Intel has just unveiled its brand new Core X-series processors, which is the company's latest flagship products aimed at high-end enthusiast desktop computers. The brand new series introduces several new chips, including a brand new Core i9 variant that just blows all of its competitors out of the water. Being Intel, the chips are in no way affordable, especially the top end Core i9-7980XE that is priced at a whopping $1,999.
Official unveiling
The brand new processors are based on the company's X299/LGA2066 "Basin Falls" platform and will include nine different processors.
The new chips will be the fastest consumer-grade processors that enthusiast can buy aside from the company's server-grade products. As of the moment, only five of the nine products have been unveiled, namely the i5-7640X, the i7-7740X, the Skylake X i7-7740X, the i7-7820X, and the i9-7900X.
Details regarding the other four processors, namely the i9-7920X, i9-7940X, i9-7960X, and the i9-7980XE, should be announced at the 2017 Computex event happening this week.
Pricing
- Core i5-7640X - $242
- Core i7-7740X - $339
- Skylake X Core i7-7740X - $389
- Core i7-7820X - $599
- Core i9-7900X - $999
- Core i9-7920X - $1,199
- Core i9-7940X - $1,399
- Core i9-7960X - $1,699
- Core i9-7980XE - $1,999
Intel's answer to AMD
The different products will have varying numbers of cores and threads that range from the 4-core Core i5-7640X up to the 18-core 36-thread Core i9-7980XE.
The line-up will also be making the Core X-series the most diverse range currently available in the market. The different products will sport different chip technologies, which includes Hyper-Threading, Turbo Boost Max 3.0 technology, rebalance cache, full overclocking support, and PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes.
The company's most powerful chip
The i9-7980XE will officially be the world's fastest chip when it is released. It features more cores and threads that AMD's fastest offering, the AMD Ryzen 7 1800X. Although it has to be considered that AMD's flagship cost only a quarter of what Intel is charging for their fastest chip.
The 7980XE also offers a whopping 42.75 MB of cache, divided into 24.75 MB of L3 cache and 18 MBG of L2 cache.
The chip also features ridiculously high clock speed thanks to Intel's Turbo boost and if that still isn't enough, the chip is fully overclockable. The Core X-series will definitely be a big contender in the desktop processor market. However, it has yet to be seen if buyers will still continue to flock to Intel given that its products are exponentially much more expensive that AMD's products.
