From what I know, Xeon CPUs focus more on lots of core but with less single-core performance, yet the Xeon w5-3425 is current gen, has only 12 cores and costs 1189$. On the other hand, the i9-14900K has 8 big cores (P) and 16 medium cores (E), with way higher single-core performance and costs half of the Xeon w5-3425. What am I missing ?
different parts for different goals.
With an i9 you want the fastest cores for a desktop pc, the Xeons are more for connectivity and heavy workloads that require many cores at the expense of high frequency and price.