For data center professionals, Sapphire Rapids is sure to be one of the most exciting Intel developments in years. For enthusiasts, too, Sapphire Rapids can be expected to shake up the often-neglected HEDT computing segment. Someday. According to the leaked roadmap, it won't take another 11 months at the earliest.

According to slides sent to Videocardz, the W790 chipset compatible with Sapphire Rapids will not be available until late Q2 2022. That is, approximately June 2022. Similarly, Intel Alder Lake is expected to arrive in October with the release of Windows 11, here by the end of Q2 2021. So, September is likely.

What we cannot consider here is the possibility that the information within this leaked roadmap is outdated or that it will change at the last minute, as Intel often does.

Indeed, the Sapphire Rapids server chip, known as the 4th generation Xeon scalable, was recently moved up to be produced in the first three months of 2022 and launched in the following Q2. This almost certainly means that the HEDT chips planned around that time will be delayed as well. After all, these are the same silicon underwater.

But in any case, here's what you have to look forward to when the time comes. [Sapphire Rapids will be as much a game changer in Intel's DNA as we expect to see in desktops with Alder Lake later this year, manufactured on a 10nm process, supporting PCIe 5.0 and DDR5, incorporating chiplet-based packaging and architecture, and will offer a large number of as yet unseen on-board features. This includes onboard HBM memory.

Enthusiast chips will likely follow the lead of previous HEDT (high-end desktop) processors such as the Intel Cascade Lake X. This means that the server chips will be mounted under the heatspreader, but with a chipset and platform more geared toward enthusiast/gaming/professional than a regular server motherboard.

The emergence of high core count standard desktop processors like the Ryzen 9 5950X is definitely eating into the HEDT market.

But there are other advantages to putting server-grade chips on desktops: HEDT chips tend to offer huge core counts, more PCIe lanes, and larger cache sizes, making for truly huge mega-builds.

However, these HEDT chips are often costly, and Intel's recent offerings have fallen behind AMD's equivalent Ryzen Threadripper platform. As a result, we do not hear much about Intel's 10th generation Core X processors.

However, this is not to say that Sapphire Rapids HEDT chips are not exciting. Rather, the potential of Sapphire Rapids' powerful server architecture means that Intel may have something to offer enthusiasts and overexcited gamers with a HEDT processor built on the same architecture.

On the other hand, AMD may announce its answer to Sapphire Rapids with its new Threadripper processors (possibly the 5000 series). So far, we have not heard a peep from AMD on this matter, but is the lack of news good news?