If you’ve been holding out for Intel to finally meet AMD head-on with core-crammed PC processors for the mainstream, Coffee Lake won’t disappoint you this year. Both VideoCardz and WccfTech have found evidence of octa-core Intel Coffee Lake S processors slated for post-June release.
Reportedly uncovered through leaks in benchmarking software maker Futuremark’s 3DMark database, not much is known about these processors beyond base clock speeds, which could change, and the vastly more important core count. If all pans out, you’re looking at Intel Coffee Lake S processors capable of driving eight cores at a 2.2GHz frequency with what appears to be a 16MB cache.
Of course, neither the processor’s test scores nor more specific information is available at this time. Regardless, this is an excellent sign of Intel’s intent to compete with AMD in the high-end mainstream processor space for gamers and other hobbyist consumers with money to burn.
Intel’s no stranger to the core craze, but in mainstream?
Last year, we definitely saw Intel release an 18-core beast of a processor in the Core i9-7980XE, but that was based on Intel’s larger 22nm architecture, as well as its X299 chipset and motherboard series, and cost nearly thousands.
On its more modern 14nm process, Intel was only able to get as far as hexa-core processors in 2017, led by the award-winning, Z370-based Core i7-8700K for more than a thousand less. While that was able to trounce AMD Ryzen’s best in our tests, Intel clearly isn’t about to let that momentum die out.
That’s what makes this finding so significant, that octa-core Intel processors are within reach of prospective PC builders for prices that, while still exorbitant, aren’t prohibitively so. However, it's expected that these new processors will be compatible only with the upcoming Intel Z390, also featured within this database leak – so it'll likely be a bit pricier to get in on these processors than just the cost of the chip.
According to these reports, we should expect to see Coffee Lake S land on shelves in the second half of 2018.
- How will this shift the endless battle of AMD vs Intel?
