Intel Core i9-7900X X-Series 10-Core Processor Review

Introduction

Intel Core i9-7900X

With Ryzen hitting the market a few months ago, it was only a matter of time before Intel played their hand. Admittedly, we all feel like Intel may have rushed their new Skylake-X hardware to market a little earlier than expected. However, with a 10-core 20-thread design, as well as improvements to the cache and VRM design, new instruction sets, and more, we’re still expecting great things from the Core i9.

Want to see more of the i9-7900X? Check out our reviews of the Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 Motherboard and ASUS ROG STRIX X299-E Gaming Motherboard.

At around £1000, this CPU is freaking expensive, there’s no excusing that fact. However, Intel thinks this will be the fastest consumer CPU on the market, and if true, then they’ll have no problems commanding whatever price they like. There’s a big market out there, and when it comes to the best performance, enough people are willing to pay up for it. Of course, for rendering and other processor-heavy tasks, time is money, so £1000+ on a CPU that could save many hours of work can always pay off elsewhere.

So let’s take a look at the specifications and see where your big investment goes!

Essentials

• Product Collection – Intel® Core™ X-series Processors
• Code Name – Products formerly Skylake
• Vertical Segment – Desktop
• Processor Number – i9-7900X
• Lithography – 14 nm

Performance

• Number of Cores – 10
• Number of Threads – 20
• Processor Base Frequency – 3.30 GHz
• Max Turbo Frequency – 4.30 GHz
• Cache – 13.75 MB L3
• Bus Speed – 8 GT/s DMI3
• Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 Frequency ‡ – 4.50 GHz
• TDP – 140 W

Memory Specifications

• Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type)128 GB
• Memory TypesDDR4-2666
• Max # of Memory Channels4
• ECC Memory Supported ^‡No

Expansion Options

• Scalability1S Only
• PCI Express Revision3.0
• Max # of PCI Express Lanes44