Trio of Intel Coffee Lake hexa-core CPUs leaked

[HEXUS]

The launch of these 14nm processors is expected to be 'just around the corner'.

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[3dcandy]

Running scared Intel?

[cptwhite_uk]

I'm so happy for AMD that Intel are struggling to respond this time. We need this competition in the market.

[The Hand]

A modest Ryzen price drop might be on the cards.

[kingpotnoodle]

Running scared Intel?

I'm so happy for AMD that Intel are struggling to respond this time. We need this competition in the market.

CPU development cycles are years in the making so this isn't a response to the AMD Ryzen surprise. It was only logical Intel would eventually need to add cores to i7 to keep up the performance increases, adding clock speed and optimisations is increasingly hard.

It makes sense that we'd see i7 with 6 cores, i5 with 4 and i3 with 2. Will be interesting to see if Intel can manage to clearly segment like that and what will happen with Hyperthreading and GPU.

[shaithis]

They will probably put the best iGPs in the hex cores while leaving the i3s with the lowest....

[3dcandy]

CPU development cycles are years in the making so this isn't a response to the AMD Ryzen surprise. It was only logical Intel would eventually need to add cores to i7 to keep up the performance increases, adding clock speed and optimisations is increasingly hard.

It makes sense that we'd see i7 with 6 cores, i5 with 4 and i3 with 2. Will be interesting to see if Intel can manage to clearly segment like that and what will happen with Hyperthreading and GPU.

The flipside is they could have done this years ago then....

[kingpotnoodle]

The flipside is they could have done this years ago then....

Of course they could, there have been 6 core CPUs with reasonable TDP in the HEDT and Xeon range for a long time. They have tended to be slower clocked of course, and for most consumers more MHz has been better than more cores.

[lumireleon]

ALL RYZEN chips are overclockable. Just enabling a software firmware to 'K' edition costs money on the intel side. Then we say intel is loyal to customers with the same old 14nm chips.

[3dcandy]

Of course they could, there have been 6 core CPUs with reasonable TDP in the HEDT and Xeon range for a long time. They have tended to be slower clocked of course, and for most consumers more MHz has been better than more cores.

So I say again... running scared Intel? If this isn't a direct response to AMD then I'm a one-legged donkey with alzheimers

[kompukare]

CPU development cycles are years in the making so this isn't a response to the AMD Ryzen surprise.

Yes, but once the decision has been made (to offer consumer 6 core dies), making changes in terms of SKUs is trivial. After all, Intel only make a limited amount of die types. But the 'random fuses' they blow to segment the market are something they could quickly change.

For instance, taking the dual-core dies: with Skylake the Pentium segment had the HT feature fuse blown, in Kabylake it is not. Chances are that Intel only really make one dual core die for everything from dual-core-with-HT mobile i7s to desktop and mobile Celerons. So assuming their yields are good (and they should be as Intel are still just about the best fab and 14nm is old now), 'creating' Pentiums or even Celerons with HT is as easy as just not blowing certain fuses.

Pre-Ryzen the intention might have been to make one or two six-core i7 'K' models at a premium to the 7700K, but now they might be forced to offer more like six-core i5 etc.

[Xlucine]

...Pre-Ryzen the intention might have been to make one or two six-core i7 'K' models at a premium to the 7700K, but now they might be forced to offer more like six-core i5 etc.

Which explains the overclockable 6-core 95W chip that only boosts to 3.6GHz