Intel Fires Back, Announces X-Series 18-core Core-i9 Skylake-X, Kaby Lake-X i7, i5, X299 Basin Falls

[Guest]

Intel fires its first Post-Ryzen salvo with slashed prices and a bevy of new X-Series products destined for the X299 Basin Falls chipset and the LGA2066 socket. The top-end CPU weighs in with 18 cores and 36 threads.

Intel Fires Back, Announces X-Series 18-core Core-i9 Skylake-X, Kaby Lake-X i7, i5, X299 Basin Falls : Read more

 

[cats_Paw]

Well, prices are still in favour of AMD. At least in the 8 core count department.
But this is much better than the 5% improvements on Intel chips for 1000 dollars.

 

[DookieDraws]

Nice! That 6-core Core i7-7800X looks attractive at $389.

 

[drajitsh]

Thank you AMD
thank you AMD
Thank you AMD
now it is up to the OEMs, after several years a high end platform that I WANT to buy.

 

[mapesdhs]

Intel could have done many of these changes years ago but just didn't bother. The extra 4 PCIe lanes is a joke; it's crazy that the 7820X has 28 lanes while the ancient 4820K has 40.

 

[ARICH5]

this is frustrating. all this talk of better cpu's....WHEN WILL THE GAMING COMPANIES TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT?????? this game and that game will have higher fps when companies have better multicore utilization...im tired of saying this for recommending a cpu for gaming....single core gaming still rules and multi core gaming is years away. teraflop desktop pfffft......

 

[lucas_7_94]

dat 7800x for $389 waiting for benchmarks, but for what i can see, AMD did the job.

 

[none12345]

A 4c/4t chip(with only dual channel memory and 16 pci lanes) on this platform is utterly laughable.

Why why why would you buy an expensive motherbaord that can support 44 lanes of pci with quad channel memory and then put in a cpu that turns off everything you just spent extra for.

 

[Memnarchon]

Thanks for coming back in game, AMD.
Kentsfield era (AMD was competitive): HEDT = 4 cores, Xeon = 4 cores.
Broadwell era (AMD was not competitive): HEDT = 10 cores, Xeon = 24 cores.
Skylake era (AMD is competitive again): HEDT = 18 cores, Xeon = 28 cores.
Don't we love competition?

 

[computhw]

Apologies to interject but minor correction for your article please:

"Intel's six-core also drops from $583 to $339, which contends with the $249 six-core Ryzen 5 1600X and the $219 Ryzen 5 1600."

That $339 price is a 4-core, their 6-core is actually $389.

 

[Davide_italy]

I7 2600k 3.4ghz 4 Core 126$

 

[geekguy]

So let me get this right, you need to spend an additional 100 (something), besides the cpu price. That's smart. Also sounds like "running on empty" from Intel, which is surprising. Just a thought...

 

[InvalidError]

Well, prices are still in favour of AMD. At least in the 8 core count department.
But this is much better than the 5% improvements on Intel chips for 1000 dollars.

AMD's ThreadRipper will likely max out at $1000 or less for 16C32T. Should make bang-per-buck value interesting.

 

[JamesSneed]

Other than pricing Intel had this in the works for a couple years now. What I find interesting is the 12-18 core CPU's as those were not planned(notice they are not ready yet) which are Intels reaction to AMD's Threadripper plus some of the lower prices. Finally we have competition back!

 

[salgado18]

Intel has completely changed their lineup and strategy, slashed prices, unified the platform, and some guys still think Ryzen is not good.

 

[jasonf2]

Intel has set the price point, but at 2000 they were so worried about cannibalizing their high core count xeons that they have definitely opened the door for AMD and threadripper to do some damage. This is going to be interesting if AMD comes in swinging at 999 with their 16 core model. All AMD has to do is crush the I7 lineup at a comparable price to get the market share they need. Intel continues its tradition of yea that sounds cool but I will never pay that much on its high end chips.

 

[salgado18]

A 4c/4t chip(with only dual channel memory and 16 pci lanes) on this platform is utterly laughable.

Why why why would you buy an expensive motherbaord that can support 44 lanes of pci with quad channel memory and then put in a cpu that turns off everything you just spent extra for.

So you can throw away the lame i5 and buy a monster 18-core cpu, without replacing an expensive motherboard and 4 sticks of fast ram. That's common in the mainstream market, get a good mobo (Z270) with a cheap CPU (Pentium), then upgrade (i7) in the future. Only now the jump makes more sense, from 4 to up to 36 threads, while yesterday it was from 2 to 8 threads.

 

[redgarl]

Water cooling recommended... am I the only one to understand heat is going to be an issue?

Also, this means that the CPU cost 100$ more. GFar from impress... and that 18 cores cpu... can we call this damage control at best.

 

[InvalidError]

So you can throw away the lame i5 and buy a monster 18-core cpu, without replacing an expensive motherboard and 4 sticks of fast ram.

If you are going to spend $700+ on a HEDT platform (CPU+MoBo+RAM), I doubt you are on such a tight budget that you cannot afford the extra $50-120 for a CPU capable of making proper use of the board. The HEDT market isn't for people who are desperately pinching pennies. Also, if you get a CPU that can only use half of the motherboard's features, you won't know if your motherboard has defects in those unusable features until you upgrade the CPU. Finding out that your motherboard has a dead DIMM or PCIe slot after the warranty has expired and you spent another $600+ on a new CPU to put on it would suck.

 

[salgado18]

So you can throw away the lame i5 and buy a monster 18-core cpu, without replacing an expensive motherboard and 4 sticks of fast ram.

If you are going to spend $700+ on a HEDT platform (CPU+MoBo+RAM), I doubt you are on such a tight budget that you cannot afford the extra $50-120 for a CPU capable of making proper use of the board. The HEDT market isn't for people who are desperately pinching pennies. Also, if you get a CPU that can only use half of the motherboard's features, you won't know if your motherboard has defects in those unusable features until you upgrade the CPU. Finding out that your motherboard has a dead DIMM or PCIe slot after the warranty has expired and you spent another $600+ on a new CPU to put on it would suck.

That's not a strategy for the HEDT market, that's for enthusiasts and professionals on a tight budget. Squeeze the wallet to invest in a good platform, get two sticks of ram and a cheap i5, then save up some more and upgrade to 12+ cores and get another two sticks. Start using the pc right away, and get performance later. I've done it, it kind of works, especially when you cannot guarantee when you will have the money for the upgrade.

About defects, in my country at least, that's a hidden vice as they call. Even after the warranty, if you can prove the product had a manufacturing defect that you only discovered now, you are eligible for free repairs or money back or whatever. But then, imagine you upgrade, two or three years later you buy an M.2 drive and then find out the slot doesn't work. Should have bought an M.2 drive from the start, maybe? And the other slots and features? You can't purchase something expecting it to be defective.

 

[dstarr3]

Now THIS is why we have competition!

 

[InvalidError]

About defects, in my country at least, that's a hidden vice as they call. Even after the warranty, if you can prove the product had a manufacturing defect that you only discovered now, you are eligible for free repairs or money back or whatever.

You will have a hard time proving that a feature you never/couldn't use had a manufacturing defect. It could just as easily have failed unbeknownst to you at some point during your ownership.

As for buying into a higher-end platform for future upgrade options instead of immediate/near-future requirements, I see very little value in doing so for a hypothetical upgrade a few years down the line as by that point, you'll want a new platform with all the updated IOs and cheaper higher core count CPUs assuming AMD keeps the pressure on Intel. The X299 platform is already setup for a shorter lifespan than usual simply from lacking native USB3.1-gen2 support.

 

[Guest]

So whoever bought regular Kaby Lake wasted money. It looks like socket 2066 is a way to go. This Intel lineup is completely unattractive because in order to get 44 PCIE you have to pay $999 for 10 cores which is not a good deal at all. 28 PCIe personally won't do it. In my opinion Intel really f. it up. Can't wait for AMD offering, i believe will have much better deals and lower price.

 

[Guest]

Please correct me if i am reading wrong but this Intel generation allows you to overclock CPU by playing with essentially FSB speed, independent from memory and PCIe? Right?

 

[kinney]

These are dead on arrival. 112W TDP for a 4C/4T chip? That's both ridiculous and it's not going to work. I put a 95W 1800X in my Node202 and it was too difficult to keep cool and quiet (my board ignores the +20C offset). Then bought a R7 1700 (65W) in and it's been great. So there's your TDP limit on SFF.

The 7820X is attractive till you see the 140W TDP, will require a full ATX build (or larger mITX/mATX) with AIO. Even Intel is saying these need watercooling. May as well just stick to an 1800X or Threadripper if doing that. Consider that AM4 will be here for years and thus tons of interchangeable parts/upgrades? No brainer. I'm actually an Intel fan myself, they generally have better and more complete engineering coverage (chipsets/NICs/storage/the smaller pieces that matter)- but this lineup is embarrassing. Jim Keller definitely struck again, Ryzen is just better.

Time to get your R5 or R7 boys.
Give Intel a couple years and they'll be back- but not today.