Intel has announced the discontinuation of their Kaby Lake-X processors which were announced just 11 months ago. The processors which were designed for the enthusiast HEDT platform were quad cores and based on the 14nm+ architecture, but poor response by the enthusiast CPU community and low sales have prompted Intel to move it to EOL status.
Intel Kaby Lake-X Core i7-7740X and Core i5-7640X Moved To EOL Status – Poor Sales and Response by Enthusiast Community Said To Be Reason Behind Discontinuation
When Intel announced their X299 platform based around the Core-X processors, they made an unusual announcement by adding two quad-core chips to the lineup. Both processors that were part of the Kaby Lake-X lineup had nothing in common with the Skylake-X processors. They were based on a slightly enhanced 14nm+ node but provided lower PCIe lanes, quad cores on a HEDT platform (Core i5 came without multi-threading), had just dual channel memory support as opposed to a quad channel memory support on the Skylake-X family and offered no performance gains over the processors that were already offered on the mainstream LGA 1151 (Z270) platform.
Related Intel Rolls Out First ‘Day 0, Launch Ready’ Graphics Driver – Software Side Shaping Up For Dedicated GPU Run
While overclockers did break some records due to the better IMC on Kaby Lake-X and enhanced 14nm+ node, the processors weren’t well received in general by hardware enthusiasts and hence saw poor sales. Also, Intel won’t be making the same mistake by offering quad cores on the HEDT platform when moving to their upcoming X399 HEDT platform, hence they are announcing EOL plans for the Kaby Lake-X chips.
The EOL plan states that the processors will be taken off the market shelves and OEMs that are still interested in the chips will have to order directly from Intel and by the end of November. All Kaby Lake-X chips will be history by May 31, 2019, when the last chip will be sold (if anyone is interested in them by that time). Do note that Intel’s current 6 core processors are better value in all ways possible than the Kaby Lake-X chips so buying them makes little sense.
Related Chris Hook Joins Intel To Lead Marketing For Dedicated Graphics and Visual Technologies
The Intel Core i7-7740X: Intel’s HEDT Quad-Core with 4 Cores / 8 Threads
Priced at $349 (you are paying $87.25 per core) and featuring the brand new KabyLake-X architecture, the Core i7-7740X is going to be Intel’s newest mainstream quad-core offering. That said, the plus points of this particular processor might not appeal to everyone. For one, you are paying a significantly higher price per core and for not a lot of benefits. Secondly, this processor supports only dual-channel DDR4-2666 and only 16 PCIe lanes. The TDP for this chip is set at 112W.
The Intel Core i5-7640X: Intel’s HEDT Quad Core With 4 Cores / 4 Threads
Priced at $242 (you are paying $60.5 per core) and featuring the brand new Kaby Lake-X architecture, the Core i5-7740X features just 4 cores without Hyper-Threading enabled. It features a 4.0 GHz base clock that can boost up to 4.2 GHz. 4MB of L2 cache is complimented by 6 MB of L3 cache. The processor supports Dual Channel DDR4-2666 and 16 PCIe lanes on the LGA-2066 socket. TDP is reduced to 112 Watts like its Hyper-Threaded brother.
