Intel Core i9-7980XE 18 Core HEDT CPU Review

Conclusion

Before we reach for our thesaurus in an attempt to describe the performance of the i9-7980XE in sufficiently flowery verbiage we do need to stop ignoring the elephant in the room before our forums become knee-deep in elephant poo.

Yes, the AMD Ryzen 1950X Threadripper is half the price of the Intel i9-7980XE. If you’re on a budget and yet require huge levels of calculative performance, it would make perfect sense to go for the AMD. Sure you need to overclock it heavily to get remotely close to the capabilities of the i9-7980XE, yes it is much hotter, yes it requires many more Watts to achieve a similar level of calculative ability as the stock i9-7980XE, but if entry price is a consideration then obviously the Threadripper remains an attractive prospect.

But then again, if you’re looking at the Intel Core i9-7980XE and price is a concern, you’re entirely missing the point.

This is a premium product. Extremely intensive cherry picking of the very best of Intel’s silicon yield gives a product which runs at relatively low power, low temperatures, and can be overclocked very heavily without requiring anything like the voltages you might expect for such a core heavy processor. We achieved about the best we could expect on our setup without needing to go over 1.2v on the vCore. Remember we’re using just about the base possible motherboard and some middle-of-the-road memory to achieve our results. We will be revisiting this processor on a setup more befitting its flagship placing in the CPU market.

It is something of a cliché to use cars as comparisons, but it is difficult to look at the results we attained from the i9-7980XE and not come away with the words “Rolls Royce” ringing in our ears. But, the performance is mind-blowing too, whether at stock or overclocked. So perhaps the Bugatti Veyron is the better comparison. After all, the Intel Core i9-7980XE is, by a significantly large amount, the most expensive processor around, but also by a similarly large amount the best one around.

If you demand the very best and will settle for nothing less, and have the budget necessary to surround the i9-7980XE with suitably high-end parts throughout your build, then clearly this is the processor for you.

For the rest of us for whom a quad-core CPU is more befitting our financial status then only one recourse is possible; Dear Santa…

  

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