LENOVO THINKSTATION P5 TOWER

Great design, but Intel's Xeon can't compete with AMD's processors

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The Lenovo ThinkStation P5 is a fine workstation in many ways, but also showcases the current gulf between Intel and AMD when it comes to workstation processors.

This system accommodates Xeons from W3 to W7, including the W7-2595X we tested last year (see issue 363, p52). Even that CPU couldn't beat AMD's 7000-Series Threadripper, and this system was supplied with a more modest W5-2445. This is a 10-core CPU with a base clock of 3.1GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost frequency of 4.6GHz. AMD's desktop Ryzen systems this month offer 16 cores with a base 4.3GHz speed, so the Xeon is immediately at a disadvantage.