Chinese CPU maker Zhaoxin manages to match Intel's Core i5-7400 with the KX-6000 octa-core

Zhaoxin Semiconductor, a relatively new CPU maker jointly owned by venerable company VIA and the Chinese government, was announcing back in 2018 that it intends to become a serious competitor for Intel and AMD. Back then, Zhaoxin started the development of a 16 nm octa-core CPU named KX-6000, claiming that it could match Intel’s mid-range desktop CPUs.

One year later, the company is now producing the Windows-compatible KX-6000 chip clocked at 3.0 GHz and initial tests reveal that it is as fast as Intel’s i5-7400 quad-core 14 nm CPU, a chip released more than 2 years ago. Still, this is a significant achievement, as it brings China closer to breaking away from the U.S. interdependence, especially now with the trade wars between the two states reaching critical points.

Besides desktop CPUs, Zhaoxin also produces mobility chips that can already be found in some budget Lenovo models. Additionally, the Chinese company plans to enter the server market with the KH-40000 series scheduled to be produced using TSMC’s 7 nm node in the near future. To prove that it can also build competitive server and desktop CPUs, Zhaoxin intends to integrate PCIe 4.0 and DDR5 RAM support in its upcoming models, so we could expect to see these updated processors by mid-2020, as soon as the DDR5 standard gains more traction.

There is no relevant info on pricing for the time being, but, since these CPUs are meant to be sold primarily in China, prices are expected to be considerably lower than Intel's offer.