Intel Xeon Gold 6246 Processor — Full Technical Overview

Overview

The Intel Xeon Gold 6246 is a high-performance server processor from Intel’s 2nd Generation Xeon Scalable (Cascade Lake) family. Designed for enterprise and data center workloads, it combines high core count, robust multi-threaded performance, and large memory bandwidth to handle compute-intensive and memory-heavy tasks.

With 12 cores and 24 threads, the Xeon Gold 6246 is ideal for virtualization, cloud computing, database management, analytics, HPC (high-performance computing), and enterprise applications that require both high single-thread and multi-thread performance.

---

Key Features

• 12 cores / 24 threads for multi-threaded enterprise workloads

• 3.30 GHz base frequency with 4.10 GHz maximum turbo frequency

• 24.75 MB L3 cache for faster data access and reduced latency

• Six-channel DDR4-2933 memory support

• Up to 1 TB memory per socket (platform dependent)

• Supports AVX-512, Intel DL Boost, and other acceleration technologies

• 48 PCIe 3.0 lanes for storage, networking, and accelerator expansion

• Compatible with dual-socket (2S) server platforms

---

Detailed Specification Table

---

Performance Analysis

1. Virtualization & Cloud Computing

With 12 cores and 24 threads, the Xeon Gold 6246 is optimized for:

• Virtual machine hosting and high-density VDI deployments

• Cloud-native applications and multi-tenant infrastructures

• Container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes and Docker

2. Database & Analytics

Large L3 cache and six-channel memory support enable:

• OLTP and OLAP database operations

• In-memory analytics and caching

• Distributed computing and big data processing

3. High-Performance Computing (HPC)

The CPU’s AVX-512 support provides acceleration for:

• Scientific simulations

• Machine learning inference

• Engineering computations

• Rendering and batch processing workloads

4. Enterprise Applications

Efficient for:

• ERP and CRM systems

• Web and application servers

• Financial modeling and analytics

• High-uptime enterprise servers

---

Advantages

• High base and turbo frequencies for strong single-thread performance

• Multi-threaded performance with 12 cores and 24 threads

• Robust memory bandwidth and capacity for enterprise workloads

• AVX-512 and DL Boost acceleration for compute-intensive applications

• Enterprise-grade reliability and virtualization support

---

Limitations

• Moderate core count compared to Xeon Gold 6238/6240 for massively parallel workloads

• PCIe 3.0 rather than newer PCIe 4.0/5.0

• Based on 14 nm Cascade Lake architecture