Intel's mighty Core i7-980X six-core monster has only been out for a short while, but word is beginning to circulate of an even higher performing model to push it off the podium later this year.

Apparently Intel is planning for a Core i7-990X to hit town sometime in the fourth quarter of the year. This Extreme Edition chip will be 32nm manufactured with 8MB of L3 cache, unlocked multi, six cores/12 threads and a clock rate not yet confirmed, but inevitably higher than the existing 3.33GHz part and costing the Earth for ownership.