Introduction
At Computex this year Intel announced its new high-end desktop (HEDT) platform. All the architecture changes meant that Intel needed a new socket, Socket 2066. The new X299 platform brings a number of new features and enhancements over the previous X99 platform. It also brings with it a new line of processors. They range from 4 cores all the way up to 18 cores. Skylake-X handles the 6 core to 18 core variants, while Kaby Lake-X handles the 4 core models.
The previous generation processors, Broadwell-E were rather expensive and received much criticism as such. Skylake-X offers better performance at a much better price level across the lineup. Fans rejoiced at the announcement.
The new Core i9 series processors are based up-on the older Skylake socket 1151 processors, but offer more cores and a quad channel memory controller. IPC is said to improve over the previous Broadwell processors. According to Intel, Skylake-X will see an up-to 8% performance increase in IPC. To create even a larger performance gain, Intel tweaked the processor cache. Many of the new processors also feature increased clock speeds, especially in Turbo mode.