Review: Intel Core i7-7820X (14nm Skylake-X)

Conclusion

The Intel response to the AMD Ryzen 7 threat has materialised with the current release of five HEDT chips sat on top of the also-new X299 platform. The eight-core, 16-thread Skylake-X chip, known as Core i7-7820X, is of particular interest as its £550 asking fee isn't too far removed from premium Ryzen 7 pricing.

Said chip has enough performance on tap to beat out the best Ryzen 7 in a variety of benchmarks. Intel's higher peak speeds and more efficient architecture ensure it wins the lightly-threaded benchmarks with ease, but the situation is much closer when Ryzen 7 can flex its multi-core muscles.

We like the fact that Intel has had to offer more performance at a lower price point than has been the case in the last five years. £550 for a processor is still a heck of a lot of money, granted, yet it can be genuinely considered as value from an Intel perspective, going by what we saw last year.

The Core i7-7820X is a good chip suitable for base-unit builds costing in the region of £1,500-£2,000, though the user really needs to tax the multi-core aspect for it to be a better bet than mainstream Core i7-7700K. What's more, appreciating the high-end aspirations of the X299 platform, Intel's reluctance to go beyond 28 PCIe lanes is a blot, and the imminent release of the $799-plus AMD Threadripper CPU is another wrinkle in the mix.

Intel has had to up its game since AMD came back swinging in the premium desktop CPU market. The Core i7-7820X CPU is a testament to, dare we say, value from an Intel standpoint..

Intel Core i7-7820X

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The Intel Core i7-7820X processor is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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