Intel i7 3970X on the way for Q4

It’s been a while since we’ve seen any LGA 2011 action from Intel at the consumer level. They have released a whole array of enterprise orientated Xeon processors but we have only seen 3 consumer grade processors for the enthusiast X79 platform – the i7 3960X, i7 3930K and i7 3820. Finally Intel is bringing out another chip for the X79 LGA 2011 platform. Unfortunately, those who were hoping for something more reasonably priced, perhaps between the i7 3820 and i7 3930K, will be very disappointed.

Intel is aiming to bring out an i7 3960X successor later this year, in time for Q4. The time frame is not specifically stated, but we expect early Q4 seems more realistic – so October. The i7 3970X, as its naming might suggest, will be a notch above the i7 3960X. The i7 3970X comes with a stock clock speed of 3.5GHz, an extra 0.2 GHz over the 3960X, and a max turbo frequency of 4GHz, up an extra 0.1 GHz over the 3960X.

The chip is still built from the same 32nm Sandy Bridge-E silicon, on the LGA 2011 package. Unfortunately it seems Intel has no intention of bringing out a consumer i7 based 8 core LGA 2011 processor just yet, that elusive 8 core status will be reserved either for those who are rich enough to afford the LGA 2011 Xeons, or those who want to go with AMD’s budget 8 core solution.

Since these i7 3970X processors are fresh out the foundries, we expect the VT-d issue to be fixed with these processors as they will probably be of the C3 stepping not the afflicted C1 stepping. The 3970X is expected to come in at the same pricing the 3960X currently has, therefore the 3960X, 3930K and 3820 should all get price cuts.

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