There have been plenty of rumours about Intel's plans for 2016. Most, though, focus on the company's plans for its high-end platform update that uses its X99 chipset and LGA2011-v3 CPU socket. This latter was released in summer 2014, along with three processors and swathes of X99-based motherboards. This month, though, we've gleaned more information including what appears to be confirmation of the most powerful mainstream desktop processor to date - a 10-core or deca-core monster.
To start with, motherboard manufacturer ASRock has this week confirmed that current X99 motherboards will support Intel's new processors. Built using a 14nm manufacturing process and code-named Broadwell-E, ASRock has released BIOS updates for its current line-up of motherboards so they'll be compatible with the new processors. You can see ASRock's X99 motherboards here, and I suspect Asus, MSI and Gigabyte will follow soon. This is great news for current board owners as it means you won't have to upgrade anything except the processor.
Tech website Wccftech.com uncovered information regarding Intel's new processors last year, pointing at four new products to replace the current 6-core Core i7-5820K and 5930K plus the top-end 8-core 5960X. Starting at the bottom of the pile, the new Core i7-6800K and 6850K will both be 6-core parts and will use hyper-threading to offer 12 threads.
There's an 8-core part too in the form of the Core i7-6900K and finally, for the first time ever, there's a 10-core mainstream processor available for PC users in the form of the Core i7-6950X, which also has hyper-threading so will offer a crazy 20 threads. Xeon processors have been available with similar specifications, of course, but they're not considered mainstream. This is the first processor in the Core series to sport
10 threads and even AMD doesn't have anything mainstream to counter it either.
If you're looking at building a high-end system when the processors are launched some time later this year, then you may have a strategic decision to make as well. The previous generation of processors offered differing amounts of PCI-E lanes meaning the more expensive models were better for multi-GPU systems (SLI and CrossFire). The same will likely be true for the new range of processors, so in addition to working out how many cores you actually need (six, eight or 10), you'll also need to factor in your gaming requirements.
Of course, a 10 core CPU is overkill for current games and the Core i7-6950X is slated to retail at over $1000 too. However, for those where processing time is money, for instance for animation, video editing or rendering professionals, it could well be worth the extra outlay.
Are you planning on building a high-end gaming PC this year? Are you interested in Intel's new CPUs? Let me know in the comments, on Twitter or Facebook.
