AfterDawn: Tech news

Intel unveils new Core X series with a super powerful Core i9 Extreme

Written by Matti Robinson @ 30 May 2017 11:11 User comments (3)

Intel unveils new Core X series with a super powerful Core i9 Extreme

If you are a computer hardware geek then this day is one that you might have been waiting for a while. Intel has unveiled today a new CPU brand called Core X.
When performance is what you live for the Core X series processors is where you look – unless you hate Intel and only use AMD products. The new CPUs will include Core i5, Core i7, and new Core i9 processors that are meant for the power hungriest.

As you might imagine, the three different series of processor offer a plethora of options. You start off with four core i5 processors and end up with 18 cores and impressive 36 threads in a new Core i9 Extreme. According to the manufacturer 7980XE is the first 18-core CPU sold to the masses. Well, at least if the masses have $1,999 to put towards a super performing CPU.

You can distinguish the regular models from the new X series straight from the model number. This means that for example the cheapest of the bunch at $242, the 4-core i5, is called Core i5-7640X. All the X series processors are designed for motherboard with X299 chipset.



When it comes to the architecture most of the Core X are an updated version of the 6th generation, namely Skylake, but there's two Kaby Lake (7th gen) based chips (i5-7640X and i7-7740X).

Intel says that the chips are well suited for VR and they support Turbo Boost Max 3.0 which provides a more efficient automatic overclocking. Intel should still have the new Coffee Lake CPUs to unveil later this year so you might want to look at those before buying your PC a new processor.

Previous Next  

3 user comments

131.5.2017 01:08

Too pricey for me.

21.6.2017 02:17

The newest Kaby Lake CPU's do not support Windows 7 or even Windows 8.1 either.

I had to upgrade to stupid Windows 10 to use the Kaby Lake CPU.....

31.6.2017 02:34

Originally posted by ivymike:
The newest Kaby Lake CPU's do not support Windows 7 or even Windows 8.1 either.

I had to upgrade to stupid Windows 10 to use the Kaby Lake CPU.....
Yeah...you can get drivers if you search hard enough but then windows update kills itself...and the drivers are buggy anyway. It's a shame Intel rolled over like this. I'd say it was a point for AMD but they rolled over too...and then Microsoft f**ked them!

I don't have $2000 for a CPU (plus the cost of a new mainboard) but the idea of an 18-core at 4.5GHZ is very appealing. Nice to see that Intel is actually making faster processors again.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

News archive