Intel: 6-core Gulftown to be named Core i7 980X

Robert Hallock 14 Dec, 2009 at 2:59pm ET Article published in Tech

After considerable speculation regarding how Intel would brand the Gulftown, the 32nm Core i7 being prepared for LGA1366 in 1Q10, it has been revealed by a Chinese website that it will take the Core i7 980X name.

For those who don’t recall the full details on the Gulftown, let us quickly recap. Gulftown is the codename for six core (hexa core) CPU being released as a member of Intel’s 32nm Westmere family of processors beginning some time in March. Gulftown chips are very similar in performance to Bloomfield Core i7s like the 950, but they overclock better, run cooler, offer higher frequencies, add two more cores, and add a few extensions which really help encryption performance. In other words, think “Core i7, but 52% more (10% of the time).”

While we’ve known about the impending arrival of the Gulftown since March, the whole industry has flip-flopped back and forth on the finer details and the product’s branding, but the matter is settled: It’s the 3.33GHz Core i7 980X.

It bears reinforcement that the 980X is a member of Intel’s Extreme Edition family, which means the chip will retail for no less than the price of your firstborn male, or $999. According to Chinese pricing (7999 yuan), the USD price is a stunning and equally probable $1171.

In sum, the Core i7 980X has six cores; runs 3.33GHz (up to 3.6GHz on turbo); will melt your credit card; drops into X58 boards; and offers little over existing quad i7s for users who rarely dabble in multi-threaded work. But damn if we don’t want one.

Comments

14 Dec 2009 ~ 3:07pm loklomedia3d I want one. Indeed useful for 3D Render nodes. Good thing I bought a cheap used q66 machine last month instead of i5... now I can save up for this in the spring.
14 Dec 2009 ~ 3:50pm photodude Rumors say we'll see this hit the street come March.

The dropping of the i9 naming is reflective of intel moving the i7 line to 6-cores and discontinuing the 4-core i7 line starting at the end of this year. I also have see rumors talking about an off die graphics processor being added to the 6-core i7 line towards the end of 2010 (off die graphics processor is something I thought was only going to be in the i5 line)

I'm personally looking forward to the 8-core Beckton processors (aka Nehalem-EX)
14 Dec 2009 ~ 3:57pm Thrax There is no such graphics-enabled Core i7 in the works, as the entire lineup is being canned in favor of Sandy Bridge at the end of 2010. There are also no plans to cancel quad core Core i7s until the advent of Sandy Bridge, and this will most likely be one of only two 6-core Gulftowns ever produced.
14 Dec 2009 ~ 4:34pm photodude Like I said, "rumors" that there will be an off-die Graphics processors added to the i7, But I'll agree that it will likely only apply to i5

At the least the i7 920, 940, 950 and 965 will all be discontinued in the next month or two, (the 920 is already on the way out) if not all the quad core i7 or so the rumors say.

Sandy bridge is interesting in the changes it will bring. but we'll see i7's going off the market before the 2011 release of sandy bridge.
14 Dec 2009 ~ 5:19pm Thrax You do realize that the TechRadar article you linked in nearly 3 years old, and the bit-tech one nearly 6 months old, with several roadmaps painting a completely different picture occurring since then?

http://tech.icrontic.com/news/leaked-roadmap-details-intel-cpu-plans/
14 Dec 2009 ~ 6:25pm photodude I didn't post all the locations I have seen the rumors about the i7 changes. So those were a little old, that doesn't mean they were wrong. The information in the post you gave is only "leaked info" and may or may not be totally accurate. it may only be accurate to the Japanese market as the source is hiroshige goto who reported on an intel Investor Meeting in Japan that included slides of the so called road map.

As for an i7 with IGP ....what about the i7 640UM? it's rumored to be a dual core with IGP set for release in 2010. but the i7 640um maybe just a renamed as CeleronULV with the Arrandale or Westmere core (sorry the best I could do in finding another source more recent for the i7 with IGP is from 3 months ago, of course that really doesn't mean anything)

I think the Rumor you posted about the 930 replacing the 920 backs up the 6 month old article. suggesting a big change coming in the i7 line.
14 Dec 2009 ~ 6:32pm photodude oh wait I just found the proof......the i76xxM, i7 6xxUM and i7 6xxLM will all have a GPU off die. your source for intel road map had the slide proving the i7 line will have IGP graphics
14 Dec 2009 ~ 6:38pm Thrax Those are all mobile chips.
14 Dec 2009 ~ 6:47pm Sledgehammer70 I just can't wait for the 920 variants of the next 6 core setup. While it will most likely be a long time from now, we can still OC the hell out of what we have
14 Dec 2009 ~ 6:48pm Thrax We'll have to wait until 2011 for that.
14 Dec 2009 ~ 7:08pm photodude they might be mobile, but they are part of the i7 line
so your statment

Thrax wrote:

There is no such graphics-enabled Core i7 in the works

is not factual.

(sad to think all the really nice stuff is still a year out)
14 Dec 2009 ~ 7:58pm mas0n My plan since I bought my Q6600 has been to wait for a mainstream Westmere part, but holy moly it's getting hard to hold off the upgrade urges.

/me starts eyeballing water blocks for LGA1366
15 Dec 2009 ~ 1:24am Sledgehammer70

photodude wrote:

they might be mobile, but they are part of the i7 line
so your statment

is not factual.

(sad to think all the really nice stuff is still a year out)

Intel will have no such part for another year + & at that who knows when it will be available for consumers.
15 Dec 2009 ~ 2:13am TheLostSwede

photodude wrote:

they might be mobile, but they are part of the i7 line
so your statment

is not factual.

(sad to think all the really nice stuff is still a year out)

Do those mobile cpu's also have 6 cores?
15 Dec 2009 ~ 5:09am Sledgehammer70 I am sure 6 CPU mobile chips will come in time
15 Dec 2009 ~ 7:12am Draike At the cost of battery life. Someone better invent a new form of mobile power.
A notebook after 6 months just isn't what it's suppose to be on the battery standby time.
15 Dec 2009 ~ 9:07am photodude

TheLostSwede wrote:

Do those mobile cpu's also have 6 cores?

No the i7 mobile chips with IGP be dual core and maybe a quad core (just when you think all the i7 CPUs are quad core they throw a dual core with graphics at us)

Sledgehammer70 wrote:

Intel will have no such part for another year + & at that who knows when it will be available for consumers.

According to the PC watch article, Thrax quoted, in this slide the i3 and i5 should have IGP added and out to consumers in 1Q2010 It's safe to say that by march we should be expecting the i7 versions.

Of course the slide also shows the i7 line ending before 2010 starts. Considering the rumors saying the gulftown core will be called i7 980x it could be that with larrabee's delay intel has decided to continue with the successful i7 core branding longer then originally planed (the other explanation is the information from that specific slide is partly wrong as other slides in the pc watch article show a few i7 CPUs in 2010 at least until 2Q2010)
15 Dec 2009 ~ 10:21am TheLostSwede

photodude wrote:

No the i7 mobile chips with IGP be dual core and maybe a quad core (just when you think all the i7 CPUs are quad core they throw a dual core with graphics at us)

According to the PC watch article, Thrax quoted, in this slide the i3 and i5 should have IGP added and out to consumers in 1Q2010 It's safe to say that by march we should be expecting the i7 versions.

Of course the slide also shows the i7 line ending before 2010 starts. Considering the rumors saying the gulftown core will be called i7 980x it could be that with larrabee's delay intel has decided to continue with the successful i7 core branding longer then originally planed (the other explanation is the information from that specific slide is partly wrong as other slides in the pc watch article show a few i7 CPUs in 2010 at least until 2Q2010)

Since you dont seem to be able to take a hint...i was sarcastic. You have gone from a "rumored" igp featured 6-core cpu (and i'm 100% sure you meant desktop cpu's from the start since this is what the article is about) down to "rumored" dual core mobile cpu's.
15 Dec 2009 ~ 11:11am photodude

TheLostSwede wrote:

Since you dont seem to be able to take a hint...i was sarcastic.

I wasn't the only one who missed your sarcasm

from the beginning I was only commenting on the i7 line
17 Dec 2009 ~ 12:18am Draike Lets just keep it at the desktop level then - avoid further arguments.
Anybody else who has more links to info, will appreciate.