Intel Core i9-10980XE Cascade Lake-X CPU Can Hit Lofty 5.1GHz Overclock Across All 18 Cores
The flagship of the new Cascade Lake-X family is the Core i9-10980XE (say that three times fast), which is an 18-core/36-thread CPU. The processor has a base clock of 3GHz, a maximum Turbo Boost 2.0 clock of 4.6GHz, and an all-core turbo clock of 3.8GHz. However, Intel’s Mark Walton has confirmed that the processor has plenty of overclocking headroom to hit 5.1GHz with liquid cooling (instead more exotic liquid nitrogen setups).
“You can overclock the heck out of these and get some really interesting results,” said Walton to PCGamesN. “For example, we’ve had the 10980XE, the eighteen-core processor, up as high as 5.1GHz in the lab using standard liquid cooling. And that, I believe, is all cores.”
However, Walton also cautioned that this result was obtained with a chip that in its testing labs and YMMV once you get a chip in your own rig. “Just to be clear on that, every chip is different, some chips will overclock better than others, but it is possible,” he added.
Here’s how the 10th generation Intel Core-X family currently looks with respect to core counts and pricing:
- Core i9-10980XE (18-cores/36-threads): $979
- Core i9-10940X (14-cores/28-threads): $784
- Core i9-10920X (12-cores/24-threads): $689
- Core i9-10900X (10-cores/20-threads): $590
That pricing compared favorably with AMD’s current second-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors:
- Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX (32-cores/64-threads): $1,799
- Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX (24-cores/48-threads): $1,299
- Ryzen Threadripper 2950X (16-cores/32-threads): $899
- Ryzen Threadripper 2929X (12-cores/24-threads): $649
At this time, we don’t know how the above pricing will shakeup once AMD’s third-generation, 7nm Zen 2-based Ryzen Threadripper processors launch next month. Now that AMD has seen Intel’s hand with regards to pricing, it’s likely that the company can get a bit more aggressive to put more heat on its long-time rival.
When the third-generation Ryzen Threadripper family arrives in November, it will be available in up to 24-core/48-thread configurations, although a 32-core/64-thread SKU is also expected to replace the existing Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX.
