iMac Pro W chips vs i series varients

[tomscott1988]

Well this is certainly interesting.

If they put these in the 2018 iMac, unless you need ECC pretty much makes the xeon moot. Lets be fair they probably wont.

The only ram chips ive ever had go bad are ECC in my mac pro never had a 'normal' stick fail.

 

[kschendel]

ECC isn't about stick reliability, it's about avoiding error that can corrupt data, potentially without notice. I honestly don't know why Intel restricts ECC to the Xeon line, it should be available in any of their high end CPU's IMO.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Seems like the guy is looking for a story here. Intel has always differentiated products in this way. However, these two classes of CPUs are for entirely different target audiences. The X series was basically Intel taking the Xeon design and configuring it for the high-end consumer desktop--standard memory support, unlocked multiplier, turbo max, etc. The Xeon is there to check the boxes for Workstation buyers that expect ECC and stability at all costs. While I'm rarely one to defend Intel, the author misses the point, IMO. It was the Xeon that bore the cheaper X series, as there was a time where Intel did not offer a "desktop Xeon." I don't think that complaining about the fact that the X series is cheaper is the way to look at it. If Intel didn't offer the X series, the complaint would be that Intel needs to spin the powerful Xeon line into a consumer chip without the ECC support!

All that said, I very highly doubt Apple will use LGA 2066 in the base iMac. It's way too expensive to implement, and there probably aren't BGA options available.