Intel 12-Core i9-7920X Has 2.9 GHz Base Clock

Over the past couple of weeks, Intel has launched their new Skylake-X platform. Replacing the old Broadwell-E series, the new chips offer a massive bump in cores. The new high-end desktop platform is rolling out in several stages. As a result, only specifications for chips with 10 cores and below have been released. In a sign that the chip may arrive soon, pricing and some specifications for the Core i9 7920X have been released.

With Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X, Intel is trying out something new. Instead of the usual one or two dies used in the past for HEDT, there will be at least 3. This is because the lineup stretches from 4 cores all the way to 18 cores at the top end. As the higher core count processors are all newly developed, they are taking longer to come out. As a result, we have a staggered launch with only 10 core processors launching in June.

Intel i9 7920X Slower than AMD’s 1920X

For the Core i9 7920X, Intel is giving out 12 cores and 24 threads through HyperThreading. At $1189, it offers a base clock speed of 2.9 GHz, 400 MHz closer than the 10 core i9 7900X. It looks like those extra 2 cores really hurt the base frequency. Rounding out the package, we have 16.5 MB of L3 cache. No other specifications have been revealed at this time.

At 2.9 GHz, the i9 7920X has a much slower base clock than the comparable AMD Threadripper 1920X. That chip offers the same core and thread count but is clocked at 3.5 GHz base and 4.0 GHz boost. It’s also almost $400 cheaper at just $799. Even accounting for Intel’s multithreading and IPC advantage, the 1920x has quite a starting advantage over the 7920X. It will be interesting to see what the boost clocks turn out to be and if that will be enough to keep Intel competitive.