Intel has announced the last order and delivery dates for its LGA2066 processors, signaling the end of this platform. The discontinuation also includes the chipsets X299 and C422, used on desktop and workstation mainboards. This move comes as mainstream computers have been getting faster and requiring more memory, leaving the LGA2066 processors behind.
Customers will have several months to place orders and reservations, with the deadline for registration being January 26, 2024. Final orders will be accepted until April 26, 2024, and the last deliveries are scheduled for January 31, 2025. The discontinuation of the LGA2066 processors also means the disappearance of the X299 and C422 chipsets used with them.
The LGA2066 platform, based on the Cascade Lake architecture, has been slowly losing its prominence in recent years. Initially developed to compensate for Intel’s lack of cores in the mainstream desktop, systems using the LGA2066 processors, known as Core X, offered double the memory capacity of contemporary LGA115x systems with their quad-channel interface.
However, AMD’s strong Ryzen processors gained market share and Intel subsequently started offering more cores in their mainstream processors. The introduction of DDR5 memory allowed for much larger RAM capacities, a domain previously exclusive to LGA2066 systems using DDR4 memory.
In the workstation segment, Intel struggled to compete against AMD’s Threadripper and Threadripper Pro CPUs, which offered up to 64 cores compared to Intel’s maximum of 28 cores in the Cascade Lake generation. Intel has introduced higher-end server processors, such as the Xeon W-3300 and Xeon W-2400 and -3400, to the workstation market to address this challenge.
