Intel’s new Core i9-9990XE is now available via retail for $2735 USD. This Skylake X processor is the highest end variant of Core processors currently offered by Intel.
The Core i9-9990XE is based on the 14nm node with 14 cores and 28 threads for HEDT performance. The processor sports 19.25 MB of L3 cache with 44 PCIe 3.0 lanes. The chip’s 4GHz base clock, and 5GHz all core performance is powered by a whopping TDP of 255W which is way higher than its lower end Skylake X sibling, the i9-9980XE, which has a TDP of 165W.
The Skylake X flagship’s price per core comes out to be $195.36 compared to $110 for the Core i9-9980XE and $99 for Core i9-9940X. Furthermore, the Core i9-9990XE’s L3 cache is lower than i9-9980XE’s by about 5.5 MB.
On paper, the Core i9-9990XE is pretty similar to its sibling Core i9-9940X apart from its beefed-up core clock speed of 4.0 GHz over 3.3 GHz for i9-9940X. 9940X sells for $1387 and the price difference between the two makes the Core i9-9990XE hard to recommend unless one has an unlimited supply of cash.
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