14 DAY TRIAL // Intel has just announced that it plans to discontinue the production of its previous flagship processor, the Core i7 980X, in September of 2011, so the recently launched Core i7 990X will become the only six-core Extreme Edition CPU in the company's lineup.
The Core i7 990X Extreme Edition CPU was launched a little less than a year ago, and, at the time, it was Intel's fastest desktop processor to date as it packed no less than six processing cores as well as 12MB of Level 3 cache memory.
Although it features 50% more cores than the Core i7 975X, the processor was clocked as the same frequency as the quad-core chip, namely 3.33MHz, and had the same 3.6GHz max Turbo without surpassing the 130W TDP set by its predecessor.
This was possible since the CPU was built using the 32nm manufacturing process that allowed for improved energy efficiency and better thermal performance.
Impressive as it may sound, its rain was cut short about three weeks ago when the Santa Clara-based company officially launched the Core i7 990X.
This featured almost the exact same specs as Intel's previous LGA 1366 flagship, but had its core frequency set 133MHz higher (at 3.46GHz), while in Turbo it could reach up to 3.73GHz.
Released at the same $999.00 price as its predecessor, its introduction would have forced Intel to lower the price of the Core it 980X, so the company decided that it is time to retire the CPU from the market.
According to HardwareLuxx, distributors can order the 990X until the September 30, 2011, as afterwards the CPU would be discontinued.
Both the Core i7 990X and the 980X are built on the Westmere architecture and feature an integrated DDR3-1066 memory controller, 12MB of L3 cache with power gating, AES-NI acceleration as well as Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost support.