Rumor / Leak: Intel's 10th generation core CPUs - Intel Core i9-10900K is the flagship

[Earvin Infinity]

13-April-2020 update:
Intel Comet Lake purported pricing details spilled, and they may cost about the same as 9th-gen desktop CPUs

As highlighted by @momomo_us, a regular hardware leaker on Twitter, purported prices on a few Comet Lake chips have been spilled by DirectDial, a Canadian retailer (and so they are in Canadian dollars, of course).

So the price for the Core i9-10900 is $679 CAD, which works out to be around $487 in US currency (about £390, AU$770). For the Core i7-10700K you're looking at $585 CAD or around $419 (about £335, AU$660), and also listed is the Core i7-10700 which is pitched at $506 CAD or around $363 (about £290, AU$575).

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9-April-2020 update:
Intel Core i9-10900K benchmarks have leaked, and it's still slower than the Ryzen 9 3900X

The latest of these is a Geekbench 5 benchmark result spotted by renowned hardware leaker TUM_APISAK, and the results are pretty interesting. Notably, it lists the maximum frequency as 5.08GHz, which is lower than the 5.3GHz that previous leaks have suggested. This leads to a multi-core score of 11,296 which isn't quite as powerful as AMD's current-generation flagship.

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Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7C98 - Geekbench Browser

Benchmark results for a Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7C98 with an Intel Core i9-10900K processor.

browser.geekbench.com

7-April-2020 update:

Intel Core i9-10900K, Core i7-10700K and Core i5-10600K marketing materials leak - VideoCardz.com

Intel Comet Lake coming April 30 Intel’s latest 14nm processor series for the mainstream desktop platform is expected this month. Our sources have confirmed that April 30, as reported by El Chapuzas Informatico, is indeed the official embargo lift date for Comet Lake-S and Z490 related content...

videocardz.com

The materials confirm that i9-10900K will boost up to 5.3 GHz with Thermal Velocity Boost technology. As we compare the details with 10700K and 10600K promos, it is apparent that Core i7 and Core i5 do not have TVB support.

The frequencies visible in the materials are in-line with Informatica Cero's slides posted more than 3 months ago. The same slides also revealed that all three SKUs are in fact 125W TDP parts.

Intel is expected to unveil its new series on April 30. Some reviewers have already told us that they are expecting Z490 motherboard samples next week. Others have decided to tease the upcoming launch on Instagram (derbauer) or Youtube (AMTECH Studio).

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VideoCardz reporting via Informatica Cero

The most high-end CPU in the Comet Lake-S lineup is the Core i9-10900K CPU with 10 cores and 20 threads. This part is confirmed to be 125W TDP SKU. This processor will feature clocks of 3.7 GHz to 5.2 GHz in boost. The new feature called Velocity Boost will unlock clock speeds up to 5.3 GHz, but only for two SKUs: 10900K and 10900 non-K.

Meanwhile, core i7-10700K is an 8-core and 16-thread CPU with clock speed up to 5.1 GHz, this part does not have Velocity Boost though.

The Core i5-10600K will boost up to 4.8 GHz with a single core. This part is a six-core and 12-thread processor.

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• NEW: Up to 5.3 GHz with Intel Thermal Velocity Boost
• NEW: Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0
• NEW: Intel Hyperthreading Technology across 10th Gen Core i9 and i3 processors
• NEW: Up to 10 cores 20M Intel Smart Cache
• NEW: Up to DDR4-2933 support
• NEW: Enhanced Core and & Memory Overclocking
• NEW: Intel 400 Series Chipset
• NEW: 2.5G Intel Ethernet Connection i225 (Foxville) support
• NEW: Integrated WiFi 6(AX201) Gig+ support using CNBR

 

[Mullet2000]

Look at all those cores and threads even on the i5s. Thank you AMD for getting your shit together and offering great competition with Ryzen. Great example of why marketplace competition is good.

 

[No_Style]

I still remember the NetBurst days when Intel was struggling to reach 4 GHz as a base clock and now they're All-core Turbo boosting beyond that with ease.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

Intel going backwards on HyperThreading with its 9th-gen desktop SKUs was mind-numbingly stupid. The 9700K being 8c/16t, and likewise for the fewer-core equivalents, would've done well to mitigate the increasingly fierce competition from AMD.

 

[Akai]

Intel going backwards on HyperThreading with its 9th-gen desktop SKUs was mind-numbingly stupid.

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Was just going to post this. Glad it's back, after it was exclusive to the i9...

 

[MegaRockEXE]

It's looking really good. Now just the pricing needs to make sense. So glad I held off on the 9th gen stuff.

 

[GemmolSwitchPS4]

Can't wait to get this

 

[Jroc]

If the Zen 3 ~10% IPC rumours are true then Intel is going to have to do some price slashing to be competitive. Adding SMT is a good start, but they're still selling less efficient and potentially worse performing products across the board. Their gaming advantage compared to Zen 2 is already negligible for the most part.

Zen 3 will be the final AM4 CPU so at least they're on even footing in terms of socket support.

 

[Kormora]

Now is it an actual launch or a paper launch. Also the power efficiency must be not great if its anything like 9900K

 

[R dott B]

Still on the fence if I want to upgrade my cpu but if the prices are decent then I might.

 

[Sectorseven]

How much will they cost?

 

[DSP]

These are honestly good products, 14nm and all that and the prices will be competitive but when you realize that you have to buy a new board for them and that board is pretty much dead end and will be abandoned very soon then it's just not worth buying into it.

125w basically means they are taking what used to be "HEDT" parts and package them for consumer sockets. The boards that can handle these well will be very expensive.

Just for perspective, those i3 are what i7s were in 2016 and 7 years prior. The magic of competition. Those should easily out perform i7 7700 which is not even that old for a CPU.

 

[Bosch]

If hits 5.3 on all cores(probably) will destroy ryzen in games. Amd need to improve clocks. Mine 3700x can't even sustain 4.2 on all clocks. Everytime I start battlefield v it freezes even with 1.45v

Just imagine what intel will do with amd when they get to 7nm

 

[Deleted member 10847]

If hits 5.3 on all cores(probably) will destroy ryzen in games. Amd need to improve clocks. Mine 3700x can't even sustain 4.2 on all clocks. Everytime I start battlefield v it freezes even with 1.45v

Just imagine what intel will do with amd when they get to 7nm

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They will not hit 5.3 on 7nm from the get go. Intel cant even get 10nm right let alone with 5ghz+ clocks (they are even backporting Willow Cove cores to 14nm aka Rocket lake). Assuming 2021 at earliest for Intel 7nm TSMC will probably be at 5nm already.

 

[Dylan]

Anyone wanna take a crack at explaining to the less processor-savvy among us what this means? How much of an improvement is it over the 9000 series?

 

[Duck Sauce]

Might sell my 9900Ks and Mobo to get the 10900K.

 

[DSP]

Anyone wanna take a crack at explaining to the less processor-savvy among us what this means? How much of an improvement is it over the 9000 series?

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This is 10900X (10c/20t) @4.9Ghz vs 9900. 10900K should be very similar overall but reaching higher clocks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BT5AhzKYYE

short version: 10 core makes no difference over 9900 at this time for gaming. For productivity, streaming etc of course it is better.

 

[Deleted member 4970]

Hyper threaded i5!

Maybe it'll be time to upgrade from my i5-8400

 

[jett]

Wow even their i3 cpus are hyperthreaded lmao

Just shows what scumbags Intel have been all this time. I can't see myself buying an Intel CPU for a very long time.

 

[Barrel_Roll]

But can it play Crysis?

I'm currently in the process of building a new PC, having grown frustrated by the limitations of my 'gaming laptop', and the current i9 series is way out of my budget, so it'll probably be a years before I have a computer with anything higher than an i7.

 

[Bashteee]

If hits 5.3 on all cores(probably) will destroy ryzen in games. Amd need to improve clocks. Mine 3700x can't even sustain 4.2 on all clocks. Everytime I start battlefield v it freezes even with 1.45v

Just imagine what intel will do with amd when they get to 7nm

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No. They won't destroy anything except your cooling solution. Pushing 10 cores at over 5ghz? Might be too much for a AIO watercooler.

Don't the Intels usually overclock now frequently to over 5ghz quite easily?
In general, there won't be much of a difference to now and AMD are working on Zen 3, too.

 

[kami_sama]

Oof. 125w for the flagships.
Considering how Intel does it's TDP calculations, this means they are hungry as fuck. 200w for the i7 parts very likely.
It seems the new parts can't go very high on clocks without turning into furnaces.

 

[WadeIt0ut]

If hits 5.3 on all cores(probably) will destroy ryzen in games. Amd need to improve clocks. Mine 3700x can't even sustain 4.2 on all clocks. Everytime I start battlefield v it freezes even with 1.45v

Just imagine what intel will do with amd when they get to 7nm

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I hardly doubt you will see much of a difference compared to a 3900x in games.

 

[Deusmico]

Thx amd

 

[sirap]

10 cores just feel like peasant mode, even at those frequencies. They'll be beasts in gaming (as usual), but my needs extend beyond gaming and the 3950x is just insane.

 

[Edgar]

10 cores just feel like peasant mode, even at those frequencies. They'll be beasts in gaming (as usual), but my needs extend beyond gaming and the 3950x is just insane.

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10 peasants? 10 peasant cores ?

 

[MrBob]

Look at all the hyper threading now. New mobos still seem to use pci 3.0 though? And of course Intel will want you to buy a new mobo more than likely.

Intel also properly reporting power usage too finally.

 

[Deleted member 7948]

Holy shit, the slowest i3 is still faster than my 7th gen i7.

 

[Remark]

If hits 5.3 on all cores(probably) will destroy ryzen in games. Amd need to improve clocks. Mine 3700x can't even sustain 4.2 on all clocks. Everytime I start battlefield v it freezes even with 1.45v

Just imagine what intel will do with amd when they get to 7nm

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You gotta stop focusing on just clock speed. With IPC improvements alone a lower clocked Zen 2 chip can match intel's current top line. If the current rumors are true about the IPC improvements to Ryzen 4000 even if they don't clock as high, AMD can still match or at least be around the same performance as these chips in single core.

 

[DSP]

If they price it at $500 same as 9900K, which they should, It beats Ryzen 9 3900. Intel cores are still better than AMDs and they reach a lot higher clocks, so 10 vs 12 probably wins and should be neck and neck with Zen 3 part.

They don't have an answer to 3950 though and that cost $750 so that's ok. But if 10900 is priced higher then, yeah what's the point.

 

[elenarie]

Very impressive if that's true. :)

 

[EsqBob]

Anyone wanna take a crack at explaining to the less processor-savvy among us what this means? How much of an improvement is it over the 9000 series?

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It's the exact same microarchitecture, so the performance is the same.
But buying the same number of cores/threads of 9th gen is now probably much cheaper.

 

[Duxxy3]

14nm 4 life!!

 

[Bosch]

You gotta stop focusing on just clock speed. With IPC improvements alone a lower clocked Zen 2 chip can match intel's current top line. If the current rumors are true about the IPC improvements to Ryzen 4000 even if they don't clock as high, AMD can still match or at least be around the same performance as these chips in single core.

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Yeah I think when 4000 series arrive I will exchange my 3700 for a 4900

 

[Deleted member 3040]

These are honestly good products, 14nm and all that and the prices will be competitive but when you realize that you have to buy a new board for them and that board is pretty much dead end and will be abandoned very soon then it's just not worth buying into it.

125w basically means they are taking what used to be "HEDT" parts and package them for consumer sockets. The boards that can handle these well will be very expensive.

Just for perspective, those i3 are what i7s were in 2016 and 7 years prior. The magic of competition. Those should easily out perform i7 7700 which is not even that old for a CPU.

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As someone not up to date, why would the board be a dead end/abandoned soon? What's around the corner?

 

[Inugami]

If the Zen 3 ~10% IPC rumours are true then Intel is going to have to do some price slashing to be competitive.

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Latest rumors via Milan (server chips with Zen 3) put the IPC gains up to 17% on mixed workloads and up to 50% on pure floating point. 10-12% is probably more realistic versus synthetics, but yeah AMD has some big changes and improvements in store for their lineup next year.

 

[JahIthBer]

14nm++++++
Man i remember being excited for Skylake, but in 2020 outside of HT being standard, it's lame, though the price/performance now is going to be great for consumers, but people hungry for a new 7nm intel line up must wait longer.

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

Why not call it Core i10 if it's the 10th gen and has 10 cores? :p

 

[sweetmini]

Thermal velocity is a terrifying marketing choice considering how hot some intel cpus got...

 

[Inugami]

If they price it at $500 same as 9900K, which they should, It beats Ryzen 9 3900. Intel cores are still better than AMDs and they reach a lot higher clocks, so 10 vs 12 probably wins and should be neck and neck with Zen 3 part.

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In many tasks, Intel loses to AMD clock for clock (though the same can be said for AMD, it's much much closer than people give credit for), so the main advantage Intel has is simply higher clocks. And indeed, they DO have higher clocks, but those higher clocks come at a cost... and that's on the high end, Intel's chips are going to require more power, and generate more heat. A lot of people won't mind that, but a lot of people will. So it's not exactly "intel cores better" unless your only metric for better is absolute best gaming performance, which to be fair some people will only care for.

 

[Squarealex]

How much will they cost?

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everything.thanos.gif

 

[caff!!!]

The perfect excuse for my next PC to be water-cooled, although I'm guessing the 10 core parts will be fuck off expensive

 

[LAA]

I did upgrade to 9700k this year but considering upgrading again next year and selling existing parts to my brother.
I dont know what to do between AMD and Intel next year if I do though. Want at least 8 cores and 16 threads for parity on consoles, but preferably more.
Good intel is boosting the cores, threads and clocks here, but worried about the potential temps on this thing. That and AMD supporting PCie4. Leaning more towards AMD honestly.

 

[Navid]

These naming conventions are terrible...

 

[wwm0nkey]

4.8-5.2ghz? Finally Crysis at okay frames

 

[Alvis]

Just curious: Are we expecting a big jump in performance for laptop 10th gen i7s? I got a new laptop very recently with an i7 9750H. It stays rock solid at 4.0 GHz all core turbo (well, MSI afterburner says something like 3988 MHz and I just assume that's 4 GHz) when playing demanding games such as RDR2, AC Odyssey, etc so I'm happy with performance. But I'm getting the feeling I got my laptop right before a big performance jump. The 9750H is 6c/12t.

 

[Yerffej]

If I was considering the 9700k for a new build, is this what I want instead for future-proofing?

 

[DSP]

As someone not up to date, why would the board be a dead end/abandoned soon? What's around the corner?

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There won't be new CPUs for it so you just bought it just for this one. In contrast, AMD is still on the same socket as in 2017 and they will release another generation for them in 2020. It is likely that this is the last 14nm++++++ part Intel releases and even if they do another one, it is either incompatible or makes no sense to upgrade to because it is absolutely at its limit. They are drawing blood from stone with these already.

In many tasks, Intel loses to AMD clock for clock (though the same can be said for AMD, it's much much closer than people give credit for), so the main advantage Intel has is simply higher clocks. And indeed, they DO have higher clocks, but those higher clocks come at a cost... and that's on the high end, Intel's chips are going to require more power, and generate more heat. A lot of people won't mind that, but a lot of people will. So it's not exactly "intel cores better" unless your only metric for better is absolute best gaming performance, which to be fair some people will only care for.

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Well, you answered yourself. Still in AVX specific loads intel has an advantage and there is no AVX-512 on Zen 2 even though that might come with some caveats on Intel, it is great benefit to applications that need. Intel parts don't have CCXs. It's a monolithic 10 core part that comes with its own advantages in latency sensitive applications, not everything works like cinebench. Memory controllers are still better on Intel as well. In tests, 10900X is neck and neck with 3900X and this one reaches notably higher clocks than that with other optimizations they have done going from cascade lake to comet-lake, it should do better. Assuming it's same price as 9900, it's pretty good honestly.

If I was considering the 9700k for a new build, is this what I want instead for future-proofing?

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Don't buy that ever, now or later. It's just a gimped over priced part. Turns out you need hyper threading now.

 

[Madjoki]

If I was considering the 9700k for a new build, is this what I want instead for future-proofing?

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9700k is probably not good choice due to lack of hyperthreading. 9900k or AMD (eg. 3700x/3900x) is only good choices for high-end.

As someone not up to date, why would the board be a dead end/abandoned soon? What's around the corner?

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Intel rarely reuses motherboards between generations. AMD is better, although their AM4 is starting to get old and probably replaced too after next gen.

 

[dgrdsv]

14nm++++++
Man i remember being excited for Skylake, but in 2020 outside of HT being standard, it's lame, though the price/performance now is going to be great for consumers, but people hungry for a new 7nm intel line up must wait longer.

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It'll be 14+++++++++++ Willow Cove-based Rocket Lake prior to anything on 7nm. And it will be interesting to watch since it'll likely have less cores than Comet Lake.