Intel today expanded its 9th generation Core "Coffee Lake Refresh" socket LGA1151 desktop processor lineup with six new SKUs. The first of these will begin rolling out in stores toward the end of January 2019. These include the Core i5-9400 6-core/6-thread processor clocked at 2.90 GHz with 4.10 GHz Turbo Boost, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The company is yet to list out model names of its other five models, although these are expected to include Core i3-9350KF, Core i5-9600KF, Core i7-9700KF, and Core i9-9900KF, besides a possible Core i3-9300. The "KF" SKUs are targeted at the DIY channel and the gaming pre-built ODM market, and are expected to lack integrated graphics.

Update: Intel also revealed its Core i5-9400F processor, which has the same specifications as the i5-9400, with the exception of no iGPU. Intel's own list price for this chip is USD $182.

We've tracked the possibility of GPU-disabled 9th generation Core "Coffee Lake Refresh" processors since early December with a Q1-2019 launch target. Some of these chips are already surfacing on retailers, with Norwegian and Finnish online stores listing four chips: the Core i9-9900KF, the i7-9700KF, i5-9600KF, and the i5-9400F. There's no sign of the quad-core i3-9350KF. As mentioned earlier, these are processors with their integrated graphics either disabled or physically absent. The "KF" extension indicates that in addition to lacking an iGPU, these chips feature an unlocked base-clock multipler. The i5-9400F, on the other hand, has a locked multiplier and lacks an iGPU.

The clock-speeds of the i9-9900KF, i7-9700KF, and i5-9600KF appear identical to their iGPU-equipped siblings, with the i9-9900KF featuring 3.60 GHz nominal and 5.00 GHz Turbo Boost, the i7-9700KF featuring 3.60 GHz nominal and 4.90 GHz Turbo Boost, and i5-9600KF featuring 3.70 GHz nominal with 4.70 GHz Turbo Boost. The i5-9400F is an interesting chip, it is speed-bump over the popular i5-8400, with 2.90 GHz nominal and likely 4.20 GHz Turbo Boost. Besides slightly increase clock speeds, you get hardware fixes to certain security vulnerabilities Intel addressed with the 9th generation. The prices of these chips are off the scale, and nothing really worth mentioning.

TEAMGROUP is proudly announcing the T-FORCE has done to the apex again, work with world's Korean renown overcloker, SAFEDISK, by using the T-FORCE XTREEM DDR4 4500 MHz modules all the way grabbed the world record of SUPER PI 32m calculation, successfully beat all the powerful professional overclockers from HWBOT and all over the world. This excellent performance of T-FORCE XTREEM made the possibility of completion on SUPER PI 32m calculation within 4 minutes and 5 seconds which is unbelievably amazing!

SUPER PI is a significant DRAM module overclocking benching application, also a way to check the overall module specification stability. This time T-FORCE understands need to show the high performance and stability in front of all the users. Thus works with SAFEDISKset up the test environment including T-FORCE XTREEM DDR4 4500 MHz module, Intel Core i9 9900K "Coffee Lake Refresh" CPU and ASUS ROG Maximus IX Apex motherboard. Without a doubt, the world record has been posted at HWBOT and all over the public platform in front of everyone to be the witness of all this awesome performance record from T-FORCE module.

The successful XPC cubes model series gets a boost: With the new SH310R4, the 8th and 9th generation of the Intel Core processors is now also available in Shuttle's entry-level range making it a good-value, but yet powerful model based on "Coffee Lake".

Based on the Intel chipset H310, the XPC cube Barebone SH310R4 supports the latest Intel Core processors of the "Coffee Lake" series with socket LGA1151v2 and up to 95 Watt TDP. Therefore, even the particularly fast ones such as the i9-9900K with up to 8 cores and 16 threads can be used. Two slots on the mainboard allow a total of 32 GB of DDR4 memory to be installed.

Intel today unveiled its first clean-slate CPU core micro-architecture since "Nehalem," codenamed "Sunny Cove." Over the past decade, the 9-odd generations of Core processors were based on incrementally refined descendants of "Nehalem," running all the way down to "Coffee Lake." Intel now wants a clean-slate core design, much like AMD "Zen" is a clean-slate compared to "Stars" or to a large extent even "Bulldozer." This allows Intel to introduce significant gains in IPC (single-thread performance) over the current generation. Intel's IPC growth curve over the past three micro-architectures has remained flat, and only grew single-digit percentages over the generations prior.

It's important to note here, that "Sunny Cove" is the codename for the core design. Intel's earlier codenaming was all-encompassing, covering not just cores, but also uncore, and entire dies. It's up to Intel's future chip-designers to design dies with many of these cores, a future-generation iGPU such as Gen11, and a next-generation uncore that probably integrates PCIe gen 4.0 and DDR5 memory. Intel details "Sunny Cove" as far as mentioning IPC gains, a new ISA (new instruction sets and hardware capabilities, including AVX-512), and improved scalability (ability to increase core-counts without running into latency problems).

Intel plans to put an 8-core "Coffee Lake" CPU into a chassis with no more than 5 liters volume. Detailed earlier this month, the "Ghost Canyon" is a high-end NUC (next unit of computing) desktop which features the company's premium "Coffee Lake-HR" SoC. This chip features an 8-core/16-thread CPU and Intel UHD 620 graphics, and a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot.

Since "Ghost Canyon" is positioned above the "Hades Canyon" NUC in Intel's product stack, Intel isn't bothering to build another MCM with an 8-core CPU and an AMD discrete GPU. It could instead let the NUC feature a faster discrete GPU over an MXM slot. FanlessTech caught the first glimpse of "Ghost Canyon," a matte black box with clear Intel Extreme branding. Apart from its star attraction, "Ghost Canyon" offers up to three HDMI 2.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, M.2-2280 NVMe storage, and either PCI-Expresss 3.0 x16 interface for graphics. FanlessTech mentions this product won't be out before early-2020.

ECS has released a brand new Mini-ITX motherboard that supports 8th Gen Intel CPUs in the i3/i5/i7, Pentium and Celeron segments in the form of the H310XH5-TI. The motherboard is based on Intel's H310 chipset. Since there's no need for a souped-up VRM solution on this motherboard, there's a 4+1 phase affair present. There are 2x SO-DIMM slots with support for up to 32 GB of DDR4-2667 memory, 1x M.2-2280 slot for PCIe/SATA SSDs, 2x SATA 6 Gbps connectors, and 1x M.2 slot for a Wi-Fi/BT add-in card.

I/O wise, there are 1x GbE port (Realtek 8111H), 1x HDMI 1.4 output, 1x HDMI 1.4 input, 4x USB 3.0 Type-A connectors (two internal and two external), 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports, and 2x audio jacks. Audio is powered by Realtek's ALC662 codec and a six-channel DAC. There's also a 19VDC input for power delivery straight to the motherboard, and numerous internal headers for expansion, such as a card reader header, a webcam header, a touch board header, a camera header, and an IR sensor header, which suggest a highly-integrated system that can be more than just a small PC.

Intel is readying a curious-looking "KF" brand extension for key SKUs of its 9th generation Core "Coffee Lake Refresh" family. These SKUs include the Core i9-9900KF, the Core i7-9700KF, Core i5-9600KF, and the Core i3-9350KF. The source revealing slides from a GIGABYTE internal presentation mentioning these doesn't explain what "KF" means, but we've heard rumors on what "KF" could mean. The "K" in KF denotes that the processor features an unlocked base-clock multiplier. No points for guessing that one. The "F," however, could indicate a disabled or physically absent iGPU.

This won't be the first time that Intel has launched variants of its mainstream desktop premium SKUs with disabled iGPUs. Intel's reasons for doing so with "Coffee Lake Refresh" could be many, including harvesting dies with defective iGPU components. Physically absent iGPUs could only make sense from the perspective of increasing yields per wafer, as the dies could be around 15% smaller for the 8-core silicon, and 25% smaller for the 6-core silicon. It doesn't make sense from a purely TDP-optimization perspective, because Intel processors are capable of power-gating (and not just clock-gating) user-disabled iGPUs.

Fanless mini-PC major cirrus7 rolled out the Nimnini 2.5, cube-shaped fanless NUC powered by Intel 8th generation "Coffee Lake" ("Kaby Lake-R") SoC, specifically the Core i7-8559U. This chip features a 4-core/8-thread CPU clocked at 2.70 GHz with 4.50 GHz boost, 8 MB L3 cache, and Intel Iris Plus 655 graphics processor that has 128 MB L4 cache. cirrus7's approach to cooling this 28W TDP MCM is an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that consists of large square aluminium plates that are held together by four 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes. The outer body continues along this design scheme. The company claims the case with its included heatsink runs the i7-8559U a whole 12 °C cooler than Intel's stock fan-heatsink based case.

The base-model of the cirrus7 Nimbini 2.5 includes a Core i3-8109U dual-core SoC, and is priced at 499€. You can configure it with a Core i5-8259U quad-core for an extra 139€, and the i7-8559U for 299€ over the base price. You add your own memory and storage. The NUC board supports up to two DDR4 SO-DIMM modules, holding up to 32 GB of memory. The Nimbini holds a 2.5-inch SATA drive in addition to the NUC board's M.2 slot. The case measures 157 mm x 157 mm x 120 mm (HxDxW), weighing 2.5 kg, including the heatsink and NUC motherboard option you choose.

Intel's 6-core "Coffee Lake" die was essentially a "Kaby Lake" die with two extra cores, and no physical changes to other components, such as iGPU or uncore. With its new 8-core "Coffee Lake" Refresh silicon, Intel has turned its attention to not just increasing the core-count, but also improving the processor's integrated memory controller, in addition to hardware fixes to certain security vulnerabilities. The 128-bit wide (dual-channel) integrated memory controller now supports up to 128 GB of memory. Intel's current DDR4-capable mainstream desktop processors only support up to 64 GB, as do rival AMD's Ryzen socket AM4 processors.

Support for up to 128 GB explains the emergence of off-spec memory standards such as ASUS' Double Capacity (DC) DIMMs. Samsung is ready with a JEDEC-compliant 32 GB dual-rank UDIMM memory module for client platforms. Introduction of 32 GB UDIMMs also comes amidst reports of DRAM pricing cool-off through 2019, which could make 32 GB dual-channel memory kits consisting of two 16 GB UDIMMs more affordable. The increase in maximum memory amount could also indicate Intel's seriousness to introduce 3D Xpoint-based Optane Persistent Memory modules as alternatives to DRAM-based main memory, with higher capacities compensating for worse latencies and data-rates compared to DRAM.

GIGABYTE expanded its teething DDR4 memory lineup with a new 16 GB (2x 8 GB) dual-channel DDR4 memory kit, called simply "GIGABYTE Memory 2666MHz." These modules lack the Aorus branding featured on the company's very first DDR4 modules. You instead get 32 mm tall, 7 mm-thick modules with a restrained design, and plain GIGABYTE branding.

One area where the company refined its design is the heatspreaders, which are thicker, and have more mass to them, even if they lack finnage. GIGABYTE's module does what it says on the tin - DDR4-2666 with 16-16-16-35 timings, at 1.2 Volts. Out of the box, it packs both JEDEC and XMP SPD profiles. Memory controllers that support DDR4-2666 (such as Intel "Coffee Lake" and later), should run it at the advertised speeds without any user intervention. For older platforms, an XMP 2.0 profile helps achieve the advertised settings. The modules are backed by lifetime warranty.

Almost exactly one year after introducing six-core Coffee Lake processors alongside Z370 motherboards, Intel is back with more cores, higher clocks and the new Z390 chipset. The new 9th Generation Intel Core processor family offers up to eight cores and 16 threads of parallel processing horsepower that's perfect for content creation, heavy multitasking, and other demanding workloads. With clock speeds as high as 5GHz on the flagship Core i9-9900K, these new processors also raise the bar for gaming performance, especially if you're streaming, recording, and chatting simultaneously.

ASUS is excited to support this new generation of Intel processors with a wide variety of new motherboards based on the Intel Z390 chipset. The collection is led by a diverse cast from the Republic of Gamers that elevates gaming and overclocking to new heights. ROG Strix offers more streamlined alternatives that include a mighty Mini-ITX model, while TUF Gaming focuses on the essentials to hit more affordable price points. Outside the gaming sphere, the Prime family serves up signature ASUS features in a professional package, and the WS sets the stage for serious workstations and prosumer builds.

The Intel Z390 chipset is built for the extreme performance of Intel's first 8-Core processor for desktop motherboards. EVGA Z390 boards are designed for the purpose of everyday tasks, exceptional performance, hardcore gaming, and, of course, overclocking. Featuring EVGA's latest GUI BIOS with OC Robot and in-BIOS stress testing, the ability to flash the BIOS without a CPU, and EVGA Nu Audio, these boards offer a little something new for everyone. Although the EVGA Z390 FTW is the first board available, you should always be careful of what's waiting in the Dark….

Anand Srivatsa, Vice President of Intel, officially announced their all-new 9th generation of core processors in today's live stream. While the Coffee Lake refresh has certainly been no secret, a few facts were confirmed today. The Core i9-9900k will be Intel's first broad volume 5 GHz processor and is their first mainstream 8 core, 16 thread offering. In order to facilitate better overclocking results for enthusiasts, the company also confirmed that they will use solder TIM for the whole range of products, which should result in not only better overclocking potential but much lower thermals as well.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostics utility. Version 2.11.0 introduces support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series "Turing" graphics cards, including the RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, and RTX 2070. Support is also added for a few exotic OEM variants we discovered over the months, including GTX 750 Ti (GM107-A), GTX 1050 Ti Mobile 4 GB, Quadro P1000, Tesla P100 DGXS, GeForce 9200. From the AMD stable, we add support for "Vega 20," "Fenghuang" semi-custom SoC for Zhongshan Subor, Ryzen 5 Pro 2500U, 5 Pro 2400G, 3 Pro 2200G, 3 Pro 2300U, 3 2200GE, Athlon 200GE, and Embedded V1807B. Intel UHD 610, UHD P630 (Xeon), Coffee Lake GT3e (i5-8259U), are now supported.

Among the new features are system RAM usage sensors, temperature monitoring offsets for AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2000 series processors, and the ability to identify USB-C display output, GDDR6 memory standard, and 16 Gbit density memory chips. Several under-the-hood improvements were made, including WDDM-based memory monitoring for AMD GPUs, replacing ADL sensors that tend to be buggy. GPU-Z also cleans up QueryExternal files from your Temp folder. Grab GPU-Z from the link below.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.11.0

The change-log follows.

BIOSTAR introduces the H310MHC2 and H310MHD PRO2 entry-level motherboards with a new BOS for improved performance in gaming and VR with Windows 7 compatibility. Powered by the Intel H310 chipset, the motherboards offer gamers a well-balanced set of premium features typically found in higher-end motherboards such as a high-speed 10Gb/s M.2 support (H310MHD PRO2 only), ultra-fast USB 3.1 Gen1 ports, immersive 7.1 high-definition audio and HDMI connectivity at an affordable price range.

With its 9th generation Core processors, Intel is re-introducing soldered IHS (integrated heatspreaders), at least in its top two premium models, the Core i9-9900K, and the Core i7-9700K. Intel refers to this feature as STIM (soldered thermal interface material). AMD implements soldered IHS across its Ryzen "Summit Ridge," "Pinnacle Ridge," and Threadripper families. XFastest took apart an i9-9900K to confirm that Intel is indeed using solder. Soldered IHS is generally preferred for better heat-transfer characteristics, compared to fluid TIMs. The use of fluid TIMs prompts some serious enthusiasts to even "de-lid" (run their processors without the IHS).

The 8-core "Whiskey Lake-S" die could be around 178 mm² in area, with the addition of two more cores, and 4.5 MB more cache (L2 + L3), over its predecessor. You'll recall that the 6-core "Coffee Lake" die measures 150 mm², a 25 mm² gain over the 4-core "Kaby Lake" die. We aren't expecting Intel to change the iGPU or uncore components. Intel is building these dies on the same 14 nm++ silicon fabrication node as "Coffee Lake," with the only architectural difference being silicon-level hardening against certain security vulnerabilities.

Intel "Whiskey Lake" CPU microarchitecture recently made its debut with "Whiskey Lake-U," an SoC designed for Ultrabooks and 2-in-1 laptops. Since it's the 4th refinement of Intel's 2015 "Skylake" architecture, we wondered what set a "Whiskey Lake" core apart from "Coffee Lake." Silicon fabrication node seemed like the first place to start, with rumors of a "14 nm+++" node for this architecture, which should help it feed up to 8 cores better in a compact LGA115x MSDT environment. Turns out, the process hasn't changed, and that "Whiskey Lake" is being built on the same 14 nm++ node as "Coffee Lake."

In a statement to AnandTech, Intel explained that the key difference between "Whiskey Lake" and "Coffee Lake" is silicon-level hardening against "Meltdown" variants 3 and 5. This isn't just a software-level mitigation part of the microcode, but a hardware fix that reduces the performance impact of the mitigation, compared to a software fix implemented via patched microcode. "Cascade Lake" will pack the most important hardware-level fixes, including "Spectre" variant 2 (aka branch target injection). Software-level fixes reduce performance by 3-10 percent, but a hardware-level fix is expected to impact performance "a lot less."

Shuttle Inc., the global leader in small form factor computer technology, today announced the latest generation of its slim mini-PC series, the XH310/XH310V. The XH310 series packs Intel Coffee Lake technology, dual monitor support, and expandable drive capacity in a 3-liter small form factor chassis.

Equipped with the Intel H310 chipset and the LGA 1151v2 socket, the XH310 series supports the new wave of 8th Generation Intel Core , Pentium or Celeron processor with integrated UHD graphics; it's able to deliver multi-core performance and fulfill needs for demanding computation tasks.

Intel is giving final touches to a new generation of pre-built NUC (next unit of computing) kits codenamed "Bean Canyon." These tiny desktops are based on the company's new wave of "Coffee Lake-U" SoCs. The family includes five models, two each based on the Core i3-8109U and Core i5-8259U, and one based on the Core i7-8559U. The NUC8i3BEH, NUC8i5BEH, and NUC8i7BEH are more compact, with just an M.2-2280 (with both PCIe x4 and SATA wiring) slot in charge of storage, while the NUC8i3BEK and NUC8i5BEK are slightly taller, with room for a 2.5-inch SATA drive in addition to the M.2-2280 slot.

What's common between all five models is the display connectivity, which not just includes an HDMI 2.0b, but also a USB 3.1 type-C port with Thunderbolt 3.0 (40 Gbps) and DisplayPort 1.2 wiring. Networking, which includes a 1 GbE interface driven by the trusty i219-V, and a new-generation Intel 9260 WLAN card with 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless networking. Prices for the Core i3 model could start at $299, the Core i5-based ones could be $399, and the Core i7 based one at $599.

With no end to its 10 nm transition woes in sight (at least not until late-2019), Intel is left with refinement of its existing CPU micro-architectures on the 14 nanometer node. The client-desktop segment sees the introduction of the "Whiskey Lake" (aka Coffee Lake Refresh) later this year; while the enterprise segment gets the 14 nm "Cascade Lake." To its credit, Cascade Lake introduces a few major platform innovations, such as support for Optane Persistent Memory, silicon-level hardening against recent security vulnerabilities, and Deep Learning Boost, which is hardware-accelerated neural net building/training, and the introduction of VNNI (Variable Length Neural Network Instructions). "Cascade Lake" makes its debut towards the end of 2018. It will be succeeded in 2019 by Ice Lake the new "Cooper Lake" architecture.

"Cooper Lake" is a refresh of "Cascade Lake," and a stopgap in Intel's saga of getting 10 nm right, so it could build "Ice Lake" on it. It will be built on the final (hopefully) iteration of the 14 nm node. It will share its platform with "Cascade Lake," and so Optane Persistent Memory support carriers over. What's changed is the Deep Learning Boost feature-set, which will be augmented with a few new instructions, including BFLOAT16 (a possible half-precision floating point instruction). Intel could also be presented with the opportunity to crank up clock speeds across the board.

Intel's client desktop processor lineup is under tremendous pressure owing to competition from AMD, with the company having to roll out entire processor generations over mere 2-3 quarters. You'll recount that Intel was merrily trotting around with its barely-innovative 7th Gen "Kaby Lake" family in early 2017, when AMD stunned the industry with an outperforming product lineup. The 7th generation barely lasted its planned product cycle, before Intel rushed in a pathetic sub-$500 Core X lineup, and the 8th generation "Coffee Lake" with 50-100% core-count increases. Even that is proving insufficient in the wake of 2nd generation AMD Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge," and Intel is cutting short its product cycle with the 9th generation Core "Whiskey Lake" (or "Coffee Lake" Refresh) series, that further increase core-counts.

"Whiskey Lake" was originally planned for Q1-2019 alongside the 14 nm original Z390 chipset. Intel wasn't expecting AMD to rebound with Ryzen 2000 series (particularly the tangible IPC increases and improved multi-core boosting). And so, it decided to rush through with a new product generation yet again. The Z370 is being re-branded to Z390 (with an improved CPU VRM reference design), and what was originally meant to come out in Q1-2019, could come out by Q4-2018, at the very earliest by October. Intel reportedly planned availability sooner, but realized that distributors have heaps of unsold 8th generation Core inventory, and motherboard vendors aren't fully ready for the chip. Since getting a 9th gen Core chip doesn't warrant a new motherboard, customers would be inclined to pick up 9th generation chip with their existing boards, or any new 300-series board. This would kill the prospects of selling 8th generation Core CPUs.

Following the launch of the first XPC cube for Intel's latest processor generation, now the product family of XPC slim Mini-PCs in a 1.3-litre format welcomes a new member. Based on the Intel H310 chipset from which it also derives its name, the XPC Barebone DH310 supports Intel Core processors of the "Coffee Lake" generation with a TDP of up to 65 Watt. This even includes the versions with 6 cores and 12 threads. Reflecting this, two SO-DIMM slots permit the installation of 32 GB of DDR4 memory modules.

For the first time in this range, it is possible to support two monitors in 4K resolution with 60 Hz. For this purpose, an HDMI 2.0 and a DisplayPort 1.2 connector are available in each case. If required, despite the highly modern features, an analogue VGA connector can also be routed from the mainboard to the back of the device. Two of the three connectors can be used at the same time.

Intel is ready with pre-built NUC desktops based on its 8th generation "Coffee Lake" SoCs. The cases of these NUCs are mosty similar to those the company debuted its low-power "Gemini Lake" based NUCs with, this March. The NUC8i3BEH, NUC8i5BEH and NUC8i7BEH, differentiated by Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 chips, respectively; come in larger cases to cope with the 28-Watt TDP. In addition to a bigger heatsink, these three serve up a 2.5-inch drive bay with SATA 6 Gbps back-plane, in addition to an M.2-2280 slot that has both SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4 wiring. The slimmer NUC8i3BEK and NUC8i5BEK, differentiated by lower TDP (15 W) SoCs, lack 2.5-inch drive bays. You still get a full-featured M.2-2280 slot. Retailers hint at availability from the first week of August.

Following all of the unofficial, tentative tidbits of information following Intel's on-again, off-again 9000 series CPU lineup (which still belongs to the 8th Generation), we now have official confirmation - as is usual, through Intel's documentation. In this instance, the "culprit" is Intel's Microcode Revision Guidance. The Coffee Lake S series featuring 6+2 configurations are now listed with Core i5-9600(K), Core i5-9500(T) and the Core i5-9400, while the Core i3-9100 and Core i3-9000 SKUs are listed with a 4+2 configuration.

Update: Intel's 8th Gen Specification Update now lists clocks and core count for the aforementioned CPUs. Overall, there's an increased 100 or 200 MHz Max Turbo frequency across the board within the same TDP package, and some instances of 100 MHz base frequency increases over Intel's 8000 series CPUs (can't just call them 8th gen anymore now can we?). The 9600K, for example, increases base clocks from the 8600K by 100 MHz (up to 3.7 GHz base), but pole-vaults its predecessor in maximum Turbo (up to 4.5 GHz).