Intel Xeon Silver 4516Y+ socket: LGA 4677

What the Xeon Silver 4516Y+ is

The Intel Xeon Silver 4516Y+ is the 24-core member of the 5th Gen Xeon Scalable family for LGA 4677 boards from December 2023. 24 cores with hyperthreading give 24 cores and 48 threads, with base at 2.2 GHz and up to 3.7 GHz turbo. The package carries 45 MB of Smart Cache. The 185 W envelope fits standard heatsinks with front to back airflow.

Up to DDR5 4400 MT/s, 8 channels, up to 4 TB with ECC feed the cores, and matched DIMMs hold the rated speed. Eighty Gen5 lanes per CPU wire NICs, accelerators and NVMe, and the lane count stays constant across these Emerald Rapids and Sapphire Rapids server SKUs. Two UPI links at 20 GT/s join sockets into a coherent fabric on Emerald Rapids, a step above the 16 GT/s links on Sapphire Rapids, while board firmware sets the exact topology.

Cloud hosts and virtualized clusters take this 24-core Emerald Rapids part with larger cache than the Sapphire Rapids equivalent, where VM density per socket grows with the cache. Boards need a C741 class chipset with the Xeon Silver 4516Y+ on the CPU support list, not W790 workstation boards. The Socket vs chipset: what decides whether a CPU works guide covers board choice, and Intel Xeon Silver 4514Y shows a nearby option on the same socket.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The 4516Y+ fits LGA 4677 on single socket server boards with LGA 4677 retention and server power delivery. Board lists must name the Xeon Silver 4516Y+ part for qualification. W790 workstation boards target W-series chips instead, so a server SKU will not post there even though the contact count matches.

Server chipset choice decides management and IO breadth rather than CPU fit. C741 class boards carry BMC management, multiple NICs and NVMe backplanes for this power class. A BIOS that lists Emerald Rapids from December 2023 covers the part, while early firmware may need an update for specific stepping IDs. Check the board CPU list before mixing this SKU with other steppings.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Up to DDR5 4400 MT/s, 8 channels, up to 4 TB with ECC feed the cores, and matched DIMMs hold the rated speed. Population with matched DIMMs holds the rated speed, and eight channel operation needs one DIMM per channel at minimum for full bandwidth. Capacity reaches 4 TB per socket with high density DIMMs.

Eighty Gen5 lanes per CPU wire NICs, accelerators and NVMe, and the lane count stays constant across these Emerald Rapids and Sapphire Rapids server SKUs. Lane bifurcation follows board firmware, so slot population rules come from the board manual.

The 185 W envelope fits standard heatsinks with front to back airflow. The FCLGA4677 package uses a carrier with even mounting pressure. Paste and torque sequence follow the heatsink maker specification for 185 W parts.

Upgrade paths

On LGA 4677 the upward moves are higher core parts where VM counts grow, or adding a second Xeon Silver 4516Y+ socket where boards allow two socket operation. For this 24-core SKU, memory growth to full channel population and NIC additions often help more than clocks.

Outside this SKU, Intel Xeon Silver 4514Y (Xeon Silver 4514Y) on LGA 4677 trims or adds cores for lighter or denser loads. Platinum parts add UPI breadth for larger fabrics, while Silver parts cut cost for single purpose hosts. A move to another socket needs a new board and memory plan, so socket local growth comes first.