Intel has unleashed their next generation Broadwell-E family which includes the flagship Core i7-6950X CPU. The Broadwell-E family is based on the 14nm process node which delivers better efficiency than 22nm node along with better performance in general. All Broadwell-E processors feature support on X99 platform that offers enthusiasts great performance and overclocking capabilities.

Intel's Broadwell-E processors have officially launched, featuring a hefty 3.4 Billion transistor count.

Intel Broadwell-EFamily Officially Launched - Core i7-6950X 10 Core Processor Available To Consumers

The Intel Broadwell-E family features a total of four new processors which will start from price of $400 US. The processors will be available worldwide and will be compatible with existing and new X99 motherboards. Since we are talking about X99, we should know that X99 motherboards feature the LGA 2011-3 socket that will allow support for such processors. The existing motherboards have already received the latest BIOS to deliver support for Broadwell-E while new motherboards will be shipping with the latest BIOS.

The Intel Core i7 HEDT processors based on Broadwell architecture feature lots of new updates!

Intel Broadwell-E Processor Review Round-Up

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Intel's Broadwell-E Is Based on a Beefy 3.4 Billion Transistor Die

The Broadwell-E family is based on the same process and architecture which we saw recently on the Broadwell-EP processors that incorporate several billion transistors under the hood. In the official launch post, we covered that the Broadwell-EP parts were based off three different dies.

We know that Intel’s Broadwell-E processors will have four variants, a 10 core variant, a 8 core variant and two 6 core variants.Like the Broadwell-EP, the Broadwell-E lineup can either use a single die configuration such as the LCC (Lowest Core Configuration) which houses up to 10 cores and seems like the perfect candidate for the HEDT family. As we suspected, that is the case and Intel has went with the LCC die to accommodate the latest processors.

The three 14nm dies used in building the Broadwell-EP family. Broadwell-E can be based on the LCC die.

Intel's Broadwell-E processors are based on the smallest 246mm2 die which houses 3.4 Billion transistors. The die offers a vast improvement in overall transistors per die moving from Haswell-E which housed up to 2.6 Billion transistors on a 355mm2 die.

Intel Broadwell-E Chips With Turbo Boost 3.0 - Per Core Boost Clock For Single-Threaded Apps - 4.0 GHz on Core i7-6950X

Intel has a new feature on-board the Broadwell-E processors known as Turbo Boost Max 3.0. With this technology, Intel expects to deliver up to 15% better single threaded and multi-threaded performance. Broadwell-E with Turbo Boost Max 3.0allows each core to boost individually to help performance not only in multi-threaded applications but also single threaded applications.

TBM3 requires an operating system driver and will boost the frequency of a single CPU core when a single threaded program is being used.It requires a driver, similar to Skylake’s Speed Shift feature (which is not in Broadwell-E), which should be distributed in new X99 motherboard driver packages but will be rolled out in Windows 10 in due course. It also comes with a user interface. Via Anandtech

Turbo Boost Maximum 3.0 can be configured through software to select the highest performing core on a Broadwell-E chip and prioritize it for a specific set of applications that utilize single cores. In these apps, the processor will be able to boost beyond its specifications. In the case of Core i7-6950X, we can get as high as 4.0 GHz clock speed in single-threaded workloads.

Aside from Turbo Boost Max 3.0, Intel has also promised much better overclocking features such as per voltage overclocking, AVX ratio offset and VccU voltage control. Intel Broadwell-E chips deploy a new heatspreader and a fully soldered design that will help tone down temperatures while the fine tuned Broadwell architecture will keep power delivery smooth and steady.

Intel Broadwell-E Family