Intel Core i9-10980XE CPU & MSI X299 Creator Review

Four years ago, Intel was the undisputed leader of the high-end desktop market. Intel’s Extreme Edition processors were the top of the line chips that people could buy and their accompanying platform was unrivaled in the industry.

However, we can’t say the same in 2019. Intel’s HEDT has seen no major change in the last two years. We get the same platform and the same underlying architecture with no increase in core and thread count. Even the platform remains unchanged and Intel’s AIB partners are to credit for their efforts to make the X299 platform still feel refreshing.

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Technically, Intel’s 10th Gen X-series lineup isn’t anything to get excited aside from a slight clock speed bump but what’s noteworthy is the pricing. Intel’s latest pricing strategy was to make 10th Gen X-series processors more competitive in performance per dollar by slashing off major $$$ from their lineup. Intel claimed up to 2.09x better performance per dollar on the new X-series line compared to Skylake-X. Here, Intel is simply comparing their Core i9-7980XE, a $1999 US CPU with their $979 US Core i9-10980XE.

But since Intel announced their 10th Gen X-series parts, AMD introduced the Ryzen 9 3950X. A 16 core chip with Zen 2 cores for a price of $749 US. The processor is supported by the mainstream AM4 platform which means that the cost of building a 16 core PC is now cheaper than Intel’s line. That may also explain why the lineup launching today is missing a 16 core part but existed in the previous 7th Gen and 9th Gen X-series lineup.

AMD Threadripper vs Intel Core – More Than Just Core Wars

Before I start this review, let’s take a quick recap of the core wars that’s been going on since the beginning of 2017 between AMD and Intel. Prior to 2017, the industry was used to the annual 4 core mainstream and 8/10 core high-end desktop refreshes that Intel produced. Intel was also on top of the game since AMD’s Bulldozer (and its various iterations) didn’t pose major threat & Zen was still under-development.

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So how did Intel go from the leader of the HEDT space to being crushed by AMD’s mainstream chip platform? You are expecting me to blame Intel’s reliance on 14nm for this issue and while it is a factor, it isn’t as big as some other bad decisions that went into Intel’s HEDT lineup starting with the 7th Generation Core-X series. You see, back in 2017, there was no AMD HEDT lineup and Intel was considered to be the bleeding-edge HEDT offerer in the market space. While AMD had started pushing Intel to offer more cores in the mainstream segment (e.g. four cores flagship on Kaby Lake vs 6 cores flagship on Coffee Lake), they weren’t expecting or rightly put, weren’t in the mood to innovate their HEDT lineup any time soon.

Then 1st Gen Threadripper happened and we all know how AMD caught Intel with their pants off. The problem wasn’t that Intel didn’t have the platform to compete against AMD, it’s more to do with their laziness on how they wanted to continue offering 10 cores / 20 thread chips as flagship HEDT parts for years to come. You see, Intel had the technology to offer 12 cores and 24 threads back in their Ivy Bridge generation, 18 cores and 36 threads in the Haswell generation & same in the Skylake generation. However, knowing they dominated the market, the didn’t see the reason to innovate the HEDT space anytime soon.

HEDT & Mainstream Segment Core/Thread Count Race:

Year	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
AMD HEDT	N/A	16 / 32	32 / 64	32 / 64	64 / 128
Intel HEDT	10 / 20	18 / 36	18 / 36	18 / 36 28 / 56 (Xeon W-3175X)	18 / 36 28 / 56 (Xeon W-3175X)
AMD Mainstream	8 / 8	8 / 16	8 / 16	16 / 32	16 /32
Intel Mainstream	4/8	6 / 12	8 / 16	8 / 16	10 / 20

So what do you when your darkest nightmare comes true? Rush to rebadge Xeon parts which could’ve been done early on and don’t give partners enough time to evaluate your new chips on their products, resulting in a botched launch. Intel’s first Core-X lineup was a mess and that is why it took Intel 3 generations just to fix the problems of their first X-series lineup.

The 3 years of Threadrippers have also been building up to this moment. While Intel was fixing their X-series lineup, AMD was gaining at both fronts, the market and mind share. You have to sacrifice margins for market share gains and word of mouth to spread before you start hiking up prices for higher profits.

AMD’s Threadrippers are repurposed EPYC chips just like how Intel’s Core X processors are repurposed Xeon chips that couldn’t pass the server-level qualifications. This was another factor which if Intel could’ve considered earlier on wouldn’t get their HEDT lineup into so much trouble. AMD was willing to cut the profit margins offering the same core counts of their EPYC lineup on the Threadripper parts. Intel might have downplayed the fact that in the coming years, AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper core count would match the EPYC lineup. This is a superb game played by AMD where their first-generation Threadripper had half the core count of EPYC Naples and only the second generation that launched a year later offered the full 32 cores. This is changing with 3rd generation as the Threadripper 3990X will be carrying 64 cores, same as the top-end EPYC chip.

Intel HEDT Processor Families:

Intel HEDT Family	Gulftown	Sandy Bridge-E	Ivy Bridge-E	Haswell-E	Broadwell-E	Skylake-X	Skylake-X	Skylake-X	Cascade Lake-X
Process Node	32nm	32nm	22nm	22nm	14nm	14nm+	14nm+	14nm+	14nm++
Flagship SKU	Core i7-980X	Core i7-3960X	Core i7-4960X	Core i7-5960X	Core i7-6950X	Core i9-7980XE	Core i9-9980XE	Xeon W-3175X	Core i9-10980XE
Max Cores/Threads	6/12	6/12	6/12	8/16	10/20	18/36	18/36	28/56	18/36
Clock Speeds	3.33/3,60 GHz	3.30/3.90 GHz	3.60/4.00 GHz	3.00/3.50 GHz	3.00/3.50 GHz	2.60/4.20 GHz	3.00/4.50 GHz	3.10/4.30 GHz	3.00 / 4.80 GHz
Max Cache	12 MB L3	15 MB L3	15 MB L3	20 MB L3	25 MB L3	24.75 MB L3	24.75 MB L3	38.5 MB L3	24.75 MB L3
Max PCI-Express Lanes (CPU)	32 Gen2	40 Gen2	40 Gen3	40 Gen3	40 Gen3	44 Gen3	44 Gen3	44 Gen3	44 Gen3
Chipset Compatiblity	X58 Chipset	X79 Chipset	X79 Chipset	X99 Chipset	X99 Chipset	X299	X299	C612E	X299
Socket Compatiblity	LGA 1366	LGA 2011	LGA 2011	LGA 2011-3	LGA 2011-3	LGA 2066	LGA 2066	LGA 3647	LGA 2066
Memory Compatiblity	DDR3-1066	DDR3-1600	DDR3-1866	DDR4-2133	DDR4-2400	DDR4-2666	DDR4-2800	DDR4-2666	DDR4-2933
Max TDP	130W	130W	130W	140W	140W	165W	165W	255W	165W
Launch	Q1 2010	Q4 2011	Q3 2013	Q3 2014	Q2 2016	Q3 2017	Q4 2018	Q4 2018	Q4 2019
Launch Price	$999 US	$999 US	$999 US	$1059 US	$1700 US	$1999 US	$1979 US	~$4000 US	$979 US

AMD is also taking Intel’s position, becoming the leader of the HEDT market but at the same time, not let this platform become stagnant. AMD is aware that eventually, Intel would have a response which is the next topic I want to shed light on so they want to stay on the high-ground whenever Intel tackles them but also try to maximize profits when there is no competition which we can get a slight hint of from the 3rd Gen Threadripper prices. AMD is easing up on the prices and only Intel themselves is to blame. You can read our review of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X here.

As for this review, I will be taking a look at the Intel Core i9-10980XE on MSI’s brand new X299 Creator motherboard. The Core i9-10980XE retails for $979 US as of today while the MSI X299 Creator has a retail price of $539 US.