Intel Introduces Kabylake-X, Skaylake-X, and X299

We’ve been hearing about Intel’s Kabylake-X, Skylake-X, and X299 platform for quite a while now. I don’t think a week has gone by in the past month where we’ve haven’t talked about it. Now we have official confirmation on all of the details! Intel says the new platform is their “most scalable”, meaning that it will have CPUs with a little as four cores and all the way up to 18 cores, yes 18 cores!

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Now that 18-core, 36-thread will set you back almost $2000, but there is also a 10-core, 20-thread CPU around the $1000 mark. On the low end there will CPUs as low as $300, and even a 6-core, 12-thread CPU for $400. The new X-Series processors will be separated into Kabylake-X and Skylake-X parts. Kabylake-X parts will be 4-core only and will be much like the current desktop processors, but with higher clocks. Also expect pretty much the same IPC. These processors have a TDP 21W higher than the 7700K, and will likely not have an iGPU. They will also offer four more PCI-Express 3.0 lanes from the CPU.

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Moving on to Skylake-X, this is where you are going to see processors with cores ranging from 6 all the way up to 18. We will also see the introduction of the new Core i9 family, which we told you about not that long ago. This new setup with processors ranging from Core i5 X-Series to Core i9 Extreme series marks a change in strategy from Intel and will result in lower platform prices. If we look at the chart below we can see the highest-end part, the Core i9-7980XE, which is an 18-core, 36-thread part will come in at $1999, there is the i9-7900X which is a 10-core, 20-thread part at $999, and even the 6-core, 12-thread i7-7800X at $389. If you think about it, $389 for a 6-core, 12-thread part from Intel puts its in the reach of many consumers.

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