On various overclocker forums, there are screenshots of an alleged follow-up dubbed Core i7-995X, upping the clock speed to 3.6GHz as default clock. Other than that it’s still the same chip, but to be honest – currently, there is no faster desktop CPU than Intel’s Gulftown. Due to its lower price point, Intel’s more recent Sandy Bridge CPUs are more popular among most enthusiasts, but this chip is only available in quad-core SKUs. People craving for more cores have to resort to the outdated Gulftown core based on the Nehalem/Westmere microarchitecture. As we have reported earlier, the high-end replacement will only arrive in the fourth quarter, based on Sandy Bridge.
The 995X is supposed to launch in the summer timeframe, which is coincidentally when AMDs Bulldozer based AMD FX high-end CPUs should hit the market. There is a writing on the wall, as ASUS and others already hit the marketing drum with motherboard support, NVIDIA readies SLI for Bulldozer, Intel cranks out more and more competitive chips although from a present viewpoint that wouldn’t be necessary. At this point there are still many unknown variables, but the industry seems to be gearing up for a massive CPU battle this summer.
According to AMD, their 32nm manufacturing at GlobalFoundries seems to be up and running so stay tuned for more as we approach the impending launches.