Looking for e5 v4 engineering sample experiences

E5 v4 engineering sample experiences

Considering Xeon E5-2699 v4 ES (QHVK) for a budget render node build. Specific questions:

• BIOS compatibility on Chinese X99 boards (Huananzhi, Jingsha, Machinist variants)
• AVX-512 behavior on ES stepping — reports of partial enablement
• PCIe bifurcation support on ES vs retail
• C6/C7 power states: functional or disabled on early silicon?

I have seen conflicting reports. Some sellers claim "works perfect," others note POST hangs on certain board revisions. I need reproducible data, not AliExpress roulette.

Recommendation: If you have personally tested ES v4 silicon on specific boards with specific BIOS versions, please share. I will compile findings into a matrix.

You are asking about CPU silicon stepping and I am going to answer anyway. Twenty boards tested personally. Not routers, but the diagnostic approach transfers.

Huananzhi X99-T8 (2019-11 BIOS): POST hangs with QHVK if E5 v3 microcode remains. Must flash v4-specific blob. Jingsha X99-D8 (2020-03): boots, bifurcation x4x4x4x4 works, but RPKI-equivalent validation — microcode signature check — fails silently. No AVX-512 on that stepping. Machinist MR9A: most stable, C6 enabled, C7 disabled. IRR for your purchase: no returns, no route.

Irritating that "engineering sample" means "no engineering support."

Lol I bought 2 of these already from some guy on ebay both work fine one is 2699v4 es other is 2680v4 es you just need the right bios my huananzhi board needed update took me 3 hours Ur overthinking it cheap cpu = cheap fun if it dies you buy another 40 bucks not like your spending oracle money

Yikes dude ES chips are pwn for noobs who cant afford real xeons lol

Gg my box runs real 2699v4 retail, paid proper money, no compatibility yikes. U gonna RMA to china? Gl with that gg. Back in the day I ran ES opterons, total noob move, fried a board. Never again gg. These days I buy boxes not drama gg