Intel Core i9 Explained
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2018-05-06
·
864 words · ~4 min read
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2008 was an interesting year. The Large
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Hadron Collider was fired up for the first time. There was an historic
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election in the US. We were all treated to that incredible Olympic ceremony in
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Beijing. And might Shyamala Lama Lalan made another horrible movie. Wait, this
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is a tech channel. Oh, right. Yeah. It also marked Intel's adoption of a brand
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new naming scheme for its CPUs with the
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high end of its processor range becoming Core i7 for the first time. Although
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curiously, these chips contained four cores and eight threads, which h anyway,
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9 years later, Intel is expanding this scheme again with the i9. And I'm not
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talking about an expensive Bavarian concept car. Intel is now calling its
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highestend consumer processors Core i9.
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Though once again, there won't be a 9 core model in the mix. The first Core
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i9's are part of the Skylake X family,
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continuing with Intel's theme of releasing enthusiast level CPUs with a
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one generation older micro architecture than the mainstream processor family.
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However, unlike mainstream parts, Core
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i9 SKUs feature 10 cores on the lowest
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end with models with 12, 14, 16, and
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even 18 cores forthcoming as well. And
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they all feature hyperthreading, meaning you'll get anywhere between 20 and 36
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threads. So, it's not surprising then that Intel is pushing these new chips as
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solutions for what it calls mega tasking, a term defined by the Intel
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marketing department as simultaneously
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running multi-threaded hard-hitting workloads like gaming, streaming, and
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recording on multiple monitors at once. Content creation like video, audio, and
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image editing for the same project at once. Or, you know, what to hell with
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it. We've got 18 processors. Why not do both at once? Intel is also boasting of
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performance improvements in lightly threaded workloads. In addition to the
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usual claims of slightly boosted raw IPC
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over the previous generation, they've also updated Turbo Boost 3.0. Now, all
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Core i9 and the Core i7 7820X will
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feature two preferred strongest cores
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for turbo frequencies and overclocking
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that is better than the others instead of just one strongest core, which could
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benefit applications like CPUbound gains
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that might use more than one core, but won't take significant advantage of more
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than two. But whether you're getting a Core i9, an
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updated Core i7, or even for some reason, a KBL Lake X Core i5 or Core i7,
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these new chips will all use the new LGA
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2066 socket. So, they won't be backwards
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compatible with any older boards. The
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good news, though, is that thanks to the shiny new X299 chipset, you'll get
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support for up to three PCI Express 3.0
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X4 SSDs with a total of up to 44 PCIe
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lanes directly off the CPU. So then depending on which CPU you choose, that
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can mean tons of bandwidth for more graphics cards, more NVMe storage, and
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other expansion cards that need lots of throughput, too, like Thunderbolt 3, for
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example. Of course, all of this is going
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to come at a price with Core i9 CPUs starting at a cool
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$1,000 all the way up to 2 grand for the
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top end 18 core model. Yikes. And even
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though KBL X processors will start at the mid200s, they lack quad channel
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memory support and have fewer PCIe lanes. So, folks will effectively be
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paying extra for features on pricey high-end motherboards that they won't
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even be able to use unless they upgrade their CPU down the line. But whatever
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you choose to buy or not buy, all of
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this is definitely good news in that
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competition is finally ramping up in the CPU industry for the first time in over
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half a decade. So, you know what I say? Go red team and also go blue team. I I
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just want faster computers in general. I don't care who
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