Intel’s Core-X Series Will Be Seeing Staggered Launch: Core i9-7900X and Below Ready To Launch, Core i9-7920X Through i9-7980XE Delayed

by Adeel Younas
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Core i9 7900X Launch
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Intel has recently unveiled its Kaby Lake-X and SkyLake-X processors and as a part of its Core-X series made everyone surprised by the huge amount of core counts that included in the lineup. With options ranging from 4 Cores / 8 Threads to 18 Cores / 36 Threads, this is a very first time when Intel has departed so heavily from moderate yearly core count increases on HEDT side of things.

Intel’s High Core Count parts, the Core i9-7920X, i9-7940X, i9-7960X, and i9-7980XE, are not yet ready; were thrown in at the last minute to establish a counter-narrative to AMD’s ThreadRipper

Intel’s Core-X series will be rolling out in staggered launch fashion once which suggest that all parts including and above 12-Core (Core i9-7920X) variant were thrown into announcement last second to compete with AMD’s marketing tactics.

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Intel Core i9

To be fair both Intel and AMD have high core count parts which are announced on paper basis right now, but this is something that can be considered a deviation from Intel’s usual confident scheduling.

SEE ALSO: Intel Core i9 7900X OCed To 5.7GHz+, Breaks Cinebench R15 & 11.5 HWBOT 10 Core Records

Intel’s public documentation about Core-X Series confirms this. Firstly the Core-X specifications document states only Core i9-7900X (10-Cores) and below are available right now with Core i9-7920X and above “coming soon” tag. Secondly, Intel’s official ARK portal only lists processors up to Core i9-7900X in Core-X Series.

Core-X-Series-7900X-and-below

The troubling implication here is that Intel did not even have enough configuration details for paper launch. That is something confirmed by the fact that all but most broad specifications of Core i9-7920X and above are to be announced yet.

So just what is going on? Intel has apparently announced 12 core to 18 core parts that don’t even have finalized specifications right now, or Intel is keeping it a secret to compete with AMD’s upcoming platform. In fact, there is every reason to believe that Core-X processors above the 10 Core-mark were thrown in as a last minute decision to counter AMD’s ThreadRipper announcement last month.

Well, the good thing is Intel already has the dies ready thanks to its Xeon efforts but re-configuring them for LGA 2066 socket will take time. The specs will have to be finalized, and clock speeds will be locked in thermal envelop streamlined.

Intel promised the Core i9-7900X and below by Q2 2017 so we should see them get retail availability by the end of June. However, there is no word for when we might get our hands on the high core count variants (Core i9-7920X through Core i9-7980XE), it might be a few more weeks or it might be a year as some rumors indicate; although a release sometime in 2H 2017 seems more likely to me. All that said, even if the head-start AMD gets is just of a few weeks, this is a valueable opportunity for team red to capitalize on the temporary respite in competition (for what seems to be the first time in years) in the high core count segment and establish momentum for its ThreadRipper products – assuming it can beat Intel’s High Core Count parts to channel and not end up in another Vega-like fix with ThreadRipper.

Intel Core X Series Processor Family Specifications and Timeline Confirmed

AvailabilityQ2 2017 (Late June)Q2 2017 (Late June)Q2 2017 (Late June)Q2 2017 (Late June)Q2 2017 (Late June)
CPU Namei9-7900Xi7-7820Xi7-7800Xi7-7740Xi7-7640X
CPU Process14nm+14nm+14nm+14nm+14nm+
ArchitectureSKL-XSKL-XSKL-XKBL-XKBL-X
Cores/Threads10/208/166/124/84/4
Base Clock3.3 GHz3.6 GHz3.5 GHz4.3 GHz4.0 GHz
(Turbo Boost 2.0)4.3 GHz4.3 GHz4.0 GHz4.5 GHz4.2 GHz
(Turbo Boost Max 3.0)4.5 GHz4.5 GHzN/AN/AN/A
L3 Cache13.75 MB11 MB8.25 MB6 MB6 MB
L2 Cache10 MB8 MB6 MB4 MB4 MB
MemoryQuad DDR4Quad DDR4Quad DDR4Dual DDR4Dual DDR4
PCIe Lanes4428281616
Socket TypeLGA 2066LGA 2066LGA 2066LGA 2066LGA 2066
TDP140W140W140W112W112W
Price$999 US$599 US$389 US$369$242

Intel Core X Series Processor Family Specifications and Timeline TBA

AvailabilityTBA (Expected 2H 2017)TBA (Expected 2H 2017)TBA (Expected 2H 2017)TBA (Expected 2H 2017)
CPU Namei9-7980XEi9-7960Xi9-7940Xi9-7920X
CPU Process14nm+14nm+14nm+14nm+
ArchitectureSKL-XSKL-XSKL-XSKL-X
Cores/Threads18/3616/3214/2812/24
Base ClockTBATBATBATBA
(Turbo Boost 2.0)TBATBATBATBA
(Turbo Boost Max 3.0)4.5 GHz4.5 GHz4.5 GHz4.5 GHz
L3 CacheTBATBATBATBA
L2 Cache18 MB16 MB14 MB12 MB
MemoryQuad DDR4Quad DDR4Quad DDR4Quad DDR4
PCIe Lanes44444444
Socket TypeLGA 2066LGA 2066LGA 2066LGA 2066
TDP165W165W165W140W
Price$1999 US$1699 US$1399 US$1189 US

 

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