Tuesday, August 26th 2014

Intel Core i7 "Haswell-E" Pricing Detailed

Intel will price its next-generation Core i7 "Haswell-E" HEDT processors along expected lines. The lineup will begin with the Core i7-5820K, priced at US $389 - just $50 more than a Core i7-4790K. There are some major trade-offs you need to consider when choosing between the two. The i7-5820K is a six-core chip, but its motherboard and newer, costlier DDR4 memory, will jack up your overall platform costs. The i7-4790K lets you buy a motherboard as cheap as $120, and memory that's as cheap as it gets. It's now confirmed that the i7-5820K features 6 cores, 12 threads enabled by HyperThreading, a quad-channel DDR4 memory interface, and 15 MB of L3 cache, but a narrower 28-lane PCI-Express 3.0 root complex. The chip features TurboBoost frequency of 3.60 GHz.

To use the platform to its fullest, you'd need to part with at least US $583 for a processor. That's what will get you the Core i7-5930K. Also a six-core chip, the i7-5930K features a wider 40-lane PCI-Express 3.0 root complex, letting you set up 3-way and 4-way high-end multi-GPU setups with sufficient bus width for each of the cards running in tandem. The chip features 6 cores, 12 threads, a quad-channel DDR4 IMC, 15 MB of L3 cache, and TurboBoost frequencies of up to 3.70 GHz. Leading the pack is the Core i7-5960X, Intel's first eight-core high-end client CPU. It's priced at a wallet-scorching $999. For close to a grand, you get 8 cores, 16 threads enabled with HyperThreading, a massive 20 MB of L3 cache, a quad-channel DDR4 IMC, and 40 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes. To keep the eight cores within Intel's desired 140W thermal envelope, the company had to go easy on the clocks. It offers TurboBoost frequencies of up to 3.50 GHz. All three chips feature unlocked base-clock multipliers.
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