Intel Core i9-10980XE—a step forward for AI, a step back for everything else
We used an EVGA Dark board for testing the i9-10980XE. Most boards this far on the high end look like they escaped from Las Vegas-this one goes for a quiet, clean aesthetic instead. [credit: Jim Salter ]
Intel's new i9-10980XE, debuting on the same day as AMD's new Threadripper line, occupies a strange market segment: the "budget high-end desktop." Its 18 cores and 36 threads sound pretty exciting compared to Intel's top-end gaming CPU, the i9-9900KS-but they pale in comparison to Threadripper 3970x's 32 cores and 64 threads. Making things worse, despite having more than double the cores, i9-10980XE has trouble differentiating itself even from the much less expensive i9-9900KS in many benchmarks.
This leaves the new part falling back on what it does have going for it-cost, both initial and operational. If you can't use the full performance output of a Threadripper, the i9-10980XE will give you roughly half the performance for roughly half of the cost, and it extends that savings into ongoing electrical costs as well.
Power
Our i9-10980XE system desktop idled at 69W and drew 257W at the wall under full CPU load. (credit: Jim Salter)
Our i9-10980XE test rig was a lot easier to share an office with than the competing Threadripper 3970x rig. Its EVGA X399 Dark motherboard didn't make it look like a scene from Poltergeist was playing out in the office, and it drew a lot less power and threw off a lot less palpable heat.
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