“AMD announced its new high-end desktop (HEDT) platform, the 16-core 32-thread ThreadRipper a couple of weeks ago,” Peter Bright reports for Ars Technica. “At Computex in Taipei, it is Intel’s turn to update its HEDT platform, and it is one-upping AMD in the process. The Intel platform, consisting of the new X299 chipset and new X-series processors, will go all the way up to 18 cores and 36 threads.”
“The new platform has wider range and greater complexity than the X99 platform it replaces. At the low end are ‘Kaby Lake-X’ processors: the i5-7640X and the i7-7740X,” Bright reports. “These chips are very similar to the existing mainstream Kaby Lake processors that came to market earlier this year; four cores with either four (for the i5) or eight (for the i7) threads, two memory channels, and 16 PCIe 3 lanes from the CPU itself. The chips have a higher power envelope—up to 112W, instead of the 91W of non-X parts—and use X299’s new Socket 2066. Their clock speeds are a little higher, too; the $339 i7-7740X has a base clock of 4.3GHz and a turbo of 4.5GHz, compared to the 4.2/4.5GHz of the $339 i7-7700K.”
“Step up the price a little and things become more interesting. Out goes Kaby Lake-X, in comes Skylake-X,” Bright reports. “Skylake-X is not simply an existing Skylake processor in a new socket, instead, it’s a desktop version of the Skylake-SP core that’s going to be used in the next generation of Xeon chips… Wth its 18-core chip, Intel is scaling a bit higher for those who truly want the best that money can buy. Intel’s single-threaded performance, which is still critical in many workloads, is also going to be superior…”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Right back at ya, AMD! Competition is a wonderful thing.
Now, who wants a new, extensible Apple Mac Pro with an 18-core Intel Core i9 Extreme inside?
SEE ALSO:
Will Apple put AMD processors in Macs? – February 27, 2017
AMD’s Ryzen processor overclocked, notches new Cinebench world record – February 24, 2017
