At 380W, Intel Core i9-10990XE Could Have Higher TDP Than AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X

Alleged screenshots offering insight to specs of the unreleased Intel Core i9-10990XE have emerged on the Chinese Chiphell forums. If the images are legit, it would appear that Intel is preparing the direct replacement for last year's i9-9980XE.

The i9-10990XE is said to be based on Intel's current Cascade Lake-X microarchitecture, and, as a result, the chip should slide in perfectly into LGA2066 motherboards with the X299 chipset. 

The i9-10990XE reportedly comes equipped with 22 cores and 44 threads, which is a significant core upgrade over the i9-9980XE. Similar to its predecessor, the i9-10990XE is rumored to operate with a 4 GHz base clock and 5 GHz all-core boost clock. CPU-Z reportedly detected the chip with a 1.120V core voltage, but we suspect this is an error.

Intel utilizes the HCC (High Core Count) design for its Core X-series processors that max out at 18 cores. However, the rumored i9-10990XE is expected to have 22 cores, which would mean Intel is most likely cramming the XCC (Extreme Core Count) design with two removed memory channels into the chip. In short, the i9-10990XE, therefore, wouldn't feature a new die or design, but just a slight change in packaging.

The TDP (thermal design power) value is what really stands out from the CPU-Z screenshot. The i9-10990XE is seemingly rated with a 380W TDP, the highest we've ever seen on any processor, even the 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X monster at 280W.

At first glance, the i9-10990XE's 380W TDP might look ludicrous, but the math pans out. The i9-9990XE rocks 14 cores at 5 GHz with a 255W TDP. This works out to around 18.2W per core. If we multiply that value by 22 cores, it puts the i9-10990XE at around 400.4W. Therefore, 380W seems plausible.

An unverified screenshot of an i9-10990XE Cinebench R20 score shows the 22-core chip reaping 14,005 points. This would put the i9-10990XE on the same level as the 24-Core Threadripper 3960X for this specific benchmark.

The i9-9990XE wasn't available to the general public. Only a handful of OEMs had the opportunity to pick up the chip at a secret auction. Intel also didn't put a price on the i9-9990XE. But given the competition that Intel is facing, we think the chipmaker should sell the i9-10990XE to consumers upon release.