Many desktop users are going to be just fine with Intel’s standard desktop Core i5 and i7 CPUs. The company offers a wide range of quad-core chips with different levels of performance and power consumption, and there are tons of motherboards in all different shapes and sizes that offer different features for different prices. The Skylake-based Core i7-6700K is Intel’s standard desktop flagship, and for many people it offers more than enough speed.

People who need more performance (and have more cash) can look to Intel’s “enthusiast” lineup, a crop of Core i7-branded CPUs that actually have more in common with the company’s server processors than the rest of its desktop and laptop chips. Intel is refreshing that lineup today with four new CPUs based on the Broadwell-E architecture, which replaces the current Haswell-E CPUs but uses the same socket, motherboards, and chipsets.

The main thing these CPUs offer over the normal Skylake desktop parts is more cores: there are new 6- and 8-core CPUs to replace the analogous Haswell-E chips, and it’s offering an all-new, ludicrously expensive 10-core Extreme Edition CPU as well. And as is often the case, these chips showcase some technology that will eventually trickle down to the more economical processors that most people actually buy. Let’s take a look.

Meet Broadwell-E

If you’re the sort of person who pays attention to processor codenames, “Broadwell” should sound familiar. It’s a tweaked version of the Haswell architecture made on Intel’s 14nm manufacturing process (a “tick” in Intel’s now-defunct “tick-tock” schedule), and while it was originally scheduled to launch in 2014, the majority of the consumer-grade CPUs gradually launched in fits and starts throughout the first half of 2015. The server-class versions of Intel’s architectures, denoted with E, EP, and EX suffixes, typically roll out around a year after the consumer versions, and Broadwell-E follows on the heels of the Broadwell-EP Xeon launch from a couple of months ago.

Know your codenames Codename and year Process Prominent consumer CPU branding Tick/tock Westmere (2010) 32nm Core i3/i5/i7 Tick (new process) Sandy Bridge (2011) 32nm Second-generation Core i3/i5/i7 Tock (new architecture) Ivy Bridge (2012) 22nm Third-generation Core i3/i5/i7 Tick Haswell (2013) 22nm Fourth-generation Core i3/i5/i7 Tock Broadwell (2014-15) 14nm Fifth-generation Core i3/i5/i7, Core M Tick/"Process" Skylake (2015-16) 14nm Sixth-generation Core i3/i5/i7, Core m3/m5/m7 Tock/"Architecture" Kaby Lake (2016?) 14nm TBA Tock/"Optimization" Cannonlake (2017?) 10nm TBA Tock/"Process"

Compared to the standard Broadwell processors, Broadwell-E chips include more cores, more cache, and support for quad-channel 2400MHz DDR4 RAM (faster than the dual-channel 2133MHz DDR4 supported by regular Skylake CPUs). They don’t include integrated GPUs, since servers are often run “headless” without the need for monitors or GPUs and consumers who buy these kinds of processors are usually going to pair them with at least one fast dedicated GPU. Unlike the Xeon chips, they don’t support ECC RAM, but also unlike the Xeon CPUs, they do allow for overclocking and run at higher base clock speeds.

That’s all there really is to know about the architecture itself—it’s all stuff we’ve seen many times before. So let’s focus on the rest of the package: the new 10-core option, the old chipset, and a new version of Intel’s Turbo Boost feature that’s supposed to eliminate the tradeoff between single- and multi-threaded CPU performance that you normally need to make when you go with one of these high-end chips.

Four new CPUs

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Intel’s putting out four new chips today, three of which are direct replacements for outgoing Haswell-E CPUs. The six-core Core i7-6800K replaces the i7-5820K; both include 28 PCI Express 3.0 lanes. The 6- and 8-core 6850K and 6900K replace the 5930K and 5960X, respectively; each includes 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes. All of these CPUs have the same 140W TDPs, and though we don’t have any of them on hand to test with, it’s probably safe to say that performance is going to stay about the same—in many cases, the architectural improvements in Broadwell will be canceled out by the slightly lower clock speeds.

The 10-core Core i7-6950X is the real star here. It has 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, 25MB of L3 cache, and Hyperthreading, and it does it all within the same 140W TDP as the other processors. The main downside is that its list price is an excruciating $1,723, nearly $700 (£500) more than the 8-core 6900K. (Intel never gives UK pricing, but it'll be around £1,300 or £1,400).

It’s hard not to be disappointed by Intel’s pricing. Intel’s “Extreme Edition” CPUs going all the way back to the original Pentium 4 version have cost around $1,000, and in exchange for that cash you got the best consumer-branded processor that Intel could sell you at the time. For the 10-core version of Broadwell-E, you need to spend 60 percent more money to get 25 percent more cores; you could buy a capable quad-core gaming PC complete with monitor and operating system for less than the cost of the 6950X by itself. It’s not the same bang-for-the-buck you get with the 6800K, which costs around 28 percent more than the i7-6700K (plus the price increases associated with the more expensive motherboards) but offers 50 percent more cores.

This is what it looks like when you combine a lack of strong competition with a lack of demand for high-end desktop workstations; Intel’s attentions have long since shifted to laptops and tablets, and it has been years since AMD was a credible choice for a high-end system. We’d love to see six-core-and-up processors become more common in consumer desktops, but Broadwell-E won’t be the chip that does it.

New processors, old chipset

New Intel processors normally come with new Intel chipsets, but Broadwell-E CPUs will use the same X99 chipset that launched alongside Haswell-E back in August of 2014. This isn’t actually all that surprising, given that the Sandy Bridge-E and Ivy Bridge-E chips both stuck with the X79 chipset, but it means that you’re going to miss out on a handful of features that standard consumer-level chipsets like Z170 include and a handful of other high-end features that we’d like to see in such high-end workstations.

To recap, X99 provides the system with eight PCI Express 2.0 lanes, up to six USB 3.0 ports, and up to eight USB 2.0 ports (for a total of 14), up to ten SATA 3.0 ports, and an integrated gigabit Ethernet port. Different motherboard makers can choose to offer different port configurations thanks to Intel’s “Flexible IO.” For instance, some boards may choose to offer two gigabit Ethernet ports and fewer SATA ports, depending on their target audience. M.2 slots for SSDs and Wi-Fi cards are also supported.

The chipset relies on the processor for higher-bandwidth PCI Express 3.0 lanes and its memory controller. Broadwell-E officially supports 2400MHz DDR4, up from 2133MHz in Haswell-E and consumer Skylake, and processors provide either 28 or 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes for use with dedicated GPUs, Thunderbolt add-in cards, and sometimes SSDs, depending on how your motherboard is configured. Consumer Skylake CPUs offer just 16 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, intended primarily for use with GPUs.

X99 has a few notable deficiencies compared to the high-end Z170 chipset for Skylake. Z170 includes 20 of its own PCI Express 3.0 lanes, primarily useful for GPUs and SSDs. It supports a total of 10 USB 3.0 ports and 14 USB 2.0 ports. And the faster PCI Express 3.0 lanes mean that the Direct Media Interface (DMI), which transfers data between the CPU and chipset, is also faster.

So X99 is showing its age, and if new chipsets are released for new "Kaby Lake" CPUs between now and the time Skylake-E makes it to market, the tradeoffs will become even more pronounced. You need to use this chipset to use Intel’s fastest consumer-grade CPUs, but you give up some connectivity features and flexibility. A new X-series chipset, perhaps with full 10Gbps USB 3.1 gen 2 support or even integrated Thunderbolt 3, would be a better fit for the processors.

At any rate, the continued use of X99 means that anyone using a Haswell-E CPU in an X99 motherboard today ought to be able to drop in a Broadwell-E upgrade after performing a BIOS update. Some OEMs have already issued Broadwell-E compatible BIOSes for their boards, so check your support page to make sure you have the most recent version if you’re interested in upgrading (going from a 6- or 8-core Haswell-E CPU to a 6- or 8-core Broadwell-E chip probably isn’t worth the cost, but if you decide you want more cores it might be a useful upgrade).