At a closed-session partner in China, Intel revealed a number of preliminary details about its upcoming 8th generation Core processors for desktops. As expected, Intel is telling its business customers that is increasing core count of its CPUs for mainstream PCs in a bid to drive performance, catalyze upgrades and better compete against its rival.

Intel has previously unveiled that they're working on what will be their 8th Generation Core processors. What has been rumored for a while (and what Intel yet has to publicly confirm) is increased core counts for the 8th Gen desktop parts. This week Chiphell, a China-based website, published a picture taken from a partner briefing event, which briefly describes the advantages of Intel’s 8th gen Core CPUs vs the company’s 7th gen Core chips.

According to two separate external sources with knowledge of the matter, the slide is up-to-date and genuine.

Intel is stating that the increased number of cores and enlarged caches will be the key improvements of the 8th Gen desktop parts, compared to their direct predecessors. In particular, the event speaker explained that the next-gen Core i7-8000 series CPUs will gain two additional cores to give six cores with Hyper-Threading. At the top end, it was stated that these will be at 95W and 65W TDPs for unlocked and regular SKUs respectively. The Core i5 series will also get two additional cores, but no Hyper-Threading. As for the Core i3 parts, these parts will lose Hyper-Threading, but instead move into the traditional i5 space, giving four cores only. Intel stated that they will also continue to offer unlocked CPUs within its i7, i5 and i3 families, and such processors will feature higher frequencies and a 95 W TDP (compared to the 65 W thermal envelope for their regular parts).

Update 9/15: Adding previously unknown frequencies.

Basic Specifications of Intel Core i5/i7 Desktop CPUs
7th Generation 8th Generation
  Cores Freq.
(Base)
L3 TDP   Cores Freq.
(Base)
L3 TDP
i7-7700K 4/8 4.2GHz 8 MB 91W i7-8700K 6/12 3.8GHz 12MB 95W
i7-7700 3.6GHz 65W i7-8700 3.2GHz (?) 65W
i5-7600K 4/4 3.8GHz 6 MB 91W i5-8600K 6/6 3.6GHz (?) 9 MB 95W
i5-7400 3.0GHz 65W i5-8400 2.8GHz 65W
i3-7350K 2/4 4.2GHz 4 MB 60W i3-8350K 4/4 4.0GHz 6MB 95W
i5-7100 3.9GHz 51W i3-8100 3.6GHz 65W

As it stands, three things remain unclear about the 8th generation Core processors for desktops. The first one is the integrated graphics configuration of the company’s upcoming parts, as it may be important if Intel increases their GPU core counts to keep performance growing. The second one is the CPU core configuration of the future Pentium SKUs. In the case of Kaby Lake-based Pentiums, Intel enabled Hyper-Threading technology to match the Core i3 parts, blurring the line between the i3-7000 and the Pentium G4600-series parts. Third is if there are any adjustments to the pricing structure.

What will be interesting is the fact that Intel has lost the 4C/8T level of hardware. By moving the Core i5 to a six-core, any 4C/8T component has the potential to surpass a 6C/6T in certain tests. 

Intel did not supply us with this information. Intel traditionally does not comment on information it reveals to partners behind closed doors. More importantly, the information should be considered as preliminary as the company has been known to change product specifications close to launch, even on final engineering samples to retail. Even though the 8th generation Core processors would already need to be in production in order to meet Intel's 2017 goals, last minute changes are always on the table. Similarly, Intel has a lot of latitude in deciding when to actually launch their parts, particularly lower-volume desktop parts.

Related Reading:

Source: ChipHell

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  • Notmyusualid - Saturday, August 19, 2017 - link

    Have YOU known of Ryzen two years ago?

    I expect not. So I imagine AMD did well to keep their 'cards close to their chest'.
  • baka_toroi - Saturday, August 19, 2017 - link

    Yes, in a way. Everybody knows what Jim Keller joining AMD meant: a guaranteed success. So it's obvious Intel was preparing something better from the get-go.
  • Notmyusualid - Sunday, August 20, 2017 - link

    At the risk of being moderated, I think you are talking shite pal.
  • zodiacfml - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link

    True. CPU fans should know this. AMD and Intel know each others plans more than we can ever know. Intel's current situation is a choice they made.
  • jiffylube1024 - Thursday, August 24, 2017 - link

    You don't think Intel heard through the grapevine about Zen's potential years ago? Such as this public slide presentation from April 2015:
    http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/amd-zen-architect...

    Zen was being talked about back in 2014, and Intel probably heard inklings even back then about its potential. Remember AMD was doubly hamstrung by old/inefficient architecture and TSMC and GloFo being behind in manufacturing nodes compared to Intel. Intel had to be prepared for the eventuality that they could get caught up, especially if Intel started having issues shrinking down to 10nm, etc.
  • Notmyusualid - Saturday, August 19, 2017 - link

    Understood, I'm on X99 too.

    Had any 'fun' with the platform too? Memory issues, other hard-as-hell issues to trace?
  • eSyr - Friday, August 18, 2017 - link

    Not really, i3 traditionally lacks proper AES-NI support, to say the least.
  • extide - Monday, August 21, 2017 - link

    I think as of Haswell and later you get AES-NI on i3 and above, instead of just i5 and above.
  • soliloquist - Friday, August 18, 2017 - link

    So there may finally be a compelling reason to upgrade from Sandybridge.
  • ddriver - Friday, August 18, 2017 - link

    Doubt it will be worth it. You are gonna get like what, 30% improvement?

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