HP launches ‘Sapphire Rapids’ workstations with spotlight on remote management

HP has made a major update to its Z Workstation portfolio, launching G5 editions of its HP Z4, Z6 and Z8 desktop towers. The new machines will replace the G4 editions which were first introduced back in 2017.

The new HP Z workstations are built from the ground up for Intel’s ‘Sapphire Rapids’ workstation processors. This includes the Intel Xeon W-2400 Series (with up to 24 cores) and Intel Xeon W-3400 Series (with up to 56-cores).

With an emphasis on cores, as opposed to the highest clock speeds, plus support for up to four high-end GPUs and lots of reality modelling and simulation.

HP has also massively upped its game in remote management, with a view to bringing server level management capabilities to its Z Workstations. The new hardware-based HP Anyware Remote System Controller allows IT administrators to launch a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) session and perform out-of-band management tasks such as pre-boot access, BIOS updates and re-imaging from anywhere.

The HP Z4 G5 edition features the workstation-specific ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Intel Xeon W-2400 Series CPU, available with 6 to 24 cores, up to 512 GB of RAM

W-3400 Series workstation CPU from 12 to 36 cores, up to 1 TB, and up to three double height GPUs.

The HP Z8 G5 features ‘Sapphire Rapids’ fourth generation Xeon Scalable processors rather than the single socket workstation-specific Xeons available in the other G5 machines. This gives it a dual CPU capability, two dual slot GPUs and 1 TB of memory.

As the name suggests, the HP Z8 Fury G5 is HP’s top-end ‘Sapphire Rapids’ workstation and supports the entire range of Intel Xeon W-3400 Series workstation CPUs, including the flagship 56-core Intel Xeon w9-3495X.

What AEC Magazine thinks

‘Sapphire Rapids’ as a workstation platform is arguably more important to HP than any of the other major workstation manufacturers. Prior to the launch of these new machines, HP had to satisfy the requirements of its more demanding AEC customers through its ageing ‘Cascade Lake’ Intel Xeon HP Z G4 workstations that dated back to 2017. Meanwhile, Dell and Lenovo had plugged the gap by launching AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro workstations with up to 2 TB of memory and up to 64 cores.

HP’s new workstations also face increased competition from within. The HP Z2 family has grown in capability considerably over the last few years and the G9 editions with high-frequency 12th Gen Intel Core processors are arguably the better choice for CAD and BIM. Moreover, with high-performance graphics and up to 128 GB of memory they can now deliver in more demanding AEC workflows as well, including reality modelling and mainstream design visualisation. This leaves the new Z4, Z6 and Z8 G5 workstations to largely cater to workflows that only benefit from more CPU cores, more memory, more memory bandwidth, or more GPUs. We wonder if the HP Z4 will be able to retain its crown as HP’s bestselling workstation.

Beyond the ‘Sapphire Lakes’ platform, HP is showing real innovation in remote workstation deployment and management. With HP Anyware Remote System Controller, it is looking to give IT managers a similar level of control over their workstation fleet as they already have over their servers.

Combined with HP Anyware remote access and collaboration software, HP now has a joinedup solution to support the growing shift towards hybrid working. With high clock speeds, HP Z Workstations typically offer superior performance to server-based virtual workstations. Now with increased manageability, using HP Z Workstations as a central rack mounted resource has become more compelling, blurring the boundaries between traditional desktop workstations and servers.

Meanwhile, redundant power supplies and hot swappable SSDs all add to the offering.