The Intel Core i9-9980XE CPU Review: Refresh Until it Hertz
by Ian Cutress on November 13, 2018 9:00 AM ESTTest Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
| Test Setup | |||||
| Intel HEDT | i9-9980XE i9-7980XE i9-7960X i9-7940X i9-7920X |
ASRock X299 OC Formula |
P1.40 | TRUE Copper |
Crucial Ballistix 4x4GB DDR4-2666 |
| AMD TR4 | TR2 2970WX TR2 2920X |
ASUS ROG X399 Zenith |
1501 | Enermax Liqtech TR4 |
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 4x8GB DDR4-2933 |
| TR2 2990WX TR2 2950X |
ASUS ROG X399 Zenith |
0508 | Enermax Liqtech TR4 |
G.Skill FlareX 4x8GB DDR4-2933 |
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| GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
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| PSU | Corsair AX860i Corsair AX1200i |
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| SSD | Crucial MX200 1TB | ||||
| OS | Windows 10 x64 RS3 1709 Spectre and Meltdown Patched |
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| VRM Supplimented with SST-FHP141-VF 173 CFM fans | |||||
Unfortunately due to travel back and forth to the US for AMD’s Horizon Event and Supercomputing 2018, I was unable to look into overclocking performance for this review. We will hopefully cover it in another article.
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.
| Hardware Providers | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
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nexuspie - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Marketing doesn't work in tech. Tech buyers aren't dumb. People want performance, and today that's Intel by far. On a per-core basis it creams the competitor.Arbie - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Ironically stated in pure marketing-speak.Tech buyers know that shouting "performance" is meaningless out of context - and that includes a lot more than clock speed. For example price, power, cooling, cores, threading, features, platform, socket life... the list goes on. All conveniently ignored in a slogan like yours, which could have come from an Intel ad.
Spunjji - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
He's dropping classic lines from the "I am an empowered, smart individual and marketing doesn't work on me" playbook. I find it's usually a line trotted out by people on whom marketing works absolute miracles.Kilnk - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
I've been reading your comments and I love your style.Arbie - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
"there’s no point advertising a magical 28-core 5 GHz CPU ... if only one in a million hits that value."Sure there is: to confuse the market and draw attention away from the competition. As at Computex in June.
twtech - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
How about 4.5 GHz?eva02langley - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
So many refreshes, and so little supply on the shelves.jospoortvliet - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
Takes only 9 weeks to be delivered I suppose? And that is just the promise - delays likely.Cooe - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Rofl, and the second you look at the price tags, anyone with half a piece of common sense would realize that buying an i9-9980XE over a TR-2950X is absolutely freaking ridiculous! (Unless you simply NEED AVX-512 that is). Intel's flailing with Skylake.... again..., while AMD's near finished changing the game entirely with 7nm Zen 2, and it's all honestly pretty damn hilarious. Karma's a b**ch and all that lol.benedict - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Agreed, the 2950X offers the best value in the HEDT segment.