Tuesday, August 1st 2017
Intel Readies Four 6-core "Coffee Lake" SKUs, Including Two Core i5
Intel is beginning to feel the pinch of AMD Ryzen 7-series, and the upper-end of the Ryzen 5-series, which offer better multi-threaded performance than similarly-priced quad-core Intel Core i7 and Core i5 "Kaby Lake" processors, and reasonably good single-thread performance, and platform costs. The company is responding in force with four new six-core SKUs, and for the first time since "Nehalem," the company isn't changing the socket with the introduction of its third mainstream-desktop micro-architecture on a given process. The 8th generation Core "Coffee Lake" mainstream-desktop processors will be built in the existing LGA1151 package, and will hopefully support existing motherboards through BIOS updates, even though Intel plans a new 300-series chipset to go with these chips.
The six-core "Coffee Lake" processor lineup addresses not just the higher-end of the lineup with Core i7 SKUs, but also the mid-range of it, with Core i5 SKUs. One of these could even scrape the sub-$200 price-point. Of the four confirmed SKUs are the top-dog Core i7-8700K, its slightly cheaper sibling, the Core i7-8700 (non-K); and the Core i5-8600K, with its cheaper sibling, the Core i5-8400. Of these the i7-8700K and i5-8600K are unlocked. The Core i7 parts feature HyperThreading enabling 12 logical CPUs for the OS to deal with, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache; while the Core i5 parts lack HyperThreading, and only feature 9 MB of L3 cache. The clock speeds and other features are tabled below. The company plans to launch these four either by the end of Q3 (late-September) or some time in Q4, before Holiday.
Source:
Anandtech Forums
The six-core "Coffee Lake" processor lineup addresses not just the higher-end of the lineup with Core i7 SKUs, but also the mid-range of it, with Core i5 SKUs. One of these could even scrape the sub-$200 price-point. Of the four confirmed SKUs are the top-dog Core i7-8700K, its slightly cheaper sibling, the Core i7-8700 (non-K); and the Core i5-8600K, with its cheaper sibling, the Core i5-8400. Of these the i7-8700K and i5-8600K are unlocked. The Core i7 parts feature HyperThreading enabling 12 logical CPUs for the OS to deal with, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache; while the Core i5 parts lack HyperThreading, and only feature 9 MB of L3 cache. The clock speeds and other features are tabled below. The company plans to launch these four either by the end of Q3 (late-September) or some time in Q4, before Holiday.
107 Comments on Intel Readies Four 6-core "Coffee Lake" SKUs, Including Two Core i5
IMO Threadripper should have started with 10 cores 20 threads at ~$550 so there would have been no overlap with RyZen 7. Also, the reality is that buying into a HEDT platform just for playing games is generally unwise from a cost / performance perspective and now that AMD has a HEDT offering that hasn't changed.
Threadripper may also not perform as well as hoped or expected with respect to games similar to what happened with the RyZen 7 introduction. That's not to say it won't be a decent gaming platform but a 6 core 12 thread Coffee Lake processor with 4.7GHz boost may be cheaper and may perform better.
It might have a paper launch in Q3, but don’t expect any reasonable availability till end of Q4. Considering Intel-s Q4/2016 roadmaps, there were no plans for a mainstream six-core till at least Q4/2018 (even that is vague). So this deviation means it’s at a minimum 1.5 years earlier than planned. How that will affect platform maturity and features, remains to be seen.
I also don’t expect it will support older chipsets. It’s already amazing that it doesn’t have a new package, but I guess that is the result of lack of time. I do hope, the 300-series chipset finally brings with it PCIe 4.0. It has been long overdue, and considering the latest news it looks like it’s spec are going to be finalised this year.
CFL = Coffee Lake
Rumours and “leaks” about CFL only really started to surface after July 2016.
Even those were all over the place, and were mostly showing CFL being a mobile only platform.
Heck, you had “leaks” about it being 10nm as late as 12/16, but now we know they are yet again reusing 14nm.
This marks a historic fourth arch on the same process for Intel.
Before that you had CL, which early on did state Q4/17-Q1/18, but later on it became obvious it’s not going to happen, because off all the issues.
It was also clear a new socket would come along with it.
It all depends on how you look at it. It’s clear though, they are rushing things out, and not because it was planned like that.
Doesn't mean i don't want 4.0 to happen, i'm also hoping it will land on the Z300 platform because i will most likely be upgrading to Coffee Lake.
Where it’s important for consumers is storage, and off course the influence on all the future hardware.
More specifically M.2, which is becoming the de facto standard. Large part thanks to the slow progression in a new SATA standard, and the SATA Express failure.
As you know M.2 is equivalent to 4x PCIe, so about 3.9GB/s. The 960 PRO is already rated for 3,4GB/s, and EVO 3,12GB/s.
I was planning on building a new rig last year, but both the 200 series chipset and Kaby Lake were a disappointment. The sucky chipset was actually the main reason why I didn’t do it. Seeing as AMD was just plain shit, unless talking budget/low end, and my system is still running just fine I decided to wait it out.
Glad I did. Still haven’t upgraded though, since memory, GPU, and partially SSD, prices are through the roof.
Guess 2018 will finally be the year.
i7-8700K and i7-7800X($389) offers great competition to Ryzen 7 1800X (~$499) / Threadripper 1900X ($549), with 30% higher IPC and higher boost.
Core-for-core Skylake-X is slower than Ryzen at gaming, let alone most other applications:
Though if there was already a micro atx board for x299 i would have already jumped on it.
Could turn out to be the most power gaming CPU, and it will have support for 3-way crossfire.
While I don’t have high expectations of CFL being different than Kaby, I do expect Intel finally stepping up their game with the 300-series chipset. With R7 1700/1700x selling for 269$/299$, and no need for an expensive motherboard in case you want to OC, it’s hard to justify paying more. Especially for 6/12, unless it’s that much more powerful OR the chipset has that much more going for it.
Just don't pre-order, at least not on the ground off all the “leaks”/rumours/hype ... Rather wait till the reviews are out, and all the early kinks are known.
Besides that, seriously look at AMD this time around. Not because you’re supporting the underdog, but because they have a quality product.
It also supporting competition, which in turn supports innovation. :love:
Threadripper : x399 motherboard 380$ + 1900x 550$ = 930$
Skylake x : x299 motherboard 260$ + 7820x 590$ = 850$
I know the difference is "only" 80$ but i really don't need 60 lanes and never will.
But yeah, tell yourself the -15% IPC and 50% higher power usage is worth the $80 lol
If Ryzen is any indication, then TR prices should go down/get a nice discount quite fast.
Not much choice in the motherboards department atm anyway.
I’ll wait till CFL comes out, and see how things develop. Not in a hurry, so maybe I’ll even wait till Zen+.
Also Coffee Lake is a brand old SkyLake and Intel's new uArch is at least a year away - so I see no problem in releasing Coffee Lake parts so "early".