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	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