Intel Xeon W 2255 10-core LGA 2066

A 10-core workhorse that still grinds through productivity tasks, but it's thirsty, old, and useless for gaming. Buy it cheap for a workstation, skip it for everything else.

The multi-thread score of 22,611 in PassMark lands this Xeon well above average, and the 2,697 single-thread result is strong for a 14nm part from this era. What surprised us is how well it holds up in AI workloads, sitting at the 81st percentile in our database. That's not bad for a chip that's been around the block. The 165W TDP is a reminder that this thing drinks power like it's still 2019, but the 19.25MB of L3 cache helps keep those 20 threads fed. Just don't expect any miracles in gaming, that 33.2 score is a weak spot and it shows.

Against something like the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the Xeon W-2255 looks ancient. The Ryzen will destroy it in gaming and efficiency while sipping power. But the Xeon has ECC support and a workstation pedigree that the Ryzen can't match. The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Xeon P67080-B21 is a more direct comparison, both are server and workstation focused, but the W-2255's higher clock speeds give it an edge in single-threaded tasks. The EPYC options from CG CHIPS GATE are a different beast entirely, more cores but typically lower clocks. For pure productivity on a workstation board, the W-2255 holds its own. For anything else, the modern AMD chips run circles around it.

Here's where it gets tricky. The USD 818 listing is the cheapest we found, but EUR prices swing from EUR 1,143 to EUR 1,312 depending on the vendor. That's a EUR 169 spread for the same silicon, so shop around before you commit. The German, French, and Italian listings are all over the place. At the low end of that range, it's a reasonable workstation chip. At the high end, you're paying too much for old tech. The 8th percentile affordability score tells the real story, this was never a value play.

The Intel Xeon W-2255 is a workstation chip that still knows how to work, even if it's getting long in the tooth. Ten cores, 20 threads, and a 4.7GHz boost on the aging LGA 2066 platform. It's not flashy, but for certain productivity loads it still punches above its weight class. The one thing to know? This is a purpose-built tool, not a do-everything chip. If you need ECC memory and serious multi-threaded grunt on a budget, it's worth a look. If you want to game or chase modern efficiency, keep scrolling.

If you're looking for a gaming CPU or something power-efficient, this isn't it. Go grab a Ryzen 7 9800X3D or even a modern Core i5 and you'll be much happier. This Xeon is for people who need ECC memory and multi-threaded productivity on a specific budget, not for anyone chasing frames per second or low power bills.

The Xeon W-2255 is a solid buy if you're building a budget workstation that needs ECC memory and you find it at the right price. It's not a gaming chip, it's not efficient, and the platform is a dead end. But for rendering, compiling, or running VMs, those 10 cores still deliver. Grab it at the low end of the price range and you'll be happy. Pay top dollar and you'll regret it.