Tech preview: Intel Core i9 Skylake-X processors

Processors 199 Page 3 of 3 Published by

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The Lineup

The Upcoming Processor line-up

A lot is said and stated about the new line-up, it’s a confusing series of processors where Intel uses not one, but two architectures (Kaby-Lake-X / Skylake-X and 6 to 18 cores) into one chipset. Next to that we now have to add the Core i9 series, which honestly will see two lines as well, the Core i9 X series and the Core i9 Extreme series. To make things even more confusing, Intel will not launch that 18-core part anytime soon. Perhaps you will see a review in August somewhere, but we expect retail availability to be far from that date. You will see up-to ten core processors released initially with a 12-core part in August. Let's chart things up in a table overview:
 

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 ClockTurbo 2.0/3.0Cores / threadsL3-cachePCIe 3.0Mem ChannelsTDPPrice
Core i9 7980XE TBA TBA 18/36 TBA TBA TBA TBA $1999
Core i9 7960X TBA. TBA 16/32 TBA TBA TBA TBA $1699
Core i9 7940X TBA TBA 14/28 TBA TBA TBA TBA $1399
Core i9 7920X TBA. TBA 12/24 TBA TBA TBA TBA $1199
Core i9 7900X 3.3 GHz 4.3/4.5 GHz 10/20 13,75 MB 44 Quad-channel DDR4-2666 140 W $999
Core i7 7820X 3.6 GHz 4.3/4.5 GHz 8/16 11 MB 28 Quad-channel DDR4-2666 140 W $599
Core i7 7800X 3.5 GHz 4.0 GHz 6/12 8,25 MB 28 Quad-channel DDR4-2666 140 W $389
Core i7 7740X 4.3 GHz 4.5 GHz 4/8 8 MB 16 Dual-channel DDR4-2666 112 W $339
Core i5 7640X 4.0 GHz 4.2 GHz 4/4 6 MB 16 Dual-channel DDR4-2666 112 W $242

What to Expect?

So, what we learned at Computex is that Intel indeed will be releasing just the Skylake-X processors with up-to ten cores initially. All motherboard partners had the 10-core SKU which would be the Core i9 7900X that will be priced at 999 USD.

None, and I do repeat this none of the partners have had their hands on, or even seen the 12, 14, 16 or that 18-core part. So that does raise some questions as earlier on we have already stated that Intel is rushing things as an answer towards AMD’s upcoming Threadripper processor series. So on that note, we can confirm that X299 and the respective processors will launch with up-to 10-core processors in the Skylake-X processor series. 

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So that means that there will be three (Skylake-X) SKUs at launch, the Core i7 7800K six core, the 7820X with eight cores and the Core i9 7900K with 10 cores. I highlighted these in the upper overview. The 7740X and 7640X are the Kaby-Lake-X based procs, these are four core processors. There is another thing that we did look into, overclocking. I am honestly getting a little tired of 6 & 7 GHz overclock announcements in situations where LN2 or sub-zero cooling is being used. Its getting old and it is not at all important or relative towards you guys, the end user.
 

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Above the Skylake-X 10-core part, Core i9 7900K. You can see the 4.3 GHz tweak (on LCS cooling) for all cores locked in at that freqeuency. Highlighted in the red column is the Cinebench multi-threaded CB score, overclock on all cores that results into 2364cb. 


Now I did some rounds with the mobo partners and simply asked them what clock frequencies they can tweak the 8 and 10 core parts at with a more normal cooling method, like LCS or a really proper heatpipe cooler. The magic number seems to be 4.2 to 4.3 GHz depending on the ASIC quality. And if you are wondering about it: the 4.5 GHz Turbo 3.0 you see noted as a spec means that likely only two cores will be able to run that frequency simultaneously (while others are clocked lower). 
 

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So the tweaking results seems to be roughly at the same level as Haswell-E and the current 8 and 10-core Broadwell-E (6900K/6950X) parts. These are still pretty good numbers and these tweaks are based on an all-core 4.3 GHz tweak of course. Obviously the quad-core Skylake-X processors will clock higher.

In Closing

As you can see up-to 10-core processors are to be releases short term. The 10-core flagship Core i9 7900X will cost 999 USD (MSRP), that future 18-core version will run upwards to 1999 USD, which lets be honest here are crazy unrealistic consumer end-prices. On the opposite side of things, the 'lesser' core version are becoming cheaper. The 8-core Core i7 7820X is just a hundred bucks more expensive compared to a Ryzen 1800X, however 200 USD more expensive compared to a Ryzen 7 1700 8-core SKU. 

In the end, Intel is taking big and unusually large steps, we have not seen that in a long time from them. This all, is thanks to AMD who is resetting the market pushing for more-core and more threaded solutions. In the end it'll remain to be determined what will be the better and more logical solution to opt. Fact is the processor landscape is changing, exceedingly rapidly. 

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Example of a X299 motherboard as photographed on Computex 2017

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