Abstract: Electroplated diamond wire is widely used in photovoltaic solar energy and semiconductor industry for silicon crystal slicing. The abrasive density on the surface of the wire has a great impact on the sawing performance. In order to evaluate the sawing performance of electroplated diamond wires with different surface abrasive densities, sawing experiments are carried out with photovoltaic polycrystalline silicon as the workpiece sample. The effects of surface morphology, surface roughness and sawing efficiency are analyzed. The results show that the ductile grooves machined by two kinds of diamond wires with surface abrasive density of 210~230 pieces/mm and 290~330 pieces/mm account for a large proportion on the sawn surface without obvious large size brittle micro-pits. The silicon wafer surface roughness formed by sawing with wire surface abrasive density of 210~230 pieces/mm is the lowest, and the surface roughness will increase if the wire surface abrasive density is too low or too high. The cutting ability and efficiency of diamond wire increase with the increase of surface abrasive density. Considering the quality requirements of sawn surface morphology and roughness, the cutting ability and manufacturing cost of diamond wire, it is suggested that the surface abrasive density should be between 210 piece s and 330 pieces/mm.