The Intel Xeon 6731E is a server/workstation processor with 96 cores, launched in June 2024, at an MSRP of $4121. It is part of the Xeon 6 lineup, using the Sierra Forest-SP architecture with Socket 4710. Xeon 6731E has 96 MB of L3 cache and operates at 2.2 GHz by default, but can boost up to 3.1 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is building the Xeon 6731E on a 5 nm production process, the transistor count is unknown. The multiplier is locked on Xeon 6731E, which limits its overclocking capabilities.
With a TDP of 250 W, the Xeon 6731E is extremely power hungry, which means you need top-notch cooling. Intel's processor supports DDR5 memory with an eight-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 5600 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. ECC memory is supported, too, which is an important capability for mission-critical systems, to avoid data corruption. For communication with other components in the machine, Xeon 6731E uses a PCI-Express Gen 5 connection. This processor lacks integrated graphics, you might need a graphics card.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Xeon 6731E, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) will run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.