Intel Skylake-X Family Full Specs Leak, Core i9-7980XE 18-Core Monster CPU Clocks In At 2.6GHz

Like a slow running faucet, detailed specifications for Intel's highest tier Core X-series processors—all of which are Skylake-X CPUs—have been slowly revealed one drip at a time. Last week, for example, Intel updated its Core X-series processor chart with clockspeeds for its Core i9-7920X. That still left us in the dark about the three remaining CPUs that sit above it, though a new leak may have divulged those details.

The leak comes in the form of a photograph of Intel's Core X-series processor chart that has been fully fleshed out with core counts, threads, clockspeeds, L3 cache, PCIe 3.0 lanes, TPD, and various other details. We are not willing to say it is definitely legitimate, but at the same time, none of the specifications that have been plugged into the chart seem out of whack to us.

Have a look for yourself:


Let us assume these specs are real. If so, the Core i9-7940X will be the fastest clocked of the remaining three processors, which would not surprise us since it has less physical cores (14, versus 16 and 18). It has a 3.1GHz base clock and  a 4.3GHz Turbo clock, along with 19.25MB of L3 cache. Intel's asking price for this one is $1,399.

Next up is the Core i9-7960X, a 16-core chip with 32 threads and 22MB of L3 cache. It's base clock check in at 2.8GHz, while its Turbo clock can hit 4.3GHz. Intel is pricing this one at $1,699.

That leaves the top dog, Intel's Core i9-7980XE. This beastly slice of silicon features a whopping 18 cores and 36 threads, with 24.75MB of cache. Its base clock is not all that impressive at just 2.6GHz, but like the other two, it can ramp up above 4GHz with a 4.2GHz Turbo clock. This one will be a $2,000 chip.

We are not too concerned with base clockspeeds. Each of these Skylake-X parts can zoom past 4GHz, and for single-threaded performance, each one sports a 4.4GHz Turbo Max 3.0 clockspeed. They also open up all 44 PCIe 3.0 lanes, support quad-channel DDR4-2666 memory, and have a 165W TDP.

The big question mark is how will these processors perform compared to AMD's Threadripper lineup. AMD has been aggressive with its pricing—its top end Threadripper 1950X costs $999 and has 16 cores, 32 threads, 64 PCIe lanes, and is clocked at 3.4GHz to 4GHz. And then of course there's the Threadripper 1920X. It costs $799 and wields 12 cores, 24 threads, 64 PCIe lanes, and is clocked at 3.5GHz to 4GHz.