Intel reveals further details of its 8-core desktop processor, the Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition (aka Haswell-E), the first CPU from the company with support for 16 computing threads and DDR4 memory.
"We're thrilled to unveil the next phase in our 'reinvention of the desktop' we outlined earlier this year," the company says. "This product family is aimed squarely at those enthusiasts who push their systems further than anyone, and we're offering the speed, cores, overclocking and platform capabilities they have asked us for."
Shown off at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), the CPU features an enhanced X99 chipset built using a 22nm process squeezing 2.6 billion tri-gate transistors on a single die.
Feature-wise it carries a 20MB Smart Cache shared between all cores, Hyper-Threading, Turbo Boost 2.0, 6 USB 3.0 ports, 10 SATA 3.0 ports, Thunderbolt 2 and optional Intel Rapid Storage Technology support.
Intel claims the chip is 14% faster at game physics and AI processing over its previous flagship CPU, the i7-4960X, and 20% better at 4K video editing tasks.
Three i7-5960X SKUs will be available on September 2014, all requiring a motherboard compatible with LGA-2011v3 sockets.
