Intel officially launched today its first hexa-core desktop processor, the Core i7 980X Extreme Edition. As previously reported, the codenamed Gulftown chip features six 32nm cores clocked at 3.33GHz, reaching a maximum Turbo Boost clock speed of 3.6GHz for single-threaded operations, it has a massive 12MB L3 cache, and is capable of running 12 threads simultaneously with Intel's Hyper-threading technology.

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ME WANT!!!

ME WALLET NO WANT!!!

ARG!!!

But seriously, this processor is a nice leap in computing capacity. 12 threads of execution sounds delicious!

Hahah!

I want it too, and I have a i7 950 with 4 cores. 8 virtual with hyper-threading.

...and I thought I had overkill.. is there anything that would need the new i7 980???

It's good, best CPU now, but still should have a higher clock speed. In 2000 we hit the 1GHz mark. In 2004 we made it to 3.8GHz. Now 6 years later down to 3.33GHz. The power consumption is great on this thing!

Wow. Think about running 12 threads at the same time. But I agree with Yoda8232, lets hope they increase the clock speed.

This is going into my purchasing queue for next spring when I do my next upgrade. :D

Great,,,, but first we need games and applications that take advantage of Quad core CPU's. It's all about balance you must have a great GPU with a great CPU otherwise you are spinning your wheels.

So, how does it run Crysis? =D

6 cores even a 4GHz is really not of much use to me, especially not at that price. I'd kill for a 5+GHz quad core though.

YES! Now powerful computing is in the hands of everyday people. At $99.9 this is a steal... wait... oh... never mind, That was AMD.

On a serious note, what % of the market will this CPU fall in? I think these CPUs are just Intel saying "Yup we did it." Showoffs lol.

New slogan - i7 980, You'll be in debt!

I'll wait for AMD to make a six core processor that's half the price.

Saw some gaming benchmarks for this new processor, and six cores don't help at all for gaming. The games were running at pretty much the same frame rate as with the i7 975 (if I recall correctly), which is a quad core processor. So make sure your applications will benefit before buying a 6 core CPU.

This is basically aimed at corporate/business consumers; video editing/encoding, etc. 3D rendering, etc. and other high end uses. No consumer needs a nearly $1000.00 processor...with the state the world is in today e.g. people without even clean drinking water, I couldn't imagine spending that much on a processor...

A core i5 is plenty.

I will stick with my 965 extreme clocked at 4Ghz But seriously I think most people would rather have a higher clock speed then 2 more cores. However this would be great for anyone that does a lot of virtualization like VMWare and Virtual PC.

Really are we there yet!!!

check this out in 6 months its going to be 345$ hook this un with a pair a Nvidia GTX ....... gaming at another level

strating to save money to get one ....NOW!

Very impressive and I want one.

To bad I just bought a 1156 socket mobo. I'm sure in a couple years the price will be reasonable. Remember when the Core2 Quads were released? They were initially $999 and now you can get one for $200.

I can't wait for the i9's to get released.

the specs are great! 12 threads simultaneously! dats a great deal! but we would have to take a loan to buy it! lol! seriously they should decrease the price! at $999 we can build a whole gaming rig that smoothly runs WoW! waiting for the prices to fall!

Nice move..
i thought it won't be released this soon..
Intel is the best.. but i still like AMD more..

Yes, with 1/3 the cache, and performance more in line with Intel quad cores...

+1 AMD cpus although cheap are cheap for a reason. AMD has fallen because their high end parts still get beaten by the intel i5-750.