14 DAY TRIAL // Intel has just quietly updated it lineup of Xeon E3 processors with the E3-1290 model, which has a base clock speed of 3.6GHz making it the company's fastest CPU based on the Sandy Bridge architecture.
Before the E3-1290 made its appearance, the fastest Intel SNB processors was the Xeon E3-1280, which comes clocked at 3.5GHz, 100MHz higher than the Core i7-2600K.
Just as we reported previously, the four processing cores of the E3-1290 are clocked at 3.6GHz and its maximum Turbo Boost speed is set at 4GHz.
Outside of the increased clock speed, the CPU features pretty much the same specifications as the rest of the Xeon E3 chips, including 8MB of shared Level 3 cache, HyperThreading support, a 5GT/s DMI link and an integrated dual-channel controller which supports up to 32GB of DDR3-1333MHz memory.
TDP is rated at the same 95W level as the current E3-1280 and the Intel HD integrated graphics unit is disabled.
The CPU hasn't been added to Intel's ARK database yet, but, according to CPU-World, it has been listed in the company's latest price list, with an $885 1000-unit MSRP, making it $270 more expensive than the E3-1280 model.
Outside of the 1290, Intel's Xeon E3 processor lineup includes 11 other models.
These pack four processing cores, feature support for Intel's Turbo Boost and HyperThreading technologies and 6MB or 8MB of L3 cache memory.
The only exception to this rule is the low power Xeon E3-1220L which comes equipped with only two processing cores and 3MB of L3 cache, but has a TDP of just 20W.
Compared to their desktop counterparts, Intel's Xeon E3 processors include a number of improvements, and the most important of these is the addition of ECC memory support.
Other specific features include support for two PCI Express 2.0 slots, Intel HD P3000 graphics, in selected models, that is certified for Autodesk AutoCAD, Inventor and Adobe CS4 and other applications, as well as Intel VT-x and vPro support.