Intel 10th Gen Desktop CPU Launched: Up to 10 Cores/20 Threads and a new LGA1200 Socket

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    Intel’s entire 10th Gen desktop lineup has apparently been leaked (somehow) with all the CPU details, chipset, socket as well as the I/O. There’s a lot of data to sift through so let’s get started. First and foremost, let’s have a look at the Comet Lake-S product stack.

    Thankfully, it seems that Intel is going to retain the nomenclature and naming scheme. The lower-end i3s and midrange i5s & i7s will be getting hyperthreading (double the number of threads compared to Coffee Lake-S) while the enthusiast-grade i9s will be getting a bump in the core count to 10 (from 8).

    The specs are largely identical to Coffee Lake and other than the chipset, not much has changed. All the Comet Lake-S parts seem to have gotten a slight frequency bump and as already mentioned hyperthreading is now enabled across the board.

    The single-socket Xeon W range is also getting a chipset update. It’s worth noting that these are the same as the higher-end i7 and i9 mainstream offerings with professional features such as ECC, encryption and other embedded features.

    The new LGA1200 socket won’t be compatible with the older Coffee Lake parts and will feature a higher pin-count. Furthermore, the slides also claim an improved power delivery and I/O. I get the feeling that the succeeding Ice Lake-based desktop processors won’t need a socket update (fingers crossed).

    The memory support for Comet Lake is also identical to Coffee Lake with support for DDR4 RAM and dual-channel memory up to 32GB. The speeds are also retained with little to no change.

    Overall, Intel is claiming an increase of up to 18% in multi-threaded workloads. I reckon this is thanks to the introduction of hyperthreading across the entire lineup. As for the Windows Application 8% boost, my best bet would be the slight frequency bump (and HT?).

    Looking at the platform overview for Comet Lake-S, Intel is claiming small but consistent boosts in every segment from memory to threads, PCIe lanes and even the connectivity. This may not look like much but if paired with aggressive pricing, it’ll be just what Intel needs to tackle the Ryzen threat. The Coffee Lake parts already excel in gaming and single-threaded workloads. Add to that hyperthreading, higher clocks and more cores, and you’ve got a potent (albeit stale) solution to AMD’s 7nm offerings.

    This may seem like a major leak and somewhat hard to digest, but all the details line up with what we’ve been hearing over the past few months. We’ll be sure to update you as we hear more.

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