Intel has just unveiled their new line of CPUs based on the Broadwell architecture. The Broadwell-E chips are branded as Core i7 Extreme Editions that offers up to 10 cores in one CPU.
While Broadwell is one generation behind the current Skylake architecture found on newer PCs, it is the first to incorporate the 14nm manufacturing process that Skylake is now using. Apparently Broadwell was only focused for laptops at the time, but the decision to skip making desktop processors until the arrival of Skylake was later regretted.
Putting that aside, the new i7 Extreme Edition chips are a huge improvement in performance compared to the current i7 chips in the market. Intel is claiming that these new chips, which also comes in the 6 or 8 cores variety, have significant improvements for 4K and VR content. Improvements for multi-threaded performance and multi-tasking are also significant, going up to twice as fast as a 4-core i7 chip and a 25% boost to 4K gaming whilst streaming on Twitch.
There will be four variants of the new i7 Extreme Edition, the i7 6800K and 6850K are 6 core variants with base clock speeds at 3.4 and 3.6 GHz respectively starting at $412 USD. The 8-core i7 6900K priced at $999 USD and the highest end, the 10-core i7 6950X is priced at $1599 USD.
Yes, these are all enthusiast-level products. If the high asking price is not a problem and you are considering a CPU upgrade in the near future, then you should really look forward to the new i7 Extreme chips, available soon.