At the recently held Game Developers Conference, Intel unveiled its newest Extreme Edition processor, the Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition, replacing Core i7-975 as the top-of-the-line Intel processor. Intel’s first six-core processor, codenamed as ‘Gulftown’ is targeting mainly gamers and well-heeled multimedia professionals. In the while they are not due to hit store shelves for a few more weeks. Although its branding implies that it may be just a simply over the previous flagship Core i7-975 Extreme, the 980X is actually an entirely different pack. While the Core i7-975 is based on the 45nm Bloomfield core and features quad execution cores, the new Core i7-980X Extreme is based on the 32nm ‘Gulftown’ core and sports six implementation cores.
The Core i7-980X features six cores and comes with Intel’s Hyper-threading technology, facilitating work on twelve streams at once. It has the power to boost all six cores above the usual 3.33GHz spec. Another boosting feature is the larger 12MB L3 cache on the processor which is relatively increased from 8MB on the Core i7-975. The Core i7-980X will show up on gaming PCs first, like the Maingear Shift and Falcon Northwest Mach V (Core i-980X). If one considers a processor with a 130W TDP, one will find out a good probability that saving a few bucks on your energy bill isn’t one’s chief concern. Nevertheless, the Core i7-980X does offer perceptible gains over the i7-975.
It is reported that it costs approximately $999 per chip, which is similar to the price of the i7-975. But it will come with a freedom to run any app, any software and any video game you want to fix up with this software. So the price is worth it.
Tags: extreme edition, game developers conference, gaming pcs, hyper threading technology, intel, intel core i7 980x, intel processor, processor intel, streams, video game