Prices of Intel Core i7 ‘Haswell-E’ chips revealed

A web-site has published an Intel Corp.’s presentation that confirms specifications of the company’s upcoming high-end desktop (HEDT) microprocessors code-named “Haswell-E” and reveals their prices. Without a lot of surprises, the next-generation processors for extreme performance enthusiasts will cost similar amount of money as existing Core i7 Extreme chips: from around $400 to around $1000 per unit depending on the model.

As expected, the new HEDT family of microprocessors in LGA2011-v3 packaging will consist of three models and will be priced as follows, according to VideoCardz web-site:

• Intel Core i7-5960X – eight cores, 3.0GHz/3.50GHz clock-rate, 20MB cache, 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes – $999;
• Intel Core i7-5930K – six cores, 3.50GHz/3.70GHz clock-rate, 15MB cache, 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes – $583;
• Intel Core i7-5820K – six cores, 3.30GHz/3.60GHz clock-rate, 15MB cache, 28 PCI Express 3.0 lanes – $389;

The price of Intel’s top-of-the-range client microprocessor remains on the same level, around $1000, despite of lack of competition. However, given the fact that the eight-core Core i7-5960X features relatively low clock-rates, it is likely that in many scenarios the six-core Core i7-5930K with higher frequencies will actually be faster than the most expensive model.

Still, if one wants to get a system that will work for over three years, it makes sense to get the Core i7-5960X, Intel’s first client eight-core microprocessor, overclock it and hope that it will not degrade over time. In the future programs will actually take advantage of eight cores. In multi-threaded applications the eight-core chip should deliver tangible performance improvement over six-core brethren already now, according to Intel, but not all apps take advantage of eight cores/sixteen-threads at present.

Intel Core i7-5800/5900-series microprocessors for enthusiasts will rely on Intel X99 platforms and will require DDR4 memory modules. The new chips will be formally introduced on the 29th of August, 2014.

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