During recent announcement of Core X-series (Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X), Intel decided not to talk much about the release dates. And if the release date of processors’ with core count up to 10 and including can be predicted with certain accuracy in foreseeable future, it was an absolute mystery when to expect 12-, 14-, 16-, and 18-core models. The only one who shed at least some light was ASUS, who declared on the forum for ROG motherboard owners that 18-core Intel i9-7980XE will appear on the market by the end of this year at best.
It can be expected that platform LGA 2066 (Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X processors’ socket) will be implemented only of few high-end desktop computers and motherboards. At the same time, Kaby Lake-X Core i5-7640X and Core i7-7740X with four cores, Skylake-X Core i7-7800X with 8 cores and Core i9-7900X with 10 cores will be released. The details of these models have already been published in Intel’s web-site and estimated release is due the second quarter of 2017.