Intel Updates Its Core X Product Stack, Graces The Top With 18-core i9-7980XE

A couple of months ago, Intel launched its (then) top-end 7900X, a 10-core chip that somehow deserved a new, much grander moniker: Core i9. At the time, I wrote that since last year’s top-end 10-core model, 6950X, was also an i7, it made no sense to see this year’s 10-core called anything different. Core i9, then, should be made exclusive to chips that push the boundaries, rather than simply inch past last year’s top offering.

What is deserving of the Core i9 moniker (in my mind) are the four models placed above the i9-7900X, encompassing 12-, 14-, 16-, and 18-core parts. A couple of years ago, the top-end market enjoyed 8-core chips; today, we’re seeing double that, and more. It sure can’t hurt to thank AMD for that, because I have a really hard time believing that we’d be seeing these chips today if not for the threat of Ryzen and Threadripper. In the end, we all win.

As pictured above, both the Core i9-7960X and i9-7980XE are in-house and primed for testing, but I am currently catching up on another review to preface my look at those (*hint* Threadripper *hint*), so once that’s out the door, I’ll be jumping right on top of these new chips.

Here’s how Intel’s current lineup looks:

As per the norm, Intel’s mainstream chips pack in its newest architecture, and thus, newest feature set. The 8th-gen Core series announced just earlier represent the Coffeelake generation, whereas the Core X-series includes both Kaby Lake-X at the bottom end, and Skylake-X at the top. As the new 12-18 core chips are based on the Skylake-X architecture, it means that we’re dealing with a lot of cores on an aging architecture.

That all said, the biggest performance gains the last two generations have seen have been made through clock boosts, so not too much is lost. Still, it’d be nice to see a day when Intel can deliver the latest architecture across its entire lineup, although 10nm challenges are sure to throw a wrench in the gears of that happening.

As mentioned, I am behind on getting another CPU review out-the-door, which I expect to happen soon, and then I’ll tackle these latest Intel chips to see where they stand in the grand scheme. Aside from on top of your wallet as it screams for mercy, that is.