Last year at Computex, Intel unveiled its first 10-core consumer CPU and took a step toward "megatasking." It was an expensive chip (its price started at about $1,700), but it satisfied the needs of those users who needed to perform several resource-intensive tasks simultaneously. Now Intel is upping the ante and introducing an entire family of enthusiast processors—the Core X-series—led by Intel's first 18-core CPU, the i9-7980XE.
The $1,999 7980XE is definitely not your average PC chip. Rather, this is a kind of statement from Intel. It beats out AMD's 16-core Threadripper CPU, which was poised to be the company's highest-performing consumer processor of 2017. Intel now has another way to cater to performance-hungry users who might want to play video games in 4K resolution and stream the action on Twitch in HD quality. Plus, as if the sheer number of cores weren't enough, the i9-7980XE became the first Intel consumer processor to break the teraflops performance mark.
For those who consider 18 cores a luxury, Intel has prepared the Core i9 Extreme Edition with 10, 12, 14 and 16 cores. Probably the most exciting news for hardware lovers: the price of the 10-core i9-7900X processor will be $999, which is significantly less than the cost of last year’s version.
All i9 chips have a base clock speed of 3.3 GHz, with a maximum clock speed of 4.3 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 and 4.5 GHz with Turbo Boost 3.0. The latter's performance has been improved in the new Extreme Edition chips to increase speed while maximizing the use of both single and dual cores. The X-series family is rounded out by the 4-core i5-7640X and 4-, 6- and 8-core i7s.
While this may all seem like overkill, Intel says the i9 line was inspired by the surprisingly strong demand for last year's 10-core processor. “Broadwell E was a bit of an experiment,” says an Intel spokesperson. - They bought it. This proved that enthusiasts choose the best of the best. Yes, we've added processors with more cores, but we've also introduced chips with fewer cores. We were looking to expand the line."
As you can imagine, the extra cores cause the processor to heat up more. Therefore, Intel has developed a liquid cooling system that will work with both new processors and some chips from previous generations. The heat dissipation requirements of all new Core i9, as well as 6- and 8-core i7 processors are 140 W, this is their maximum heat dissipation. The numbers are the same as last year's 10-core CPU, but they're still higher than the 91W of the more affordable Intel i7-7700K.
Over the past few years, Intel laptop chips have been much more interesting than desktop processors. This happened partly because ultra-compact laptops and convertible laptops stopped chasing performance, and began to offer rationally selected characteristics. It is unlikely that the new Core i9 X-series will become relevant for many users, but for hardware connoisseurs who load their equipment to the fullest, the new CPUs are simply a dream come true.