F E A T U R E // I N T E L C O R E I 9 7 9 8 0 X E & I 7 8 7 0 0 K V S . R O G A P E X F A M I LY
INTEL CORE i9 7980XE
& i7 8700K VS.
ROG APEX FAMILY
(RAMPAGE VI & MAXIMUS X)
About three to four months ago, when the INTEL Core
i9-7980XE Extreme Edition was hot off the press,
parading itself as (it still remains so) the most powerful
desktop CPU on the market, it had an unexpected
influence on retail motherboards for the X299 chipset.
I
f you’re reading this, chances are
you’re aware of exactly what I’m
speaking about. However, if you’re
not, here is a brief breakdown of the
situation at the time (or at least as I
understand it).
When INTEL initially launched both
the X299 chipset and the first Core
i9-7900X CPU, board vendors had
supposedly designed their thermal
and, perhaps to some lesser extent,
board power solutions based on
this this 10-core part. All was well
and, for the most part, the available
motherboards were adequate
(debatable I know, but that is a
discussion for another day). Fast
forward several months and INTEL
announced more Core i9 CPUs
and, of course, the Core i9-7980XE
Extreme Edition, which is the subject
of this editorial.
With default operation, most (if
not all) motherboards could support
the new CPU. However, given
that this is an unlocked multiplier
part, overclocking or at the very
least some form of performance
tuning outsider of INTEL reference
specification was inevitable. This is
where things got a little dicey on the
motherboard support side.
As you may know, the Core
i9-7980XE is not only powerful,
but it draws a copious amount of
power when overclocked. Most
18 The OverClocker Issue 43 | 2018
VRM configurations could deal
with the increased power draw,
however the thermal solutions
for these boards could not. As a
result, overclocking even with AIO
cooling was limited, and virtually
impossible with liquid nitrogen.
Simply put, the VRM complex would
heat up tremendously, causing either
shutdown or drastically reduced
performance. This effectively meant
that the Core i9-7980XE Extreme
Edition CPU could not be used as
intended or as desired by end users -
specifically overclockers.
Since then, updates to
motherboard thermal solutions
have been implemented – for
example, some offering two 12V
EPS connectors instead of one, and
heatsinks with a greater surface
area. As it goes in this industry,
few board vendors (read none) will
specifically state that their updated
SKUs were released to deal with
this issue. They get the silent update
treatment of sorts, and it is up to
the end user to find out specifically
which boards were released to deal
with this.
As pretty much the case virtually
every generation since heaven
knows when, ASUS, or rather
specifically the ROG boards, seem
to be the exception - at least the
Rampage VI APEX is the exception in