Conclusion

With its recent Gulftown CPU's Intel shows absolutely mindblowing performance. But as always their extreme processors come at a very high price tag. For CHF 1179.- (est. EUR 786.-) you get this very exclusive piece of hardware which is future proof as nearly no CPU before. One can definitely say that six of these highly efficient cores paired up with Intels hyperthreading are at least one generation ahead of todays operating systems.

Because of the reason that Gulftown is an up scaled version of Bloomfiield it can profit from all the advantages the Nehalem architecture comes with. The Gulftwon models therefore are equipped with SMT as well as an overworked Turbo-Mode which now is able to raise the clock speeds up to 266 MHz or in other words by two multiplyer steps. Like this the enduser gets a real performance benefit in single threaded applications when the clock speed is as high as possible.

If we look at Gulftowns performance the 980 X is well ahead of for example a Core i7 975. Applications which profit from the two additional cores respectively the four additional threads are definitely the domain of the 980 X CPUs. But never the less also single threaded applications get a benefit. This time it's coming from the Turbo mode which clocks the CPU up to 3.46 GHz. Not only the practical, especially the theoretical benchmarks show massively increased values thank to the two additional cores. That's why Gulftown set's the barrier quiet a bit higher than the older Core i7 CPUs did.
Also in game benchmarks Gulftown is able to make a lasting impression. Every game we tested performed better but we still wouldn't recommend a Gulftown for gaming. The additional money you pay for this CPU is better spent with a high-end graphics card if it only comes down to gaming.

As expected Gulftown isn't the most economic CPU. Never the less 126 Watt in idle is a very good value for such a high-end CPU. This result is down to the shrinked structures which are now only 32 Nanometers wide. But for those expecting big numbers here we have one: under load our 980 X testsystem drew 248 Watts which is 28 Watts more than a Core i7 975.

If you are looking for the most powerful desktop CPU available then the Core i7 980 X is excatly what you want to buy. There is no other CPU these days which can be compared. Therefore we recommend this CPU to PC enthusiasts as well as overclockers who have the pocket money to buy this very nice piece of hardware.

At Digitec you can buy the Core i7 980 X to a price of CHF 1179.- (est. EUR 786.-)