Intel's Cascade Lake-X HEDT platform is expected to launch this fall and we are seeing the chips make their way to benchmark sites. A 10-core Cascade Lake-X CPU has now popped up on UserBench. The listing shows some performance scores and some basic information about the platform itself.
From the listing, we see that an yet-to-be identified CPU is running on an Intel GlacierFalls EV motherboard and the system is being identified as an Intel GlacierFalls 1 Socket Workstation having 64 GB of RAM. The processor is just denoted as Intel 0000%@ and is shown to be a 10-core 20-thread part with a base clock of 3.1 GHz and boost of 3.05 GHz.
The boost clock is obviously a wrong entry so this could very well be an early sample or a wrong identification on part of UserBench. A similar 10-core Glacier Falls entry was seen last month in the SiSoftware database where it showed a base clock of 4 GHz and boost up to 4.6 GHz.
The 10-core SKU is likely a mid-range part as we know that high-end Cascade Lake-X processors would feature anywhere from 18 to 24 cores. The Cascade Lake platform itself features up to 48 cores in CPUs such as Cascade Lake-AP for servers that use the Multi-chip Packaging method similar to AMD's EPYC and Threadripper offerings.
Cascade Lake-X will continue to be fabbed on the 14nm++ process and is likely to use an LGA 3647 socket on the X299 chipset instead of LGA 2066. Support for hexa-channel memory and increased PCIe lane count can be expected but not confirmed.
Intel's HEDT platform has been overshadowed by the more economical AMD Threadripper processors, but the competition is still very much on between these two chipmakers in this segment. While AMD is expected to announced their 3rd generation Threadrippers soon, Intel is betting on the Glacier Falls platform with the Cascade Lake-X series.
While AMD will most likely have the pricing advantage, it remains to be seen if Intel's new HEDT platform can offer enough competition to the upcoming Threadrippers in terms of performance.