Intel Core i9 7900X processor review - An Introduction

Core i9 7900X - 10 cores for a thousand bucks

In this article we'll have a look at a new Core X series processor from Intel, the Core i9 7900X. This year is one of the more weird releases in relation to Intel. Here in the EU Intel killed all marketing, press and PR activities. Hence the majority of media all over Europe is not receiving any information from Intel anymore, that’s the same samples wise. So the review you see today is courtesy of a board-partner as Intel does not seed these processor samples for review anymore - but apparently all media in the USA are seeded. We have no clue what is going on with Intel these days. The Intel supported reviews this week are based on a handful cherry-picked websites that are on a marketing-drip directly from Intel. The rest of the media will need to somehow borrow their samples from Intel partners. 

With the introduction of Ryzen and more recently the announcement of Threadripper processors the processor market and channel has been turned up-side down. It gave Intel a serious awakening call and as such they needed to step up, significantly. Intel’s primary processor business has been releasing and refreshing quad-core processors for like a gazillion years now with an overpriced E type (e.g. Broadwell-E / Haswell-E) processor release every now and then. You can't really blame them either as there was no competition - hence they had no rush and have been relaxed all the way for years now. Intel did anticipate Zen (or Ryzen), but the AMD consumer aimed Threadripper 16-core and Naples server segment 32-core made Intel step up its game a notch. Initially it was expected that Intel would announce a new 10 and maybe 12-core processor based on Skylake-X architecture. With everything that has been going on, there now has been a number of announcements going from top to bottom with an unexpected quad-core Kaby-Lake-X release as well as announcements that entails Intel to release 18-core processors. There’s more to the story than that as Intel might simply have been trying to steal some of the AMD Threadripper momentum. Yes, first the Skylake-X processors are going to be released but take good note, you will not see any availability for the 18, 16, 14 or even 12-core parts. Skylake-X will launch up-to 10-cores (only) with an uncertain release date for the higher-specced parts, there even is a rumor that the 18-core 2000 USD flagship might not see retail availability until 2018. And sure you will see some reviews on that part this year, but showing a working processor and retail availability, well these are two very different things.

It has been and still is a complete and utter mess with Intel, I can honestly say that as for this entire X299 / Core X series release Intel has not send any info or samples. Our hails through emails are not responded to, and the phone-numbers we dial of contacts are not answered. Here in the EU Intel has killed (with a few exceptions) marketing, press and PR activities. Hence 98% media all over Europe is not receiving any information from Intel anymore. 
 

 
That said, with a bit of luck we have been able to acquire a Core i9 7900X for this review I will take you guys a little deeper into the architecture and processor series that is Skylake-X, the Core X series and review one, with a borrowed sample.