Intel Core i9 10980XE CPU Review

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Intel’s New Flagship CPU

Intel Core i9 10980XE

Now that we have all the background out of the way, let’s get to the 10980XE itself. Intel’s Core i9 10980XE is based on the Cascade Lake-X architecture, which is itself a descendant of Intel’s Skylake microarchitecture. Cascade Lake-X is a process optimization and while there have been a few changes, where the rubber meets the road, the Core i9 10980XE is largely just an improved Core i9 9980XE which itself was an improved 7980XE. As you can see from each CPU’s specifications, they are very close across the board.

The three CPU’s are remarkably similar. The 7980XE and 9980XE being nearly identical. The 10980XE brings the most changes we’ve seen in this part of the product stack so far. Clock speeds between the 10980XE and the 7980XE are more substantial but if you go through each model, it ratchets up slightly each time. The 9980XE and 10980XE do use soldered integrated heat spreaders while the old 7980XE was limited by a cheap thermal interface material.

I’ve already covered the other improvements but suffice it to say, the PCIe lanes and added AVX-512 instructions are the ones that stand out. The CPU clocks are incremental at best and the RAM clocks only mattered if you limited yourself to JEDEC specs, and frankly, I don’t think too many people building HEDT systems have been doing that. Pre-built workstations are another matter as those often adhere to lower specifications. But again, people have been going beyond DDR4 3000MHz since the X99 / Haswell-E days, so this isn’t something that will likely impact your build unless you’ve been limiting yourself to JEDEC spec’ed RAM for some reason.

Being that this is an optimization of an existing architecture in the strategy, the Core i9 10980XE should be 14nm+. I’ve lost track of how many pluses we should be adding when talking about 14nm at this point. Intel doesn’t seem to know either as it only ever references these as 14nm in most cases. 

Retail Packaging

Ordinarily, I’d give you some shots of what the CPU looks like with its packaging. Because this is an engineering sample, there isn’t anything to show you. AMD samples CPU’s with retail boxes, fans, and included accessories but Intel doesn’t. You get the processor in a box with anti-static foam in it and that’s it.

As you can see, the CPU looks like other CPU’s that were LGA 2066 compatible. So, there aren’t any talking points here.

Dan Dobrowolski
Dan has been writing motherboard reviews for the past 15 years, with the first decade or so writing for [H}ard|OCP. Dan brings his depth of knowledge about motherboards and their components to his reviews here at The FPS Review to help you select the best one for your needs.

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