09-25-2017, 09:57 PM
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/25...0xe-review
Quote:The Core i9-7980XE occupies an odd position. It’s the fastest “desktop” CPU you can buy today and it combines Intel’s strong single-core performance with the huge thread counts that were recently the sole province of AMD in this market. Compared strictly with Intel’s own HEDT processors, it’s a much better value than any HEDT chip Intel has ever launched, right back to Intel’s first Westmere six-core CPUs. The Core i7-6950X (Broadwell-E) debuted on May 31 2016 and cost ~$1,799 for a 10-core chip. Most of Intel’s relevant customers likely didn’t pay anywhere near that much for the CPU, but the list price was still $180 per core. The Core i7-5960X (Haswell) was $1,000 for eight cores, or $125 per core. Intel, therefore, can spin this as an improvement on its own per-core pricing — and it is.
The problem for Intel’s triumphant narrative is, well, AMD. The Core i9-7980XE is unquestionably fast, but it’s not 2x faster, or even 50 percent faster than Threadripper in any test we ran. CPUs above $1,000 are going to be less elastic than the conventional desktop market, but cost always matters to some extent. Just because companies or individuals can afford to pay top dollar for a CPU doesn’t mean they don’t care about price at all. When Intel had the high-end market entirely to itself, the company could afford to set its own prices. With AMD’s Threadripper 1950X already in market, it’s harder to justify the cost.
Customers who want the absolute highest-end CPU and can afford to pay for it will prefer the Core i9-7980XE. But anyone who doesn’t fit into that market is going to be hard-pressed to opt for the Core i9-7900X when the Threadripper 1950X offers higher workstation performance at the same price. Intel has retaken the performance crown, but it hasn’t swept the workstation field — not by a long shot.