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543318-intel-core-i9-x-series

Intel and AMD have been locked in gainsay ever since Ryzen 7 debuted and put AMD back in the CPU race for the commencement time in six years. Both companies are prepping to release higher cadre count processors, but Intel is playing this game fairly conservatively, if recent rumors can be believed.

According to VideoCardz leaked presentation, Intel'south upcoming Core i9-7920X volition be a 12-core / 24-thread CPU with 16.5MB of cache. That works out to the same 1.375MB of L3 that other Skylake-SP processors take. But the reported base core clock is rather low, at just 2.9GHz. That'south 400MHz lower than Intel's 10-cadre Core i9-7900X, which means the Core i9-7920X trades a ~13 percent base clock driblet for a xx per centum increase in core count. That's non a huge proceeds, and while we don't know the boost clock speed, we do know that Intel's thermal paste solution isn't working well for the Core i9-7900X. Adding more cores will but make the trouble worse. Intel can thwart this marketing hit by setting a loftier boost clock for 1-2 cores, but nether full load the scrap may very well throttle, based on the behavior of the 7900X.

Intel-Core-X-series-pricing-July-2017

Image past Videocardz

The estimated price of Intel's 12-core chip is $1,199. AMD's 12-core Threadripper volition sell for $799, while the 16-core version will be $999. While Intel still has an edge over AMD in single-threaded functioning, how these chips compare will come up down to how well they can maintain their base and heave clocks under load. AMD's 12-cadre CPU has a 3.5GHz base and a 4GHz boost, while its 16-cadre version has a 3.4GHz base of operations and a 4GHz boost. That'southward a 1.21x clock speed reward for AMD (on paper). But we'll have to meet what clocks these chips can actually concur before we can say much about how well they'll match up against i another.

We're still hoping Intel will shift course on using thermal paste instead of solder on its loftier cadre-count CPUs, and that the initial bug reported with early X299 boards volition be resolved by future editions of these products. It seems articulate, based on the evidence nosotros've seen to date, that the Core i9 family wasn't quite set up for launch when Intel debuted it. That's not to say that Skylake-SP is a bad design (information technology isn't), but heat and thermal issues seem to be holding the chip back from hitting its full potential. That may not be a problem if you don't overclock, simply the frequency first on the Core i9-7920X (if this rumor proves truthful) takes a significant chunk out of the performance increase you'd wait when moving from a 10-core to a 12-core scrap.

In short: At that place's an opportunity for AMD and Threadripper here, but we'll accept to wait and come across if AMD tin can seize it.