Intel Core i7 Extreme Processors Revealed

Intel has taken the wraps off of its latest flagship performance processors, the Extreme line, formerly known as Haswell-E. The trio of chips – the Core i7-5820K, Core i7-5930K, and Core i7-5960X – and the new Intel X99 Express chipset that launches alongside them target gaming and multimedia systems, with up to eight cores and clock speeds as high as 3.9GHz.

At launch, three versions of the processors will be offered. The Core i7-5960X will be the only octacore of the bunch, with eight physical cores with 16 total threads. It will have a base clock speed of 3.0 GHz, and 3.3GHz at Turbo, along with 20MB of L3 cache.

The other two chips will be 6-core designs, with twelve threads total. The Core i7-5930K will be the faster of the two, runing at 3.5 GHz normally and 3.9 GHz at Turbo, and come with 15MB of L3 cache.

Finally, the Core i7-5820K will run at 3.3 GHz normally and 3.6GHz at Turbo. It will have the same 15MB of L3 cache.

Intel says the octacore chip can deliver up to a 45-percent increase in performance, versus previous quadcore processors. It'll also be supplying the CPUs unlocked, ready for tinkering.

The Core i7 Extreme Processors will also be the first to support up to 4-channel DDR4-2133 memory. All three have a TDP of 140W.

As for the Intel X99 Express chipset, that will support a whopping forty PCI Express 3.0 Lanes when paired with the octacore or the Core i7-5930K. The Core i7-5820K, meanwhile, will support 28 lanes.

The first systems using the new Intel Core i7 Extreme Processors will be available to order from today.

SOURCE Intel