Intel just released their new enthusiast series of CPUs codenamed Broadwell-E. Broadwell-E is targeted towards power users who need lots of performance from their processing units. This can range from extreme game streaming, to high end content creation, Virtual Machines, and much more.
This is the first time we see Intel releasing a series of 4 CPUs in the lineup. Previous generations have always had a maximum of either two or three.
Core I7 6950X: The flagship of the entire CPU lineup. This monster packs 10 cores, 20 threads, 25MB of cache, and a core clock of 3.0Ghz with a boost clock of 4.0Ghz (on one core). Price is $1,729.99.
Core I7 6900K: Forerunner to the 6950X. This CPU packs the same amount of cores as the previous generation 5960X: 8 Cores, 16 threads, 20MB of cache, clock speed of 3.2Ghz which turbos to 4.0Ghz. The price is a slightly more reasonable $1,099.99.
Core I7 6850K: The mid-range chip out of the 4. While defiantly very cheap compared to its other brethren, it’s still incredibly fast. 6 Cores, 12 threads, 15MB of cache, clock speed of 3.6Ghz, turbo boost of 4.0Ghz. Price is $649.99.
Core I7 6800K: The lowest end processing unit out of the four. But, has the best price to performance ratio out of all of these CPUs. 6 Cores, 12 threads, 15MB of cache, clock speed of 3.4Ghz, and a turbo speed of 3.8Ghz. Price is $449.99. (Same as GTX 1070
)So which CPU is for you?
If you have a huge budget, it can be incredibly difficult to choose which CPU is best. While the 6800K has the best price to performance ratio, you might need the extra cores or PCIE lanes of the 6900K. Maybe you just need the extra PCIE lanes only, so the 6850K would be best. Or do you need the extra couple of cores the 6950X brings? It’s a hard decision if your budget is over $1700 for the CPU alone.
The best way to see which CPU is good for you (neither overkill or underkill) is to study what you do with your PC. Go thru the majority of programs you use and see how demanding they are on the CPU itself. If your not sure, look up that specific program in a search engine and check for benchmarks or CPU recommendations. If your still stuck, ask a question here at Tom's Hardware.
Do I need the additional 12 PCIE Lanes?
The major difference between the 6800K and all the rest of them is the fact that it only has 28 PCI-E (gen 3.0) lanes.
For a newer user, this can be a bit confusing since it isn't clear to them how many PCIE lanes they're using up, so lets go thru the most popular PCIE cards out there:
Graphics cards need 16 PCI-E lanes to run.
PCI-E SSD's need 4 or 8 lanes to run.
WIFI/Bluetooth/LAN/RAID cards typically need 1-4 lanes.
Typically you'll have 16 lanes taken away already since you need a discrete graphics card to run broadwell which has no integrated graphics. That leaves 12 PCIE lanes.
That can possibly allow you to add two PCIE SSD's, and a WIFI card along side your graphics card. Or you could have two graphics cards, one PCIE SSD, and one wifi card. So their are still a lot of PCIE lanes you can use.
Typically the only time you'll need 40 PCIE lanes is if your running 4 graphics cards in your machine. This is good if your running a huge amount of video rendering/mining or run 4 way SLI for your ultimate gaming machine.
Motherboards:
This is where everything gets tricky. Motherboards come in a very vast variety of flavors and options. Prices range from the $170s all the way to $450-$500.
So should I go for a older X99 motherboard or the new X99 (refreshed) motherboards?
That's a good question. While both X99 types do support broadwell-E, there are key features in broadwell that make it worth getting the newer refeshed motherboards. Here are a few examples:
1. Out of the box upgradability. Similar to H87 and Z87, the original X99 motherboards will need a BIOS update to support broadwell. Now this is going to be especially true for the first few months as the vast majority of these boards are on the shelf. The factories will begin adding the latest BIOS onto all it's motherboards as new ones come off the factory line. Which means we could see lots of the exact same models of motherboards coming with the older and newer BIOS's. It's defiantly a pain, but it's something that always happens when you want to put a new CPU in a old motherboard.
Now back to the original subject, the newer (refreshed) X99 motherboard models will be designed specifically for Broadwell-E, so they will be ready right out of the box for Broadwell-E processors.
2. Features. The newer X99 motherboards will fully support Intel's Turbo Boost Max 3.0 technology which allows the strongest core in the CPU to run at noticeably faster clock speeds when a selected single threaded program is used. More on that here.
From what I've heard, only the newer (refreshed) X99 motherboards support this features as this is a feature that requires BIOS compatibility.
But, the "good" news is that this feature isn't exactly; useful. The clock speed of the strongest core is controllable via the BIOS, but it's stock config is set at a multi of 40x (in human terms that means the core will operate at 4.0Ghz). If you compare 3.5ghz to 4.0ghz on a single threaded program, that is only an additional 12.5% of performance boost your getting. Plus add on to the fact that there aren't that many single threaded programs out there anymore, and it gets even less useful.
Other features:
Motherboard manufacturers are also adding in a bunch of their own minor improvements and upgrades to their software for these new X99 motherboards. For example Asus is adding in more RGB led lighting to their motherboards and features the all new Fan Xpert 4 technology for the first time ever. They've also added in a new lineup to the ROG family called the X99 Strix (if that sounds familiar, it's the naming scheme for Asus's gaming graphics cards).
Now these features are handy, but most of the time they are more like bloatware. It all depends on what you need or want.
Conclusion:
All in all, the main reason I'd recommend getting the newer X99 board is for its out of the box compatibility with broadwell-E. Now if you do find an older X99 motherboard on sale or just love that mobo for some specific reason, you can always still run broadwell in it. Just make sure it either has: A, the new BIOS already installed. B, You have a Haswell-E CPU on hand so you can update the BIOS. C, Your specific model allows you to update the BIOS without the need for memory or CPU to be installed.
I hope this guide has helped you power users get the hang of Broadwell-E and which one you should buy. Also, keep in mind that Broadwell-E could be too powerful for your needs. If that's so, make sure you check out Skylake (like the I7-6700K & I5-6600K).
Thank you for reading, if you have questions or comments please feel free to either PM me or ask a question on the form itself.
TechyInAZ,
Moderator & Writer
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