In these days of constant rumors and unexpected leaks, it is very difficult for a company to keep a specific product completely secret, and Intel is no exception. The Santa Clara giant has done everything possible to shroud its next processor, the Core i7-6950X, in mystery, the first with ten cores aimed at general consumers. The first stumble was recorded on Intel's own page, but now ASRock has leaked details in a brief press release...
This is the rumor control, here are the facts: The Skylake family processors and the presence of Windows 10 have done little to stimulate sales of new computers. Basically, analysts talk about "lack of interest", which is logical if we consider that Skylake was not Intel's most outstanding development, and Windows 10 works acceptably on computers a few years old. The business world squeezes every last drop from its hardware, which represents even longer delays in its upgrade cycles, and as has been happening for many years, the only thing that moves the ampere meter is the consumption of enthusiasts. Intel has something prepared for them, which in theory will be officially revealed at the next Computex Taipei... but for some reason this processor keeps escaping from every bottle it is locked in. We are talking about the Core i7-6950X.
If there is one feature that stands above everything else in this processor, it is the number of cores. In essence, we are looking at the first CPU aimed at the general public with ten cores, which translates into twenty processing threads thanks to the presence of Hyper-Threading. In addition, the "Extreme Edition" designation reminds us that it has unlocked multipliers, something that all overclocking enthusiasts will appreciate. Most of the technical details about the Core i7-6950X were leaked through Intel's page, but that document was quickly removed. However, motherboard manufacturers based on the LGA 2011-v3 socket with the X99 chipset (ASRock is one of them) also began to share information, in the form of BIOS update announcements that include proper support.
Another interesting point to highlight is that the Core i7-6950X is not alone in its adventure. Intel also did not confirm the existence of smaller models, but it is known that the Core i7-6800K, Core i7-6850K and Core i7-6900K will hit the shelves in 6/12, 6/12 and 8/16 cores/threads respectively. The frequencies of the four models will range between 3 and 3.6 GHz, with Turbo modes that at best approach 3.8 GHz. The big question is the price. No one in the specialized press doubts that Intel will ask for a four-digit number for its Core i7-6950X, and several sites point to $1,500. Will it be worth paying that for ten cores? Would it be better to wait for what AMD with Zen does? Soon we will know.
