Six things to look for in a workstation

There are few bigger and more important investments to make than a new workstation, or a fleet of them. Here's what you need to consider before taking the plunge

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Workstations are the powerhouses of the computing world, with prices to match

Workstations are the most powerful desktop PCs around. But there are always budgetary constraints, which means you will need to choose your components wisely based around your workloads and budget. It's no longer necessary to compromise too much between systems that are biased towards real-time graphics display and those aimed at final output. However, you should still spend the most on the components that will benefit your workload the most.

1 PROCESSOR

Processors continue to develop apace. The AMD Ryzen 9000 series arrived last year, but this time we see a few X3D versions with 3D V-Cache, which significantly improves performance with certain workloads. Intel CPUs have moved onto the Core Ultra generation, the first to use a tile configuration like AMD’s Zen architecture. However, no manufacturers sent us a system using the desktop Arrow Lake-S version, implying a lack of popularity in the workstation space.

In fact, we have only one Intel CPU in this month’s test, and it’s a Xeon. While the Xeon has improved with the introduction of the Sapphire Rapids generation, our performance tests with the w5 version this month show that there’s a lot more work for Intel to do before it catches up with AMD. The gap is further widening now that the 9000-series AMD Threadripper and Threadripper Pro have arrived.