Intel Core i9 9980XE 18 Core CPU Review

Test Setup

Intel i9-9980XE
ASUS X299-A Prime
Corsair ROG Dominator Platinum 3200
G.Skill Trident-Z 3600
Corsair RM1000i
Corsair MP500 512GB
Corsair H110i GT
Windows 10

Overclocking

The Intel i9-7980XE was, well is, a massive processor with 18 cores and 36 threads, it was – as you would expect – a bit limited in its overclocking prowess. At 2.6 GHz default we managed to squeeze 4.5 GHz out of it before we ran out of cooling capacity and thats less than the 7th gen and shows in the high core count test graphs. The i9-9980XE is a much refined version of that and now rocks up with 3 GHz at stock and we could push it to 4.9 GHz overclocked. We could go higher with more voltage but it would necessitate a cooling solution beyond that which is practical. Those of you with the time and money to to build a dedicated water cooled setup with enormous radiators will be pleased to know that 5 GHz should be attainable if youre number hunting on this 18 core behemoth but we doubt this would be able to be cooled at the kind of volts required by anything other than subzero.

When it came to the clock we actually used we had to back off from 4.6 which was stable to just 4.4 and this still hit 86c with fans on the Corsair H150i running at 2400RPM. That meant the newer CPU had to be run slower than the 7th Gen and was still hotter!