How well does Intel’s Ice Lake-SP perform?

Analysis: We have numbers and they aren’t good

Intel LogoLast August SemiAccurate compared the performance of Intel’s upcoming Ice Lake-SP server to AMD’s Milan with some leaked benchmarks. Our conclusion then was that, “Intel should not launch Ice Lake-SP“.

Our previous analysis used pre-release Ice Lake samples and Milan samples near release. Since then a lot has changed on both sides. The numbers, on paper anyway, for Ice-SP have gotten a bit better as you will see in the SKU list below, and Milan uses a bit more energy than that test, but only by about 5W.

Given where that initial data came from, we strongly suspect those numbers listed earlier will be a bit closer to real world energy use than the official numbers. A good example of this is Intel’s recent Rocket Lake consumer CPU that has a 125W TDP but independent testing by Anandtech saw nearly 300W.

The core counts have changed, again on paper, SemiAccurate isn’t confident that at least two of the Ice-SP SKUs are manufacturable in anything more than PR quantities. That said the long and rather tortured gestation of Ice Lake-SP is a tale for another day, today we focus on how well the final SKUs perform using SpecIntRate 2017 numbers from a biased source, Intel. Even with that in mind the performance backs up our earlier claim and then some, it is bad.

Note: The following is for professional and student level subscribers.

Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Services, Inc. have no consulting relationships, investment relationships, or hold any investment positions with any of the companies mentioned in this report.

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate