Last week, Intel announced their latest Ivy Bridge-E platform featuring the new Core i7 Extreme Edition CPUs for the HEDT enthusiasts. The Ivy Bridge-E processors are now officially available for sale and can be bought from any major retailer.

Intel Ivy Bridge-E Core i7 High-End Desktop Processors Now Available

The Ivy Bridge-E processors have a die size of 257mm2with 1.86 billiontransistors. The flagship Core i7-4960X has 15 MB of L3 cache shared across all cores. With Ivy bridge-E, the TDP has gone down and theperformancehas went up which is a good thing but we will have to wait to see how muchperformancehas gone up since we have not received our review kit yet from Intel. As for compatibility, the entire Ivy Bridge-E lineup is compatible with the old and new X79/LGA 2011 socket basedmotherboards.

The flagship Intel Ivy Bridge-E CPU would be the Core i7-4960X packed with 6 cores and 12 threads and would feature a core clock of 3.6 GHz base and 4.0 GHz Turbo boost with 15 MB of L3 cache. TheExtreme EditionCPU would cost $990 which is $60 less compared to Sandy Bridge-E based Core i7-3970X. Newegg is retailing the CPU for $1049.99 US.

Theperformanceminded users would look forward to the Core i7-4930K with the same 6 core and 12 threads configuration however shipped with a lower core clock of 3.40 GHz base and 3.90 GHz with Turbo boost 2.0. The Core i7-4930K would feature 12 MB of L3 cache. The Core i7-4930K would cost $555 which is alsocheaper thanthe $594 i7-3930K. Newegg is selling the model for $579.99 US.

Last of all is the entry level Core i7-4820K which will retail at $310 which is $5 higher than its predecessor but should be noted that it comes with an Unlocked multiplier. As you may note, this time Intel thought it was better off to ship their entry level HEDTCPU withan unlocked multiplier while the Sandy Bridge-E based Core i7-3820 didn’t had an “K” unlocked design. Specifications wise, the Core i7-4820K ships with 4 Cores and 8 threads, 10 MB of L3 cache and 3.70 GHz base and 3.90 GHz Turbo frequency. Newegg is selling out the Core i7-4820K for $329.99 US.

For a more detailed preview of the Ivy Bridge-E and their reviews round-up, do head over to this link.