The new Core i9-7900X and its launch partner, Core i7-7740X are the introductions of Intel’s new high-performance home system platform. A cover letter without much news but that will give way to a new capacity of performance in the domestic market thanks to new processors with up to 18 cores.
New X-Series processors
That one and their upcoming brothers will form a new generation of high-performance processors for home systems. Some core processors that rival the professional ranges of Intel will translate into processors of up to 18 cores before the end of the year. They will be the answer to the AMD Threadripper platform with up to 16 cores.
This processor, which has begun to be available in stores during these days, will soon be accompanied by 12-core models, probably from the month of August. Very high-performance processors coming from a new socket and also form a new chipset.
Differences between physical cores and logical cores
It has improvements at all levels to introduce more capacity for less price. This model will cost 1000 Euros, compared to 1800 of the 6950X. Also with ten cores, from the previous generation for the LGA2011v3 platform.
This new Core i9-7900X will soon surpass by the Core i9-7920X models with 12 cores and 24 threads and the Core i9-7940X with 14 cores and 28 process threads. All are models comes with 140w consumption. These support four channels of DDR4-2666 memory and turbo modes with high frequencies that in most cases that will exceed 4GHz (4.3GHz in this model Core i9-7900X).
They all support overclocking by multiplier modification and have all the features we expect from a legacy processor. Such as the best virtualization support, hardware encryption instructions, advanced multimedia, and so on.
Intel Going to Put Core i9 With 12, 14, 16 and 18 cores
For the first time in several generations, these new Core i9.7900X processors will share the platform with midrange processors. Core i7 and Core i5 models with a minimum of four cores models will reach up to 8 cores and 16 process threads. The performance of these models will vary, as in the number of memory channels, but will all share the same LGA2066 socket and the same X299 chipset.
The Intel X299 chipset
This chipset, in conjunction with the new X-Series processors, makes up the new platform “Halo” Intel. These two pieces allow access to cutting-edge overclocking technologies, such as the Intel Turbo Boost Max 3.0 system. Which allows better control of the frequency of each core, balance consumption, and heat generation to sustain higher rates in a greater number of Nuclei of permanent form.
It is a chipset oriented for players and overclockers that allow total independence of each frequency of the system. And that adds support for memories faster and faster, so thanks to the system of profiles XMP 2.0 of Intel. Support for the Xtreme Tuning Utility is maintained, and a protection system called Performance Tuning Protection Package Plan so that we can tweak the capabilities of our system, our processor, without risk.
Intel Core i9 7900X ‘Skylake-X’ Overclocked at 6.01 GHz
The Intel X299 is a chipset that will allow an even more intelligent integration. Thanks to a superior number of PCI Express lines. The chipset, on its own, supports up to 24 PCI Express 3.0 (8GT/s) lines. That is a more than the substantial improvement over the 8 PCI Express 2.0 (4GT / s) lines offered by the X99 chipset. That is already a significant improvement that will allow these motherboards to provide state-of-the-art storage. Combined with support for more advanced graphics systems.
It also supports storage systems like the M.2, U.2, NVMe, Intel Optane, RAID and up to 8 SATA ports of 6gbps. A large capacity with a variety of technologies. That will allow us to enjoy the most important storage units of the moment with a future support of even faster drives that we can configure in RAID 0 modes.
The connectivity is also quite complete, with USB 3.1 Gen1 of 5Gbps in a total of 10 ports. We can add up to 14 additional USB ports, but with USB 2.0 interface. No doubt we miss the support for USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps. But it will be rare for the board not to integrate this technology in an additional way thanks to the large capacity of PCI Express lines of this chipset.
The socket LGA2066 is not compatible with processors of other generations. We must accompany these motherboards of a new processor. But the cooling systems of the socket LGA2011v3 are entirely compatible, and the processors also have the same consumption. So we will not have to buy a new Ventilation set for CPU.