Intel Introduces 28-Core Unlocked Xeon W-3175X

NEW YORK -- Intel today announced a 28-core chip, the Intel Xeon W-3175X. That surpasses its old record of 18 cores with the i9-7980XE Extreme Edition processor. It will begin shipping this December.

The 28-core 56-thread processor's clock speed starts at 3.1GHz and goes up to 4.3GHz. It has a TDP of 255W and is based on Intel's Skylake-X architecture. The processor also supports six channels of memory.

The unlocked chip offers 125GBps of memory bandwidth. This is, essentially, an overclocked server chip, so it will go into server-class motherboards rather than an X399 chipset.

Asus and Gigabyte will serve as the first motherboard partners for the W-3175X, the company said.

Intel invited Tangent Studios, the team behind the Netflix movie Next Gen, to explain how it worked powerfully with Blender. Few other details were announced on stage, so we're still waiting on price.

On a wall of motherboards outside of the presentation, the new boards from Asus, the ROG Dominus Extreme, and Gigabyte, the SKL-SP 15. These will likely launch with the W-3175. The motherboards feature the C612 chipset, bt there is no word on if these will be branded as X599 or not, and we haven't been able to get confirmation.