[PCOnline Evaluation] If you’ve ever paid any attention to DIY hardware, you’ve likely heard of the term “loving wife,†referring to Intel’s Core i7 processors. These CPUs have been affectionately nicknamed “loving wives†for nearly a decade, as they’ve been considered the most powerful CPUs in the gaming community. The “beautiful wife†moniker has been around since the launch of the Core i7, and it remains a title of pride among enthusiasts.
However, the reign of the i7 as the king of CPUs has come to an end, replaced by the new Core i9! Intel has officially introduced its top-tier, high-performance CPUs under the name Core i9. The Core i9 belongs to the Skylake-X family within the Core X series and continues the legacy of the Sandy Bridge-E, Ivy Bridge-E, Haswell-E, and Broadwell-E flagship CPUs. Previously, these high-end models were labeled as i7s, but with the introduction of Skylake-X, Intel decided to rename them as i9s.
While some might see this as just a numerical change, it’s undeniable that this rebranding strategy helps users easily distinguish between high-end and enthusiast-grade CPUs. It’s a clever way for Intel to refresh its brand image.
Since 2008, Intel has used the Core i grading system starting with Core Duo. Whether you’re dealing with mainstream quad-core or eight-thread processors or high-endå‘烧platforms with ten cores and twenty threads, they’ve all been grouped under the Core i7 umbrella. With the growing trend towards multi-core processors, this general naming convention doesn’t clearly differentiate between various levels of i7s. Thus, it became necessary to introduce a separateå‘烧-class CPU to establish a distinct tier.
Before evaluating the Core i9-7900X, we’ve already provided a detailed review of another Skylake-X processor, the i7-7820X. There’s a thorough introduction to the Core X family, and interested readers can click to learn more: i9 is stronger than it, 8 cores fully on 4.3GHz! i7-7820X first test.
Specifications: 10 cores and 20 threads—can this be considered a low-end i9?
At the Taipei Computex conference, Intel revealed that the 18-core, 36-thread model represents the full potential of the i9 series. The Core i9-7900X we’re reviewing is essentially the “entry-level†version of the i9 lineup. That means having 10 cores and 20 threads is just the base model. In the future, we’ll see even higher-spec models with 12, 14, 16, and 18 cores hitting the market. Stay tuned!
Clearly, this release of Core i9 is aimed at enthusiasts seeking multi-threaded applications. Beyond just the number of cores and threads, one of the standout features of this generation is the significant increase in CPU frequency.
Number of Pins and Foolproof Design: LGA2011 Upgraded to LGA2066
Because the interface has changed, it’s no longer the LGA 2011 used on the X99 platform. Consequently, the foolproof ports on both the top and bottom of the CPU have shifted positions. Additionally, the wings on the four corners of the CPU have been altered. Specifically, the lower left wing now has a corner with what appears to be an RFID/NFC near-field identification tag. Intel hasn’t provided any details about this change in their official database, so the exact purpose remains unclear until Intel provides further explanation.
But what’s certain is that this raised "small black spot" makes opening the CPU lid more challenging! Wait, Intel Extreme CPUs can be opened? Yes, there’s a thick layer of black glue from the edge of the CPU cover to the PCB. You can probably guess that the internal heat sink material is silicone grease rather than solder. This is confirmed by the fact that it is indeed silicone grease and not solder. Intel has learned the hard way that extreme edition processors shouldn’t use solder but cheaper silicone grease.
Impact of Cheap Silicone Grease on Overclocking
There’s no need for me to delve into the specifics here. More extreme core processors with better cooling requirements should ideally use better thermal soldering.
PCIe Channel Count:
The current CPUs on the X299 platform, all i9 models have 44 PCIe 3.0 lanes, whereas the remaining i7s and i5s have only 16 to 28 lanes. Having 44 lanes is nothing to scoff at, allowing for legal upgrades (the previous generation 6900K and 6950X had 40 lanes, so the additional 4 lanes let you add an M.2 interface or USB 3.1).
CPU-Z:
From a core and frequency perspective, it’s already impressive. Standard Turbo can reach 4.3GHz, while Turbo Boost Max 3.0 acceleration technology allows a small portion of the CPU cores to boost up to 4.5GHz. With 13.75MB of L3 cache, this is particularly noteworthy. Although it’s less than half of the 25MB of the previous generation 6950X, due to differences in the new architecture’s data call logic, even when compared to the slower models, the performance improvement remains highly noticeable. For instance, compare the i7-7820X (three slow 11MB) and i7-6900K (three slow 20MB) – the 7820X is still significantly stronger.
Detailed Parameter Comparison:
Comparison of Core i7-7820X Specifications
CPU Model i9-7900X i7-7820X i7-6950X 1800X
Core Code Skylake-X Skylake-X Broadwell E Summit Ridge
Interface Type LGA2066 LGA2066 LGA2011-3 AM4
Core Thread 10/20 8/16 10/20 8/16
Process Technology 14nm 14nm 14nm 14nm
Yes No
Frequency Locked No No No No
Base Frequency 3.3GHz 3.6GHz 3.0GHz 3.6GHz
BOOST Frequency 3.0: 4.5GHz
2.0: 4.3GHz 3.0: 4.5GHz
2.0: 4.3GHz 3.5GHz 4.0GHz
L3 cache 13.75MB 11MB 25MB 16MB
memory support DDR4-2666
(red) (four channels) DDR4-2666
(four channels) DDR4-2400
(four channels) DDR4-2400
(Dual channel)
Set display None None None
Turbo 3.0/XFR Support Support Not Supported Support
Price $999 $599 $1499 $499
TDP 140W 140W 140W 95W
Compared to the previous 10-core, 20-thread i7-6950X with a four-channel memory frequency increased to 2666MHz, the performance has been commented on. The most significant improvement is the substantial increase in CPU frequency. This has a considerable impact on actual performance (provided it doesn’t trigger high-temperature throttling). The TDP remains at 140W. Such a significant increase in frequency while maintaining this TDP is no small feat.
Current price is 7499 yuan
The listed price is 7,499 yuan, which is expensive. However, compared to its predecessor, it seems like a bargain. The previous 10-core, 20-thread i7-6950X was priced around 13,000 yuan. Now, it costs only 7499 yuan, marking Intel's renewal of this generation.
Theoretical Performance Test:
This evaluation primarily focuses on CPU theoretical performance, game performance, power consumption, temperature comparisons, and overclocking. For CPU performance evaluations, we’ve included several competing products for comparison. The CPU game performance test uses an NV GTX1080Ti graphics card to ensure the graphics card doesn’t become a bottleneck.
The motherboard used in this test was the Gigabyte X299 AORUS GAMING 3. It was a solid choice for the first X299 motherboards to be released. After all, GAMING 3 has always been recommended by the Beastmaster.
Gigabyte’s GAMING series motherboards have always been named and positioned based on GAMING plus numbers. For example, GAMING 9 is its top model, and GAMING 3 is a cost-effective model.
The Gigabyte AORUS X299-GAMING 3 motherboard uses black and gray as the main colors, but the CPU power supply module, PCIe slots, and the South Bridge’s carved logos are all illuminated with LED lights, adding some flair to the otherwise monotonous black and gray design.
Hardware Platform
CPU: Ruilong AMD Ryzen7 1800X, Intel Core i7-6900K, i7-6850K, i7-7820X
Motherboard: Gigabyte X299 AORUS GAMING 3; GIGABYTE X99P-SLI
Memory: Mickey Trident Z RGB DDR4-3200 8G×4
Actual operating frequency: Supported by respective CPUs
Hard disk: Master SSD: A-DATA SU800 512GB
Subdisk SSD: GALAXY GAMER 512GB
Graphics card: NV GTX1080Ti public version
Power supply: Rhine X-650 rated 650W gold full module power supply
Software Platform
Operating System: Windows 10 x64 Professional
Graphics Card Driver: NVIDIA GeForce 382.33 WHQL
Evaluation Software:
CPU theoretical performance test: New 3DMark (Physical Computing), Fritz Chess, wPrime, CPU-Z, WinRAR 64Bit, Premiere Pro CC, CineBench R15, TMPGEnc, CPU game performance test: Watchdog 2, GTA5, Blocked Ghost Operation 3 across the border, Tomb Raider 10, Singularity ashes, Power consumption test: Significant platform power consumption (standby, games, Prime95)
â— CPU theoretical performance test
Fritz Chess Benchmark is a chess strength test program that comes with chess software. It supports CPU multithreading and performs extensive scientific calculations, making it a popular tool for testing the scientific computing capabilities of computers. The higher the score, the stronger the performance.
CPU-Z is a well-known CPU detection software. It’s a software that detects the highest degree of CPU usage. The supported CPU types are quite comprehensive. The software’s startup speed and detection speed are very fast. Moreover, its new Benchmark can effectively test the single-core and multi-core CPU performance. The higher the score, the better the performance!
wPrime is a software (especially a parallel capability) that tests the computing power of a computer by calculating the number of primes. The shorter the time, the better the computing performance.
Theoretical performance test summary: Fritz Chess, wPrime, and CPU-Z are excellent software for testing multi-threaded performance, purely theoretical calculations, with high sensitivity to threads. Therefore, in the wPrime and CPU-Z tests, the advantages of the 10-core, 20-thread and high-frequency 7900X are very obvious, and it directly surpasses the previous-generation flagship 6950X. Scores are not commented on one by one, and all are visually observable.
â— 3DMark physical operation test
Physical performance test summary: The 3DMark series can fully tap the potential of the CPU and has become an important indicator to consider the performance of the entire machine. We chose the physical computing part to test and simply compare the CPU performance. The score of the 7900X under silent frequency is 119% of the previous-generation flagship 6950X, which is also about 10% stronger than the 7820X, consistent with this core number gap ratio.
â— Common software performance testing
WinRAR is a powerful compressed package manager, which uses its equal-size file for compression time testing, effectively detecting the performance of the CPU. The less time, the better the performance.
â— Professional software performance test
TMPGEnc is a set of old high-quality video code conversion tools developed by Japanese companies. The expert group has more than 15 years of experience in video conversion and editing software. Its ability to perform format conversion and encoding software on peer-to-peer capacity video files can effectively test CPU performance. The less time spent, the better the performance!
Using Adobe Premiere Pro to transcode and export the same video file can effectively test the CPU's encoding capabilities, and the less time it takes, the better the performance.
CineBench is a persuasive set of CPU and graphics test systems. The latest R15 version can support up to 256 logical cores and enhance the investigation of shaders, anti-aliasing, shadows, lights, and reflection blur, providing more accurate detection of CPU performance. The higher the score, the stronger the performance!
Test summary: In terms of CPU performance, the 7900X leads the previous generation 6950X comprehensively, and the lead is not small. The most obvious difference is in the TMPGEnc software, where the lead margin is nearly 50%. Not to mention the Ruilong R7 1800X (after all, Rui Long is much cheaper).
In practical software applications, the multimedia processing capability is outstanding, and the Pr video output, video conversion, and rendering capabilities are all relatively strong. The advantages are more obvious than the theoretical running points. This just reflects the optimization and improvement of the new processor in the architecture.
â— CPU game performance test
Summary of game performance tests: Through comparison, you can see that the performance of a single-player game running on a top-level CPU is not too different, and the 6500X wins or loses. The fundamental reason is that mainstream games on the market are not optimized for multi-core CPUs. We have also tested before, as long as the number of threads after more than six, and then increasing the impact of the thread on the vast majority of games are not too great. And, for the game frame rate, the GPU upgrade is significantly more than the CPU upgrade. So, if your needs are just playing games, I7-7700K is recommended. This is the game god U.
â— Platform power consumption comparison test
The standby power consumption of i7-7900X is even slightly lower than that of i7-6950X, although this is absolutely negligible for a desktop platform. After Prime95 is fully loaded, the power consumption of the i7-7900X skyrockets and is much higher than the 6950X. The fundamental reason is still related to the frequency. After all, although the boosting of the i7-7900X can bring about a significant increase in performance, the power consumption at full load is also huge. The same conclusion can be reached by comparing the 8-core i7-7820X with the 10-core i7-6950X.
â— Comparison of CPU full load temperature
CPU full load temperature test We used a high-end radiator product: overclocking three wind freeze black gold version (5 heat pipe) radiator to test.
Test summary: Standby temperature is also good, 36°C, but once fully loaded, the maximum temperature can go straight to 104°C, after overclocking is reached 110°C, it is still quite hot, but before foreign media also said that this generation X299 Extreme CPU Because of the three major reasons for the voltage controller, frequency boost, and internal use of grease, the overall temperature is higher than that of the previous generation. Therefore, please do not spray brazing on Intel. At the same time, it is also recommended that you use more heat dissipation performance. Good high-end water-cooled pressure this generation of CPU.
Additional simple overclocking test:
Do not adjust other parameters, only change the multiplier to 48 times, normal access to the system, running points.
i9-7900X Overclock Performance Test
Test Project Overclock Before Overclock Gap Theory Performance Test CPU-Z Multicore 6467 7050 +9% 3DMark CPU Score +8% CineBench R15 Multithread 2271 2421 +7% Average Performance 8%
Overclocking summary: i7-7900X default frequency is 3.6 ~ 4.3GHz, Turbo 3.0 can accelerate up to 4.5GHz, i7-7900X own frequency is relatively high, so want to get more performance improvements through overclocking is not easy, 10 core performance overclocking 4.8GHz after a 9% performance increase. Calculate a sum, CPU price is 7499 yuan, 7499*0.09=674 yuan, that is equivalent to earn about 674 yuan after overclocking, this kind of algorithm is unreasonable to have a matter of opinion.
PCOnline Evaluation Room Summary:
The overall performance comparison is as above, compared with the previous generation i7-6950X promotion rate is also 18%, but the price is far lower than the 6950X, so this generation can not say squeeze toothpaste, it is still worthy of recognition. However, if it is cost-effective, the CPU of the supreme class should not mention any cost.
PCOnline CPU Ladder Diagram -
Location is very clear, stronger than i7-7820X, so it is placed in the top position. And the current higher-end 12-core ~ 18-core i9 has not yet officially listed, the world has not even sneaked information, so this i9-7900X is the current Intel consumer-grade CPU is correct - more accurate statement should be the most powerful CPU with multithreading.
The evaluation finished running, anyway, compared with the previous generation of their own home products, this generation of promotion is still very conscience, the same price you can buy more core number of CPU, multi-threaded performance enhancement is super obvious. And support for the X299 motherboard can have a richer interface, it can be considered better than nothing.
As for AMD, for the moment, there are no 10 core products to hit the ring, thread tearing is said to be released in August, when there will be 10 core ~ 16 nuclear products listed, and Intel’s 18 nuclear i9 estimates Will wait for AMD to move at that time.
GIGABYTE AORUS X299 GAMING 3:
Light effect display
Alloy cured PCIe slot
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