Late last month, an unreleased "Xeon 696X" processor was spotted in the SiSoftware Official Benchmark Ranker database. A recent uptick in "Granite Rapids-WS" leaks—including a long SKU stack—hints at an imminent launch. The latest leak, found within the PassMark CPU benchmark archive, seemingly reaffirms the Xeon 696X model's existence. Unfortunately, today's diagnostic points to a lower than anticipated core count: 32 instead 64. Based on older information, this appears to be a major mistake (on the PassMark side). Last month's SiSoftware-based info dump described a sample that leveraged 64 cores and 128 threads.

x86deadandback's initial social media post highlighted the PassMark suite's error. According to a quick benchmark score comparison (courtesy of Wccftech), the forthcoming sub-flagship workstation processor does better than the current "Sapphire Rapids-WS" range topper (Xeon W9-3595X) in multicore scenarios. A disappointing single-core tally likely comes from the next-gen candidate being disadvantaged as an early engineering sample. A rough equivalent from the Red Team—Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9985WX—enjoys a leading position on the comparative chart.