After plenty of speculation on details surrounding the 10th generation of Intel CPU, the company has finally released full details on the brand new line of Comet Lake processors. Expected to be available in May, the new lineup of chips will come in five forms: Celeron, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and Core i9. Each will have different power and performance to fit the needs of consumers.
What’s new?
To continue to keep pace with the rising factor that is AMD, Comet Lake processors will come with a number of new features and improvements over the previous Coffee Lake chips. While each will have a number of differences, you’ll also find similarities between each member of the lineup.
Each processor will support Thunderbolt™ 3 technology, 4K HDR, and Wi-Fi 6 AX201. Just know that the 10th generation lineup will require you to have a motherboard with the Intel 400 series chipset. You can find other specs on the new lineup below, including base and max frequencies.
| CORE i9 | CORE i7 | CORE i5 | CORE i3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum Base Frequency (GHz) | Up to 3.7 | Up to 3.8 | Up to 4.1 | Up to 3.8 |
| Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost Technology Single / All Core Turbo Frequency (GHz) | Up to 5.3/4.9 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 3.0 | Up to 5.2 | Up to 5.1 | n/a | n/a |
| Intel® Single Core Turbo Frequency | Up to 5.1 | Up to 5.0 | Up to 4.8 | Up to 4.6 |
| Max Number of Cores/Threads | Up to 10/20 | Up to 8/16 | Up to 6/12 | Up to 4/8 |
| Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intel® Smart Cache Size (MB) | Up to 20 | Up to 16 | Up to 12 | Up to 8 |
| Memory Type Support | Up to DDR4-2933 | Up to DDR4-2933 | Up to DDR4-2666 | Up to DDR4-2666 |
Intel also promises lower temperatures, as the company has used a thinner die and a thicker integrated heat spreader to allow for higher performance with lower risk. Of course, this also depends on your PC’s cooling setup. The Intel CPUs will, once again, not come with a stock cooler.
Intel Comet Lake and gaming
As with any new lineup of CPU, users will have their questions about performance. For many, it’s all about gaming.
According to Intel itself, the 10th gen lineup boasts the “world’s fastest gaming processor,” specifically the i9-10900K. It’s a bold claim to make, even with their attempts to back it up.
(credit: Intel)
Intel states in its release that the i9-10900K allows the following:
- Up to 187 frames per second (fps) for in-game performance while streaming and recording, and up to 63% more frames per second in gaming compared with a 3-year-old PC.
- Up to 12% faster video editing compared with the previous generation, and up to 15% faster video editing compared with a 3-year-old PC.
- Up 18% faster 4K video editing compared with the previous generation, and up to 35% faster 4K video editing compared with a 3-year-old PC.
- Up to 31% better overall system performance compared with a 3-year-old PC.
If the Core i9s fall out of your budget — they will run for $488 — then the lower-end processors may prove a bit more enticing this time around. In order to keep up with AMD’s offerings, Intel added HyperThreading into every level of CPU.
With HyperThreading, a single processor can act like two separate processors, allowing it to execute two concurrent streams of instructions sent by the operating system. This increases overall system performance and makes a CPU like the Core i5 a more viable option for gamers. That’s especially true with its max base clock of 4.1 GHz.
Pricing details
In total, Intel is launching 32 new processors under the 10th-gen lineup. Prices will range from as low as $42 to as high as $488. For a full look at all the pricing, take a look at the slides below, courtesy of Intel.
*NOTE: All prices listed are USD*
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Published: Apr 30, 2020 01:50 pm