Intel Launches Xeon E3-1200 v5 Processor Family For Entry-Level Workstations

But what about the workstation market, where your scrappy little Core i5 or Core i7 just won’t cut the mustard? Well, Intel is introducing the new Xeon E3-1200 v5 processor family, which is geared towards the entry-level workstation market. Based on 14nm Skylake architecture, these chips feature up to 64GB of DDR3L or DDR4 ECC RAM, quad-cores, and support clock speed racing from 2GHz to 3.7GHz. You’ll also find Intel HD Graphics P530 integrated into certain SKUs. 

With the new Skylake architecture also comes some added performance benefits as well. Let’s take the Xeon E3-1275 v5, for example. Intel says that it offers 1.43x the compute performance and 2.26x the graphics performance of the Xeon E3-1275 v2.

Intel is launching 11 different SKUs for the Xeon E3-1200 v5 processor family, three of which are low-power processors, with the remaining eight being standard processors. Low-power SKUs start with the entry-level E3-1235L v5 which is clocked at 2GHz, features two graphics cores, is rated at 25W and doesn’t incorporate Intel HyperThreading Technology. The 2.9GHz E3-1260L v5 is rated at 45W and incorporates HyperThreading, but not the P530 graphics solution. 

Moving on to the standard processors, the base E3-1220 v5 is clocked at 3GHz and lacks HyperThreading support. The range-topping E3-1280 v5 runs at a speedy 3.7GHz and feature HyperThreading. All of the standard Xeons are rated at 80W and you’ll find just three SKUs that feature the P530. 

It should come as no surprise that only four of the 11 Xeons announced come with the P530 IGP — most workstations will have their own dedicated NVIDIA Quadro or AMD FirePro graphics solution onboard, so why bother with such lowly integrated graphics?

Intel’s new Xeon Processor E3-1200 v5 family is currently shipping to customers.