The Rampage VI Apex claims more performance victories with Intel's new Core i9-7940X and i9-7980XE

Sep 25, 2017 Written by:ROG Article

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.

CPU-z validation i9-7980XE - 6104.52MHz by der8auer

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!

Cinebench R15 - 5635 by der8auer

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

138185

5667MHz

Rsannino

135813

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

57.11

5656MHz

elmor

31.97

Cinebench R15

5723

5656MHz

elmor

2990

Geekbench3 multi

92307

5582MHz

Rsannino

48004

GPUPI for CPU – 1B

1mn 01s 604ms

5700MHz

Rsannino

1mn 59s 998ms

wPrime 32M 1s 095ms 5698MHz Rsannino 1s 123ms

wPrime 1024M

25s 273ms

5628MHz

elmor

47s 985ms

X265 - 1080P 196.33 5500MHz Rsannino 180.16

X265 – 4K

45.98

5300MHz

Rsannino

19.78

XTU 5105  5526MHz Rsannino 4858

3DMark Vantage 1x

120425

5500MHz

elmor

118847

3DMark11 1x

45705

5500MHz

der8auer

45044

3DMark11 2x

57983

5600MHz

Rsannino

56465

3DMark Fire Strike 1x

35782

5498MHz

der8auer

35755

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

47.14

5682MHz

Rsannino

25.05

Cinebench R15

4339

5598MHz

Rsannino

2424

Geekbench3 multi

70618

5659MHz

Rsannino

40155

GPUPI for CPU – 1B

1mn 19s 126ms

5700MHz

Rsannino

2mn 31s 645ms

wPrime 32M

1s 291ms

5600MHz

Rsannino

2s 495ms

wPrime 1024M

32s 650ms 

5609Mhz

Rsannino

59s 407ms