Intel’s Broadwell-E Core i7-6950X to sport an insane 10 cores and 20 threads

Intel’s 14nm Skylake family has been fairly impressive, to say the least – that’s particularly true for their highest-end part, the Core i7-6700k.

It comes at a bit of a premium, going at around R5, 741 at its cheapest, which is a whole R1, 142 more than the next processor down in the family, the non-K i7-6700 variant, weighing in at R4, 599.

But anyone who knows their stuff knows that Intel also has a special black ops-esque range of CPUs, their HEDT (High-End Desktop Platform) processors.

While their standard range of CPUs are no slouches, their HEDT series is for the enthusiast, for those unwilling to compromise on performance.

Unlike their mainstream i7 CPUs, which up the performance of the i5s with additional threads, their HEDT series sport additional cores, more cache memory and a heck of a lot of threads, and their all-new Broadwell-E series is no different.

Image courtesy of BenchLife.info.

Intel’s HEDT nomenclature can often be a little confusing, often being labelled (or named) one family behind the current range, as is the case with Broadwell-E in the face of the Skylake range. But the moment you see the price tags and specs of these puppies, there’ll be no confusing their purpose.

The specifications for the new Broadwell-E i7-6950X, the top dog of the Broadwell-E range, have been confirmed and they’re, well, impressive.

As the first consumer-grade deca-core processor, it features 10 cores and 20 threads, courtesy of Hyper-Threading, and 25 MB of L3 cache – that’s a lot of potential.

Intel HEDT Family	Gulftown	Sandy Bridge-E	Ivy Bridge-E	Haswell-E	Broadwell-E	Skylake-E
Process Node	32nm	32nm	22nm	22nm	14nm	14nm
Flagship SKU	Core i7-980X	Core i7-3960X	Core i7-4960X	Core i7-5960X	Core i7-6950X	Core i7-79** (TBA)
Max Cores/Threads	6/12	6/12	6/12	8/16	10/20	TBD
Clock Speeds	3.33/3,60 GHz	3.30/3.90 GHz	3.60/4.00 GHz	3.00/3.50 GHz	3.00/3.50 GHz	TBD
Max Cache	12 MB L3	15 MB L3	15 MB L3	20 MB L3	25 MB L3	TBD
Max PCI-Express Lanes	32 Gen2	40 Gen2	40 Gen3	40 Gen3	40 Gen3	TBD
Chipset Compatiblity	X58 Chipset	X79 Chipset	X79 Chipset	X99 Chipset	X99 Chipset	New HEDT Chipset (TBA)
Socket Compatiblity	LGA 1366	LGA 2011	LGA 2011	LGA 2011-3	LGA 2011-3	New HEDT Socket (TBA)
Memory Compatiblity	DDR3-1066	DDR3-1600	DDR3-1866	DDR4-2133	DDR4-2400	DDR4-2400+
Max TDP	130W	130W	130W	140W	140W	TBD
Launch	Q1 2010	Q4 2011	Q3 2013	Q3 2014	Q2 2016	2017
Launch Price	$999 US	$999 US	$999 US	$999 US	~$999 US	TBD

At a 3 GHz base clock and 3.5 GHz boost, the i7-6950X should sweep everything else Intel offers aside. And you can bet it’s going to cost a fortune as a result.

Prior top-end HEDT processors, like the i7-5960X, will set you back R16, 558 at Rebeltech. So can you imagine what a deca-core CPU is going to cost? Apparently $999, or around R14, 275 at the time of writing.

That said, we can guarantee with import costs and taxes taken into account, it’s going to be closer to the R17, 000 mark.

To make the extreme costs of the Broadwell-E family more palatable, Intel has produced 4 variants, giving more price options for those looking into the enthusiast range. The other 3 options are all octa-core and hexa-core processors, so they should be more affordable – if a word like affordable even applies to the likes of Intel’s HEDT range.

The baby of the range, for example, the i7-6800K will feature 6 cores, 12 threads, a core/boost clock of 3.4 GHz/3.6 GHz and 15 MB of L3 cache, and it’s expected price, according to WCCF Tech, is $390 (R5, 571). Again, expect it to cost more than that locally.

Processor Name	Intel Core i7-6950X	Intel Core i7-6900K	Intel Core i7-6850K	Intel Core i7-6800K
Process Node	14nm	14nm	14nm	14nm
Cores/Threads	10/20	8/16	6/12	6/12
Core Clock	3.00 GHz	3.30 GHz	3.60 GHz	3.40 GHz
Boost Clock	3.50 GHz	3.70 GHz	3.80 GHz	3.60 GHz
L3 Cache	25 MB L3 Cache	20 MB L3 Cache	15 MB L3 Cache	15 MB L3 Cache
Chipset	X99	X99	X99	X99
Socket	LGA 2011-3	LGA 2011-3	LGA 2011-3	LGA 2011-3
Launch Price	~$999 US	~$600 US	~$450 US	~$390 US
TDP	140W	140W	140W	140W