6 Cores. 12 Threads. Say Hello to Intel's Gulftown!

By Marcus Yam
published

The new Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processor costs $167 per core or $83 per thread.

Today at the Game Developers Conference, Intel previewed platforms featuring the latest Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processor, codenamed "Gulftown," the first 32nm, six-core processor with 12 computing threads.

We've put the shiny new Extreme processor through its paces inside our labs and we're mighty impressed that the Core i7-980X met our high expectations. Of course, at a cost of $1,000 per CPU, anything less than the fastest would have been a disappointment.

Check out a rundown of the latest and greatest from Intel with a walkthrough by Chris Angelini:

For the full story, check out our full review here.

Stay tuned for more Gulftown coverage as we're currently working on a Gulftown vs. Bloomfield showdown.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
45 Comments Comment from the forums
  • brett1042002
    Great CPU for benchmarking or heavy workstation applications. Waste of money for a gaming rig... at this point in time anyways.
    Reply
  • dante10
    would be much better if they can make it cheaper
    Reply
  • lightsaber
    Only $167 per core....let me see this amounts to about $1002 for a processor. Looks good, wish the price was more affordable.
    Reply
  • Abrahm
    Looks awesome. I'll be waiting until a more reasonably priced non-Extreme version of this comes out, but when it does I will definitely be building a new rig to replace my current Q6600 setup.
    Reply
  • sohei
    anyway you can build a dual socket i7 920 8 cores/12 threads platform which is better than 980 and you remain with almost half of the money in your pocket...and about power consumption :
    2 i7 920 must work 4 years non-stop in full load to consume the difference in money of i7 980
    in 4 years i7 980 will be just a piece of metal with no value
    Reply
  • matt_b
    6, 8, 12, 48 cores/threads - it doesn't matter. Programming is lagging far far behind to even utilize these things. We are stuck in an era where most programs are still single core oriented and dual is the new/current trend for games! Unless I am a number cruncher, statistician, programmer, etc, what good does it do to have these when a majority of people will spend their time watching all these extra cores.......idle? I wish more than a core count race, that someone would find the way to break the barrier and be able to up the speed past the 3-3.5 Ghz barrier we have been stuck at for years now. Thumbs up for the cool factor just to have one though, not much else.
    Reply
  • Dirtman73
    Heck, I should be able to buy this when the price becomes reasonable, say in about 3-4 years. Of course, by then it'll be outdated technology.

    I'm just kidding. It's Intel, so I plan on never buying it, regardless of the price.
    Reply
  • killerclick
    Matt_B6, 8, 12, 48 cores/threads - it doesn't matter. Programming is lagging far far behind to even utilize these things.
    Wrong! 3D rendering, graphics and video editing applications are heavily threaded and until they get moved to the GPU, a multicore CPU is the best tool for the job. This CPU might be too expensive for the performance gains it offers but that's normal for top-of-the-line Intel Extreme Edition.
    Reply
  • mlopinto2k1
    compfreak93doesnt AMD already have this?I believe AMD has a 6 core processor but it does not have hyperthreading.
    Reply
  • shin0bi272
    compfreak93doesnt AMD already have this?Intel already has 6 core single die cpus too they are just in the server market. AMD's 6core opteron came out july 1st 09 (on paper at least).
    Reply