Intel’s new Core i9 Skylake-X lineup said to feature 18C/36T and 16C/32T CPUs

Update 2: Intel's new Core-X CPU family has been made official. Intel made the announcement at Computex this morning, going into detail on the X299 platform and the benefits these new CPUs bring. You can read our report on that, HERE. 

Update: A few weeks back, we first caught wind of Intel's plans for Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X in the form of new Core i9 and Core i7 CPUs. At the time, it was believed that the highest end CPU in the lineup would be the Core i9 7920X with 12 cores and 24 threads. However, since then, it appears that two more Core i9 CPUs have come to light, one with 16 cores and 32 threads and another with 18 cores and 36 threads.

This news comes just a week after AMD officially announced its upcoming Threadripper 16C/32T CPU for its upcoming HEDT platform. According to an exclusive report on Videocardz, the Core i9 7980XE will be Intel's flagship chip for Skylake-X, with 18C/36T. Meanwhile the Core i9 7960X will be a 16C/32T chip. Unfortunately, clock speeds and other features are not currently listed. Here is a leaked presentation slide courtesy of Videocardz:

Original Story: We have been hearing rumours surrounding Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X CPUs from Intel for months now. However, the picture remained unclear and somewhat confusing to follow. Fortunately, some new information has now come to light, indicating that Skylake-X will arrive as a batch of HEDT Core i9 processors later this year, while Kaby Lake-X will carry the Core i7 name.

Up to this point, Intel's Core i7 branding has carried across a broad range of CPUs, blurring the line between mainstream chips like the 6700K and HEDT parts like the 6900K. According to a leak over on the Anandtech forum, this will be changing this year, with the introduction of the Core i9 series. This new lineup will contain Intel's upcoming Skylake-X CPUs, ranging from the 6C/12T Core i9 7800X up to the 12C/24T Core i9 7820X.

For the mainstream, Intel will be launching two new Core i7 CPUs, the Core i7-7740K and the Core i7-7640K

Here is a list of each of the rumoured CPUs and the details we have on them so far:

Processor	Cores/Threads	L3 Cache	PCIe Lanes	Base Clock	Turbo Clock 2.0	Turbo Clock 3.0	Launch
Core i9-7920X	12C/24T	16.5MB	44	TBD	TBD	TBD	August
Core i9-7900X	10C/20T	13.75MB	44	3.3GHz	4.3GHz	4.5GHz	June
Core i9-7820X	8C/16T	11MB	28	3.6GHz	4.3GHz	4.5GHz	June
Core i9-7800X	6C/12T	8.25MB	28	3.5GHz	4.0GHz	N/A	June
Core i7-7740K	4C/8T	8MB	16	4.3GHz	4.5GHz	N/A	June
Core i7-7640K	4C/4T	6MB	16	4.0GHz	4.2GHz	N/A	June

This is a good start to clearing up the confusion surrounding Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X. Though I do think the Kaby Lake-X name is still a tad confusing, given that one of these CPUs is a cut down 7700K, while the other is a slightly improved one. With that in mind, now is as good a time as any to remind everyone that these are still rumours. While this particular leak seems promising, we have no way of verifying its legitimacy.

KitGuru Says: This is certainly the most promising leak we have seen so far but so far, the claims are unverified. That said, we don't have long to wait to get the full story, with Computex kicking off in two weeks time, coupled with Intel's appearance at E3. 

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