Intel Xeon 6+ 6990E+ vs 6980E+ vs 6970E+ vs 6960E+: price per core, power and which servers take Clearwater Forest

Xeon 6+ supply is widening beyond the hyperscalers, and the question buyers are now asking is which of the four SKUs to spec. We break down list price per core, watts per core, cache and memory per core, the ordering codes, and the platform catch: these chips need a 6900-class LGA7529 board, not a mainstream 6700-series server.

Three months after launch, Intel's 18A server parts are starting to reach buyers outside the largest cloud operators, and the conversation in practitioner forums has moved on from headline core counts to a narrower question: of the four Xeon 6+ SKUs, which one actually fits a given workload and budget? The stack is short and every SKU gets the same feature set, so the choice comes down to cores, power, cache and memory per core, and price. Below is the comparison worked from Intel's own spec and ordering pages, plus the platform detail that catches people out.

The four Xeon 6+ SKUs side by side

• Common to all four: 2-socket support, 12 DDR5 channels at up to 8000 MT/s (1 DIMM per channel), up to 1.5 TB per socket, 96 PCIe 5.0 lanes, 64 CXL 2.0 lanes, 6 UPI links at 24 GT/s, max turbo 3.2 GHz.
• All cores are E-cores with one thread each, so thread count equals core count. No SMT, and AVX-512 is not offered on these parts.
• Intel does not hold features back on the cheaper SKUs, so the decision is purely cores, power and price.
• Intel claims up to 17% higher IPC than the previous E-core generation (Sierra Forest). That is Intel's figure, not an independent benchmark.

Price per core, power per core, cache and memory per core

Dividing Intel's published numbers gives a clear picture of where each SKU sits. These are simple ratios from list price and TDP, not measured results, and list price is rarely what a server OEM charges inside a build.

• The flagship carries roughly a 63% premium per core over the 6960E+. You pay for density per socket, not for cheaper cores.
• The 6980E+ is the quiet value pick at the top end: 264 cores for about two thirds of the flagship price, and cheaper per core than the 192-core 6970E+.
• The two high-core parts are the most efficient per core, but only in their low-power profile, where the base clock drops to 1.7 GHz (6990E+) or 1.6 GHz (6980E+).
• The 6960E+ gives each core the most cache and memory bandwidth and the highest base clock, which suits workloads that cannot use 288 threads but still want density.
• Peak bandwidth assumes all 12 channels populated at DDR5-8000, one DIMM per channel: 768 GB/s per socket in theory.

The platform catch: LGA7529, not your mainstream 2U

Xeon 6+ uses the FCLGA7529 socket, and Intel positions it as socket compatible with Xeon 6900P platforms. It does not drop into the 6700-series servers that make up most mainstream Xeon 6 buying. For example, HPE's ProLiant Compute DL320 Gen12 and DL340 Gen12 QuickSpecs list Xeon 6700E, 6700P and 6500P processors only.

• Lenovo's ThinkSystem SC750 V4 Neptune (direct water cooled) lists the 6990E+, with up to 1.5 TB per node using 24 x 64 GB DDR5-8000 RDIMMs.
• Supermicro publishes a Xeon 6+ CPU information page alongside its Xeon 6900 series support data, so check the specific X14 6900 system and BIOS level before ordering.
• Memory is the hidden line item. Twelve channels at 8000 MT/s per socket means 24 matched high-speed RDIMMs in a 2-socket box at today's DRAM prices.

Intel ordering codes (tray, B0 stepping): 6990E+ PK807303B9B4E13 (SAE3X), 6980E+ PK807303B9B4E14 (SAE3W), 6970E+ PK807303B9B52F4 (SAE4W), 6960E+ PK807303B9B4E16 (SAE3Z). Server OEMs sell these under their own option part numbers, so match the OEM kit to the chassis.

The ETON view

For most of the hosting, cloud and enterprise buyers we talk to, the honest answer is that Xeon 6+ is a platform decision before it is a CPU decision. These chips need a 6900-class LGA7529 board, often liquid cooled at the top SKUs, and a full set of DDR5-8000 RDIMMs. That is where the cost and the lead time sit, not in the processor list price. Memory and CPUs are both on allocation this year, so quote the platform, the CPU and the 24 DIMMs as separate lines and lock the memory early.

On SKU choice: the 6980E+ is the one we would look at first for dense scale-out work such as web tiers, containers and CI. It keeps most of the flagship's cores at a much lower price per core. The 6960E+ makes sense where per-core licensing or per-thread performance matters more than raw density. The 6990E+ only earns its premium where rack space or socket count is the hard limit and the hall has the power and cooling for 450 W per socket. That is rarely true in the 6 to 12 kW racks most UK colocation still provides.

If you don't need 18A-generation density, the better value sits a step behind. Sierra Forest 6700E, Xeon 6700P, and EPYC 9004 and 9005 platforms are easier to source today and fit mainstream 1U and 2U chassis. We are vendor neutral across HPE, Dell, Lenovo and Supermicro, and we buy back the generation you retire, which takes real money off the cost of a refresh.

Related infrastructure

• HPE Processors - Intel Xeon
• Dell Processors - Intel Xeon
• GIGABYTE High-Density & Multi-Node Servers
• Dell PowerEdge HS Hyperscale Servers
• HPE Memory - RDIMM (registered ECC)

Category: Servers · Vendor: Intel, Lenovo, Supermicro · Technology: Xeon 6+ (Clearwater Forest), Intel 18A, LGA7529 · Last verified: 05 Oct 2026 · ~6 min read

Sourcing this kind of infrastructure? Talk to ETON about availability, lead time and pricing.