Intel’s Core i9 Extreme Edition CPU is an 18-core beast

Intel unveiled its first 10-core consumer CPU, the company's move into the world of a "megatasking." It was a pricey chip, launching at around $1,700, but it satisfied users who needed to juggle several intensive tasks at once. Now, Intel is upping the ante with a new family of processors for enthusiasts, the Core X-series and it's anchored by the company's first 18-core CPU, the i9-7980XE.

Priced at $1,999, the 7980XE is clearly not a chip you'll see in an average desktop. Instead, it's more of a statement from Intel. It beats out AMD's 16-core Threadripper CPU, which was slated to be that company's most powerful consumer processor for 2017. And it gives Intel yet another way to satisfy the demands of power-hungry users who might want to do things like play games in 4K while broadcasting them in HD over Twitch. And, as if its massive core count wasn't enough, the i9-7980XE is also the first Intel consumer chip that packs in over a teraflop's worth of computing power.