The Intel Xeon Max 9480 is a server/workstation processor with 56 cores, launched in January 2023, at an MSRP of $12980. It is part of the Xeon Max lineup, using the Sapphire Rapids architecture with Socket 4677. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 112 threads. To further increase overall system performance, up to two Xeon Max 9480 CPUs can work together in a multi-processor (SMP) configuration. Xeon Max 9480 has 112.5 MB of L3 cache and operates at 1900 MHz by default, but can boost up to 3.5 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is making the Xeon Max 9480 on a 10 nm production node, the transistor count is unknown. The multiplier is locked on Xeon Max 9480, which limits its overclocking potential.
With a TDP of 350 W, the Xeon Max 9480 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 4800 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 computer, Xeon Max 9480 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 Max 9480, 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) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel has added support for the newer AVX2 and AVX-512 instructions, too.