ASUS’s upcoming PRO WS W790E-SAGE motherboard which will feature support for Intel’s next-gen Sapphire Rapids ‘Fishhawk Falls’ HEDT CPUs has been spotted.
ASUS Readies Enthusiast-Class Pro WS W790E-SAGE Motherboard For Intel’s Sapphire Rapids ‘Fishhawk Falls’ HEDT CPUs
The motherboard, ASUS Pro WS W790E-SAGE was listed in the upcoming changes for HWiNFO. The upcoming version of the hardware diagnostic utility will be adding an ‘Enhanced Sensor Monitoring’ support for the motherboard which has yet to be released. The ASUS SAGE series of motherboards are always designed for HEDT CPU families with the last one being for AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper in WRX80 flavor and SAGE II for Intel’s Core-X lineup on the X299 chipset.
With more and more Intel Xeon Workstation CPUs leaking out based on the Sapphire Rapids chip design, it is very likely that we are definitely getting a new HEDT platform this year but whether it’s going to launch with Raptor Lake or a little bit later remains to be seen. This does reveal that the new motherboards will utilize the W790 chipset which falls in line with previous rumors.
Intel’s Fishhawk Falls HEDT Xeon family will be launching in two flavors of Sapphire Rapids chips, the Expert parts with up to 56 cores and the Mainstream parts with up to 24 cores. The 16-core chip that has leaked today seems to be part of the mainstream lineup.
As for the platform, there’s support for 4-Channel (EEC) DDR5 support & the number of PCIe Gen 5.0 lanes will drop to 64. The prices will be largely similar to the previous Core-X CPUs so we can expect around $500-$3000 US for these chips. Earlier rumors have suggested that the Fishhawk HEDT family will be based around the W790/C790 PCH but given that there are at least two platforms in the works, there might be a much higher-end PCH SKU. The launch is said to take place in Q4 2022, around the same time as 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs. Summing things up for the Sapphire Rapids mainstream segment:
- Intel ‘Mainstream’ Sapphire Rapids HEDT CPUs
- Up To 24 Cores / 48 Threads
- Up To 5.2 GHz Boost Clocks
- Up To 4.6 GHz All-Core Boost
- LGA 4677 Socket Support
- 64 PCIe Gen 5.0 Lanes
- 4-Channel DDR5 Memory (Up To 512 GB)
- Q4 2022 Launch
We can’t say for sure if Intel’s recent Sapphire Rapids server lineup delay will affect the HEDT parts too but if that’s the case, then we might see the launch slip from 2H of 2022 to 1H of 2023. AMD is also working on its next-gen Threadripper lineup so Intel better hurry up and launch its HEDT first or they’ll have to compete with some monstrous chips from the red team.
Intel HEDT Processor Families:
| Intel HEDT Family | Sapphire Rapids-X? (Sapphire Rapids Expert) | Alder Lake-X? (Sapphire Rapids Mainstream) | Cascade Lake-X | Skylake-X | Skylake-X | Skylake-X | Broadwell-E | Haswell-E | Ivy Bridge-E | Sandy Bridge-E | Gulftown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process Node | 10nm ESF | 10nm ESF | 14nm++ | 14nm+ | 14nm+ | 14nm+ | 14nm | 22nm | 22nm | 32nm | 32nm |
| Flagship SKU | TBA | TBA | Core i9-10980XE | Xeon W-3175X | Core i9-9980XE | Core i9-7980XE | Core i7-6950X | Core i7-5960X | Core i7-4960X | Core i7-3960X | Core i7-980X |
| Max Cores/Threads | 56/112? | 24/48 | 18/36 | 28/56 | 18/36 | 18/36 | 10/20 | 8/16 | 6/12 | 6/12 | 6/12 |
| Clock Speeds | ~4.5 GHz | ~5.0 GHz | 3.00 / 4.80 GHz | 3.10/4.30 GHz | 3.00/4.50 GHz | 2.60/4.20 GHz | 3.00/3.50 GHz | 3.00/3.50 GHz | 3.60/4.00 GHz | 3.30/3.90 GHz | 3.33/3,60 GHz |
| Max Cache | 105 MB L3 | 45 MB L3 | 24.75 MB L3 | 38.5 MB L3 | 24.75 MB L3 | 24.75 MB L3 | 25 MB L3 | 20 MB L3 | 15 MB L3 | 15 MB L3 | 12 MB L3 |
| Max PCI-Express Lanes (CPU) | 112 Gen 5 | 65 Gen 5 | 44 Gen3 | 44 Gen3 | 44 Gen3 | 44 Gen3 | 40 Gen3 | 40 Gen3 | 40 Gen3 | 40 Gen2 | 32 Gen2 |
| Chipset Compatiblity | W790? | W790? | X299 | C612E | X299 | X299 | X99 Chipset | X99 Chipset | X79 Chipset | X79 Chipset | X58 Chipset |
| Socket Compatiblity | LGA 4677? | LGA 4677? | LGA 2066 | LGA 3647 | LGA 2066 | LGA 2066 | LGA 2011-3 | LGA 2011-3 | LGA 2011 | LGA 2011 | LGA 1366 |
| Memory Compatiblity | DDR5-4800? | DDR5-5200? | DDR4-2933 | DDR4-2666 | DDR4-2800 | DDR4-2666 | DDR4-2400 | DDR4-2133 | DDR3-1866 | DDR3-1600 | DDR3-1066 |
| Max TDP | ~500W | ~400W | 165W | 255W | 165W | 165W | 140W | 140W | 130W | 130W | 130W |
| Launch | Q4 2022? | Q4 2022? | Q4 2019 | Q4 2018 | Q4 2018 | Q3 2017 | Q2 2016 | Q3 2014 | Q3 2013 | Q4 2011 | Q1 2010 |
| Launch Price | TBA | TBA | $979 US | ~$4000 US | $1979 US | $1999 US | $1700 US | $1059 US | $999 US | $999 US | $999 US |
News Source: KOMACHI_ENSAKA