Intel’s new flagship processor: the Intel Core i7
By Alexis • Mar 18th, 2010 • Category: Industry News
- Photo: Intel
Intel’s new flagship processor, aimed at heavy duty rigs, is bursting at the seams with capabilities. The Intel Core i7 chip series that replaced the Intel Core 2 as Intel’s flagship processor has recently got a major upgrade that has resulted in one of the world’s most expensive and highest spec processors on the planet.
All that power
The Intel Core i7 supports six hyper-threaded cores and up to twelve threads for exceptionally fast processing. The newly released Intel Core i7-980X is set to replace the beastly Intel Core i7-975 XE at the exact same price point. So, essentially, you are getting two extra cores for free. The i7-980X has the exact same base speed at 3.33GHz, with support DDR3-1066 across three channels and 12MB L3 cache across all six cores. The importance of that much cache is that tasks that are performed often will be readily accessible for reuse without the need to use core processing capacity.
The criticism
- Photo: Intel
While all are in agreement this is easily the fastest consumer processor Intel has released, the added advantage of two cores will not result in a massive speed boost immediately. What is required is for software that takes advantage of this six-core system to be developed for the full benefits to be reaped.
The audience
This rig is aimed squarely at gamers. At a starting price of around £799, rigs built by gamer-specific companies like Alienware with the Intel i7-980X built-in are set to cost a lot of money, with the Alienware Area-51 ALX rig being the first Alienware platform earmarked for such release.
AMD’s response
While Intel solidifies its lead in the processor market with the Intel Core i7, AMD, the company’s biggest competitor, is forced to play catch-up. It’s unexpected that this processor, with its low volume high price model, will make a dent in AMD’s business, but it does put the company under pressure to make good and turn their recent fortunes around.
Tags for this article: amd, intel core
