The Rampage VI Apex claims more performance victories with Intel's new Core i9-7940X and i9-7980XE
Back in June, Intel announced its new X299 chipset along with a family of Intel X-series processors that goes from quad cores all the way up to 18. This high-end platform provides exceptional performance for gaming, content creation, and overclocking. At launch, the ROG overclocking team used the Rampage VI Apex motherboard to capture a number of benchmark records with the first wave of X299 processors, including a new top frequency of 7.562GHz with the Core i7-7740X. Today, Intel is releasing the remaining members of the high-core-count (HCC) X-series family. We’ve already put the Core i9-7940X (14-core) and i9-7980XE (18-core) CPUs to the test in order to find out where the limits of these two chips stand.
Intel Core i9-7980XE claims one World Record and 4 Global First Places
The core counts for high-end desktop platforms have increased gradually over the years, usually in increments of two as nodes sizes shrink and manufacturing processes are refined. On the X299 platform, Intel has opened the floodgates, replacing the last-gen 10-core high with a new 18-core beast. Previously, HCC processors were reserved for the Intel Xeon family designated for servers and workstations; they tended to have locked multipliers that limited overclocking headroom. If you’re an enthusiast who thrives on pushing hardware to the limits, the rapid uptick in core counts for unlocked desktop CPUs opens exciting doors.
Out of the box, the Core i9-7980XE is clocked at a 2.6GHz base frequency and tops out at 4.2GHz with turbo. Using liquid nitrogen to lower the CPU temperature to around -100°C, ROG overclocker ‘der8auer’ was able to save a CPU-Z validation at 6.104GHz on all 18 cores with Hyper-Threading enabled. That’s nearly 2GHz higher than the CPU's maximum turbo speed.
Validations are one thing, but it’s far more impressive to run a test that puts all those cores to use. When subjected to the multi-threaded Cinebench R15 benchmark, the CPU topped out at an impressive 5.6GHz with a core voltage of 1.45V. The power demands under such conditions are incredible; we measured almost 1000 watts travelling through the EPS 12V cables during the benchmark. That just goes to show how robust the Rampage VI Apex’s optimized 8-phase power delivery circuit is!
Learn all the secrets on how to bench the i9-7980XE from der8auer video.
Here's a rundown of the the world record claimed by the Rampage VI Apex using the Core i9-7980XE:
Benchmark |
WR - New score |
CPU Frequency |
Overclocker |
Previous Score |
---|---|---|---|---|
3DMark Vantage 2x |
5667MHz |
Rsannino |
And below are additional scores made using the i9-7980XE for 2D and 3D benchmarks.
Benchmark |
New score |
CPU Frequency |
Overclocker |
Previous Score |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cinebench R11.5 |
5656MHz |
elmor |
||
Cinebench R15 |
5656MHz |
elmor |
||
Geekbench3 multi |
5582MHz |
Rsannino |
||
GPUPI for CPU – 1B |
5700MHz |
Rsannino |
||
wPrime 32M | 1s 095ms | 5698MHz | Rsannino | 1s 123ms |
wPrime 1024M |
5628MHz |
elmor |
||
X265 - 1080P | 196.33 | 5500MHz | Rsannino | 180.16 |
X265 – 4K |
5300MHz |
Rsannino |
||
XTU | 5105 | 5526MHz | Rsannino | 4858 |
3DMark Vantage 1x |
5500MHz |
elmor |
||
3DMark11 1x |
5500MHz |
der8auer |
||
3DMark11 2x |
5600MHz |
Rsannino |
||
3DMark Fire Strike 1x |
5498MHz |
der8auer |
Most of the benchmark scores improved dramatically compared to previous marks set with other platforms.
Scores in the 14-cores category
The Core i9-7940X has 14 cores and 28 threads with a 3.1GHz base frequency that can be pushed to 4.3GHz using with turbo. Rsannino, a well-known overclocker from Italy, achieved six new GFP scores with the CPU clocked as high as 5.7GHz while running GPUPI for CPU – 1B. Here are his scores:
Benchmark |
New score |
CPU Frequency |
Overclocker |
Previous Score |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cinebench R11.5 |
5682MHz |
Rsannino |
||
Cinebench R15 |
5598MHz |
Rsannino |
||
Geekbench3 multi |
5659MHz |
Rsannino |
||
GPUPI for CPU – 1B |
5700MHz |
Rsannino |
||
wPrime 32M |
5600MHz |
Rsannino |
||
wPrime 1024M |
5609Mhz |
Rsannino |