Intel Reveals Cascade Lake-X CPUs For HEDT Market

Intel has unveiled the specifications and pricing for its latest family of revised Skylake Xeon Scalable CPUs. The news shows a range of different CPUs based on Intel’s new Cascade Lake-X tech alongside clock speed frequency boosts, better memory capacity, and security measures.

Intel Cascade Lake-X CPU Details

We have the Core i9-10980XE with 18 cores, 16 threads, a core base clock speed of 3.0 GHz, boost speed of 4.8, a 165 W TDP rating, and a $979 price tag.

Next up is the Core i9-10940X with 14 cores, 28 threads, 3.3 GHz base speed, 4.6 GHz boost, 165 W TDP, and priced at $785.

Then there’s the Core i9-10920X, which boasts 12 cores, 24 threads, 3.5 GHz base speed, 4.8 GHz boost, 165 W TDP, and a price of $689.

Finally, the leak includes the Core i9-10900X featuring ten cores, 20 threads, 3.7 GHz base clock speed, 4.7 GHz boost, 165 W TDP, all for $590.

Each of them supports up to 256 GB of DDR4-2933 RAM and includes Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0, Deep Learning Boost, 72 platform PCIe lanes, a 2.5 GB ethernet controller, Wi-Fi 6 AX200 support, and Intel’s Performance Maximizer.

What Does This Mean?

The pricing is a significant departure from Intel’s usual policy and enters the more affordable territory in line with prices for equivalent AMD CPUs. Intel may be worried about losing market share to AMD or may have already done so, within the HEDT market only expected to increase with the arrival of the beefy ThreadRipper 3 before too long.

Another option is that upon hearing of AMD’s Ryzen 9 3950X, expected to launch this month at $749, blowing Intel existing Core i9-9980XE out of the water in benchmark tests, Intel is preparing to give AMD a run for its money with a lower sub $1000entry point to entice builders.

Final Word

Whether the new strategy can counter AMD successfully remains to be seen, but the market is currently flooded with high-end desktop chips with even more on the way, and Intel will need to be quick on its toes to keep up and not lose further market share to AMD.