Wednesday, June 6th 2018
ASUS ROG Dominus Pictured, Core i9 XCC Confirmed to Feature 6-channel Memory
This Tuesday at its Computex presser, Intel unveiled an unnamed 28-core/56-thread HEDT (client-segment) processor that's capable of being bench-stable at 5.00 GHz. The chip is a client-segment implementation of the Skylake XCC (extreme core count) silicon, which features 30 Mesh Interconnect "tiles," of which 28 are cores and two integrated memory controllers. The XCC silicon features a 384-bit wide (6-channel) DDR4 memory interface, and it turns out that whatever SKU Intel is planning, will require a different motherboard from your X299 board that can handle up to 18 cores and 4-channel memory. It will require a client-segment variant of the LGA3647 enterprise socket from the Purley platform. One of the first of these is the ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) Dominus.
Clearly bigger than ATX, in being either E-ATX or SSI form-factor, this board draws power from two 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and three 6-pin PCIe, and has a gargantuan 16-phase VRM with two fan-heatsink blocks. Six DDR4 DIMM slots flank the socket, three on either side, each with its dedicated 64-bit wide path to the socket. The XCC silicon features a 48-lane PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex, and so the board could feature at least two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 capable of full bandwidth, among a boat load of PCIe based storage connectivity, and onboard devices.
Update: This motherboard may have been a quick modification of the WS C621E SAGE, by removing one of its sockets, and modifying the rest of the board accordingly. Prototyping a board like that, for a company with ASUS' resources, would barely take 2-3 weeks by our estimate.
Clearly bigger than ATX, in being either E-ATX or SSI form-factor, this board draws power from two 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and three 6-pin PCIe, and has a gargantuan 16-phase VRM with two fan-heatsink blocks. Six DDR4 DIMM slots flank the socket, three on either side, each with its dedicated 64-bit wide path to the socket. The XCC silicon features a 48-lane PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex, and so the board could feature at least two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 capable of full bandwidth, among a boat load of PCIe based storage connectivity, and onboard devices.
35 Comments on ASUS ROG Dominus Pictured, Core i9 XCC Confirmed to Feature 6-channel Memory
But at least they have actual prototype hardware this time around and it doesn't look quite as rushed as last year when they had nothing but vage and incomplete specs to show.
Looks like they took a dual socket server motherboard, stripped out one socket, routed the VRM from that socket to the remaining one, rejiggered the PCIe to match, and called it a day. Lazy/rushed engineering if I ever saw it.
But I share some of your concern. While competition is good, hopefully this wouldn't lead to a core race (like we've had the GHz race before), focusing on hype and specs rather than real performance.
C'mon Intel - stop dicking around, get that 10nm node done, and start innovating in the CPU space again.
Well, at least there are some competition going on so it's time to cheer up. If the competitors want to beat each other with an ever-growing e-peen, then go on! I'll stay on mainstream and enjoy gaming and modding my level. Of course there is an urge in me to get the newest and coolest stuff, but until that urge meet the need to do so, it will stay an urge. I think this fight, this resistance is the burden of living in a consumer society. We all have our fight at some point/level.
But please, stop discussing this as if it's meant for gaming. If that's what you're thinking of, you're missing the point.
As for Asus mixing up OC and Gamer branding into one mess, that's on them. Even if it's a ROG Board, saying it's for gamers is still just plain dumb. It simply doesn't make sense for gaming - an 8700k would outperform it in 99.9% of games, and likely an 8600k too.
As for this not being WS branded, that's likely a) for marketing purposes and brand building (of the "MOAR COARS ZOMG WE PWN YOU 4THE LULZ" KIND), and b) because they're not even close to running this through QA and validation for that lineup. And, of course, to cater to the XOC crowd, which has also been pushed into the extreme ROG SKUs in later years.
I'd be disappointed here is there wasn't a proper VRM phase for each core. The VRMs are huge, but there are other reasons for this than the CPU consuming all that power... I guess people forget all those mainstream boards with VRMs capable of 3000 W +. I'd say we are looking at the 700-850 range for a good 5 GHz chip, while some poorer examples will need maybe up to 1000W. If you are delivering 1000W, you want a VRM capable of twice that, IMHO, so these boards look like they should, to me.