, using the Sierra Forest-SP architecture with Socket 4710. To further increase overall system performance, up to two Xeon 6746E CPUs can link up in a multi-processor (SMP) configuration. Xeon 6746E has 96 MB of L3 cache and operates at 2000 MHz by default, but can boost up to 2.7 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is building the Xeon 6746E on a 5 nm production process, the transistor count is unknown. The multiplier is locked on Xeon 6746E, which limits its overclocking capabilities.
With a TDP of 250 W, the Xeon 6746E is extremely power hungry, which means you need top-notch cooling. Intel’s processor supports DDR5 memory with an eight-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 5600 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. ECC memory is supported, too, which is an important capability for mission-critical systems, to avoid data corruption. For communication with other components in the system, Xeon 6746E uses a PCI-Express Gen 5 connection. This processor lacks integrated graphics, you might need a graphics card.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Xeon 6746E, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) will run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.