10 core Intel Core i9 10000 X Cascade Lake-X processor outscores the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X in Geekbench; 16% faster than the Intel Core i9-9900K in multi-core workloads

As we covered earlier this week, Cascade Lake-X (CSL-X) is Intel's next High-End Desktop (HEDT) series, and further refines upon its 14 nm processes. We have already seen a 10 core CSL-X chip on UserBench and an 18 core variant scoring well on Geekbench, with the former emerging on the latter benchmark too.

Geekbench identifies the 10 core processor as a GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 85 Stepping 7, the same subset of chips to which its 18 core sibling also belongs. Skylake-X also identifies as a GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 85, with Intel distinguishing the two series by assigning Skylake-X as Stepping 4. Incidentally, the 10 core CSL-X processor has been tested in a Dell Precision 5820 Tower PC, the identical model as the 18 core equivalent on which we reported earlier this week.

@momomo_us, the leaker that brought both CSL-X Geekbench postings to our attention, has also tweeted information seemingly confirming that Intel has named Cascade Lake-X the Core 10000 X series. This should come as no surprise considering that it named its predecessors the Core 9000 X series.

The 10 core Intel Core 10000 X processor, also referred to as an Intel 0000 on Geekbench, supports Intel Hyper-Threading and has 19.3 MB of L3 cache along with 10 MB of L2 cache. Moreover, Geekbench reports that the CPU has a 3.39 GHz base clock and can boost up to 4.59 GHz. All this points towards this chip succeeding the Core i9-9900X, with also having 10 cores, 10 MB of L2 cache and 19.25 MB of L3 cache. The Core i9-9900X has a 3.5 GHz base clock and can boost up to 4.5 GHz, which essentially match that of its 10 core successor too. Moreover, according to a photo shared by @momomo_us, Intel has increased the number of PCIe lanes available to its latest HEDT series from 44 to 48.

In short, it appears as though we are looking at the Intel Core i9-10900 X, or the Core i9-10990 X if Intel inexplicably decides to shake up its naming scheme. The CPU achieved a single-core score of 5,019 points, which puts it just shy of its 18 core sibling, putting it just ahead of the Ryzen 7 2700X according to our database. While this is not particularly impressive, it scored 37,241 points in the corresponding multi-core benchmark, which would put it second place in our database behind the Ryzen 9 3900X and ahead of the Ryzen Threadripper 2950X. It also scored around 16% more than the Core i9-9900K.

Overall, the Core 10000 X series may prove another minor refinement of Intel's 14 nm HEDT series. While it may triumph against the current crop of AMD competitors, we doubt that will be the case from the Zen 2 based Threadripper series.