The Intel Core i7-4790 was a desktop processor with 4 cores, launched in May 2014, at an MSRP of $312. It is part of the Core i7 lineup, using the Haswell architecture with Socket 1150. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 8 threads. Core i7-4790 has 8 MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.6 GHz by default, but can boost up to 4 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is building the Core i7-4790 on a 22 nm production process using 1,400 million transistors. The multiplier is locked on Core i7-4790, which limits its overclocking capabilities.
With a TDP of 84 W, the Core i7-4790 consumes a good deal of power, so decent cooling is needed. Intel's processor supports DDR3 memory with a dual-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 1600 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. For communication with other components in the system, Core i7-4790 uses a PCI-Express Gen 3 connection. This processor features the Intel HD 4600 integrated graphics solution.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Core i7-4790, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) will run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.