Intel Xeon Platinum 8268 24c/48t 2.9GHz-3.9GHz 205W (CD8069504195101)

Intel Xeon Platinum 8268 — 24-Core Cascade Lake-SP CPU for Dense Virtualization and Enterprise Servers

The Intel Xeon Platinum 8268 is a server-class processor aimed at multi-socket enterprise platforms where consolidation, reliability, and consistent throughput are the primary goals. With 24 cores and 48 threads, a 2.90 GHz base clock, and turbo up to 3.90 GHz, it is positioned for virtualization clusters, database and middleware tiers, and scale-up infrastructure where you want a strong core count without dropping too far in clock speed.

In practical deployments, the 8268 is often selected for environments that run many concurrent services: hypervisors hosting mixed VM sizes, private cloud stacks, container platforms, and “shared” compute nodes in corporate data centers. The combination of 24 cores and strong platform capabilities gives you flexibility for CPU oversubscription strategies while keeping single-VM responsiveness acceptable for business workloads.

Memory architecture is a defining advantage versus workstation parts. Six DDR4-2933 channels (per CPU) allow higher aggregate bandwidth and help feed many active VMs, in-memory caching layers, and database buffer pools. The platform’s memory capacity limits depend on the server configuration, but the intent is clear: handle large RAM footprints predictably, with ECC support and typical server RAS expectations.

I/O is also engineered for balanced server builds. With up to 48 PCIe 3.0 lanes, the 8268 can support fast networking, NVMe storage, and accelerator cards, though lane budgets should be planned carefully in dense multi-socket systems. In many enterprise configurations, the CPU’s PCIe is one part of a broader topology that may include risers, PLX switches, or vendor-specific layouts, so verifying the board and chassis lane mapping is worth doing early in a design.

For modern workloads, Cascade Lake-SP CPUs commonly appear in inference and analytics stacks thanks to AVX-512 and Intel Deep Learning Boost (VNNI), which can accelerate certain integer inference paths and data processing kernels. While this does not replace GPU acceleration for large model training, it can be meaningful for CPU-bound inference, feature pipelines, and latency-sensitive preprocessing stages where keeping data on the CPU is operationally simpler.

The Xeon Platinum 8268 is a practical choice when you need a mature, widely supported server CPU for multi-socket systems, optimized for consolidation and steady performance across mixed enterprise workloads, with strong memory bandwidth characteristics and predictable behavior under sustained load.