Intel Core i5-7640X 4.0 GHz

[W1zzard]

The Intel Core i5-7640X provides an entry into the world of HEDT for below $300. However, Intel cut several corners in carving out the Core i5-7640X, among which are the lack of HT, fewer PCIe lanes, and no quad-channel memory. Are there redeeming qualities to this chip after all?

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[R00kie]

Useless CPU is useless.

 

[Dante Uchiha]

Pls place the average and minimal fps in same graph. :\

 

[Lionheart]

Totally forgot all about these Kabylake X CPU's, not that it's a bad thing tbh.

 

[dj-electric]

If this CPU had any redeeming quality, it is going to disappear in a week from now.

 

[VSG]

Pls place the average and minimal fps in same graph. :\

This would just result in even more pages or longer pages, both of which don't help with average reader attention span

 

[bug]

So, basically this is the old 7600k (great CPU on its own), only it needs a more expensive motherboard that it can't fully exploit. Can't get much more pointless than that.

 

[Franzen4Real]

This is only my opinion, but an i5 has no business in the HEDT space for any reason. I believe that a High End desktop series should be a performance or feature extension past that of the highest tier mainstream part. This is one reason that Intel's name change to i9 made sense to me, as it would offer features surpassing the i7 mainstream tier. Worst case, (of which I still am not a fan of) is that these CPU's would be similar to the quad core HEDT's from socket 2011 where you still had quad channel memory, etc.

So, basically this is the old 7600k (great CPU on its own), only it needs a more expensive motherboard that it can't fully exploit.

well said.

 

[R0H1T]

Where's the wise guy(s) who said KBL was engineered to reach 5GHz

Oh I know, but I'll leave ^this just for him

 

[Parn]

Great work. I hope more and more credible reviewers like TPU would write off lame products like this i5 7640X or the i7 7740X. Intel need to be reminded that dirty tricks like these would not work on enthusiasts (who are the main target audience for HEDT).

 

[Mirkoskji]

I mean.. Its not hedt. Fine. But you can actually find x299 motherboards for about 160 euro. Which is the price of a middle-high tier z270 board. If you want to overclock and stuff, who cares. You can pick one of those and the price for the entire system won't be much higher than a normal mainstream rig with a i5 7600k. Then, after 4 or 5 years you buy an used Xeon and voila! Longevity check Lol

 

[Ubersonic]

What a useless piece of junk, it's the modern equivalent to the i7 3820/4820K but without the PCI-E lanes, what a ripoff.

 

[Vayra86]

The die shot really says it all; this CPU is half junk, and the other half isn't special.

 

[MyTechAddiction]

On the bright side : the pentium can handle all your gaming needs!

 

[jigar2speed]

I mean.. Its not hedt. Fine. But you can actually find x299 motherboards for about 160 euro. Which is the price of a middle-high tier z270 board. If you want to overclock and stuff, who cares. You can pick one of those and the price for the entire system won't be much higher than a normal mainstream rig with a i5 7600k. Then, after 4 or 5 years you buy an used Xeon and voila! Longevity check Lol

You've got it all sorted congrats. But Xeons don't have High MHZ hence gaming suffers, No ?

 

[Vya Domus]

this CPU is half junk

Not just this one , Intel insists on dedicating so much die space for the GPU on pretty much most of their consumer products.

 

[Aquinus]

What a useless piece of junk, it's the modern equivalent to the i7 3820/4820K but without the PCI-E lanes, what a ripoff.

It's like a 3820 except:

1. It doesn't have quad channel memory.
2. Or as many PCI-E lanes.
3. Or Hyper-Threading
4. Or 10MB of L3 cache.

Rip off indeed.

 

[Parn]

I mean.. Its not hedt. Fine. But you can actually find x299 motherboards for about 160 euro. Which is the price of a middle-high tier z270 board. If you want to overclock and stuff, who cares. You can pick one of those and the price for the entire system won't be much higher than a normal mainstream rig with a i5 7600k. Then, after 4 or 5 years you buy an used Xeon and voila! Longevity check Lol

The price of those Xeons will pretty much remain the same in 4 - 5 years. So if you can't afford one now, chances are you still won't be able to afford one by then. By the time those Xeons fall into the price bracket you're ok with, the entire system will be obsolete.

On the other hand if you do manage to save enough money for one, it would be wise to spend it on a new platform than something which is already 5 years old.

 

[Vya Domus]

The price of those Xeons will pretty much remain the same in 4 - 5 years. So if you can't afford one now, chances are you still won't be able to afford one by then. By the time those Xeons fall into the price bracket you're ok with, the entire system will be obsolete.

On the other hand if you do manage to save enough money for one, it would be wise to spend it on a new platform than something which is already 5 years old.

No one really buys these Xeons new.

 

[Mirkoskji]

You've got it all sorted congrats. But Xeons don't have High MHZ hence gaming suffers, No ?

Of course I wouldn't consider buy a non multitrheaded part for any x299 board. But for the many core/ low frequency discussion I would speculate that in the future, if you're doing gaming, high core count CPUs will have some benefits. Modern games are already taking some advantage from it. Regarding frequency, there are some high frequency Xeons on the market, and also workstation versions. I see this as a good option for a young enthusiast who starts with gaming and then upgrades his pc for more workstation oriented tasks during his studies. For the lower fps problem you solve with higher filters/settings ingame

 

[jigar2speed]

Of course I wouldn't consider buy a non multitrheaded part for any x299 board. But for the many core/ low frequency discussion I would speculate that in the future, if you're doing gaming, high core count CPUs will have some benefits. Modern games are already taking some advantage from it. Regarding frequency, there are some high frequency Xeons on the market, and also workstation versions. I see this as a good option for a young enthusiast who starts with gaming and then upgrades his pc for more workstation oriented tasks during his studies. For the lower fps problem you solve with higher filters/settings ingame

I am not sure if i have seen any Xeon with high core count doing above 4GHZ, although you can correct me if i am wrong. Also i agree that modern games has started taking advantage of more cores but when you face lower fps problem with the current games, it would be sad affair to lower ingame settings when you have invested more in line to $1000 in PC. No ?

 

[bug]

Forget Xeons, just place your bets on the next addition to the HEDT line: i3 or Pentium? Or maybe a surprise resurrection of Atom?

 

[Mirkoskji]

I am not sure if i have seen any Xeon with high core count doing above 4GHZ, although you can correct me if i am wrong. Also i agree that modern games has started taking advantage of more cores but when you face lower fps problem with the current games, it would be sad affair to lower ingame settings when you have invested more in line to $1000 in PC. No ?

Au contrair.. If you have low frequency then you are CPU limited. The solution to overcome a CPU limitation is to raise details to put more weight on the VGA. So a good solution is to have an high resolution display (1440 or more) and/or filters enabled with an high end gpu that can do at least 60fps (gtx 1070 and above).
With intel if you choose a platform you almost can't think to do any upgrade to more modern technologies (aside for a new ssd or more RAM). so if you are into longevity of the platform, the most logical solution is a side-grade. this is valid for any intel platform. for every chipset you can count on, at best, two generations, wich probably are only minor upgrades (sandy bridge and ivy bridge, haswell and broadwell, skylake and kaby lake).

 

[EarthDog]

Where's the wise guy(s) who said KBL was engineered to reach 5GHz

Oh I know, but I'll leave ^this just for him

@R0H1T

Though it wasnt me, ill leave this here 'just for you'...

1. Hes at 1.3V.... still headroom voltage wise. Said he had plenty of temperature headroom too...
2. http://hwbot.org/hardware/processor/core_i5_7640x/

 

[dozenfury]

If anything I actually see this chip as a negative to Intel in the big picture, since it degrades their HEDT Intel brand. Most here will do a deeper dive, but consumers generally should be able to buy a HEDT chip and assume the bells and whistles that are absent in this chip are there. Or call this one a new name (something other than HEDT or with X in the name), that makes it clear that it's a non-HEDT cpu that just happens to work on the HEDT platform for those limited use-cases.