Intel's fastest desktop processor on the market, the Core i7 980X, remains unattainable for most people at its current $1,000 price range, but that isn't stopping the company from releasing a quicker successor sometime next month. According to TechPowerUp, the Core i7 990X will be based on a new stepping of Intel's 32nm Gulftown architecture. It will feature the same six cores and twelve threads, but clock speeds have been upped from 3.33GHz to 3.46GHz.

Turbo Boost performance scales up to 3.6GHz, and if our experience with the 980X is any indication, overclocking this beast past 4.3GHz without resorting to anything more extreme than air-cooling shouldn't be a problem. Otherwise specs should be similar to other Gulftown parts. Intel's cheapest six core desktop processor to date, the Core i7 970, still sells for around $900 today, so here's hoping the new 990X helps lower the price for its predecessors.

The site also claims Intel is about to roll out a Xeon X5690 processor for servers and workstations, based on the new stepping and featuring similar clock-speeds as the Core i7 990X.