Not long ago, AMD and Intel were known for competing with one another to see who could design a CPU with the highest clock speed. Nowadays, the two tend to instead compete on how many cores and thread capabilities they can cram into one processor.
However, a rumor has been spreading across the internet that Intel might be pushing for a 5.1 GHz stock clock on its new Xeon Series Broadwell-EP CPUs. While Xeon has typically been used for workstations or servers, the chips occasionally find themselves in some of the most powerful gaming rigs.
The rumor of a 5.1 GHz processor hitting shelves came from a Chinese website that stated the following:
“Intel is planning to launch a default frequencies up to 5.1GHz of special products , thereby creating history, the highest in the history not only Intel, but also beyond the AMD FX-9590, even if the latter is to accelerate the frequency only 5.0GHz, reference to 4.7GHz.”
MyDrivers.com (translation via Google Translate)
The other specs of the Xeon chips are for the most part unknown. However, the Xeon E5-2602 v4 is rumoured to have 4 cores with 8 threads each, a 10MB cache, and use a 165W power load. Don’t expect these chips to be cheap as chips of this calibre have been known to sell for prices around the $1,500 mark, and so it will likely remain an unrealistic choice for most gamers.
If this rumor turns out to be true, I will be happy. Not because I can afford these processors, but rather because it means that somewhere along the line they will bump down the prices of expensive 4.0 GHz processors. That’s just how technology rolls, after all!
