Intel’s next-generation mainstream flagship processor will be a Core i7 CPU that sports no less than 8-cores with 16-threads, according to the latest from the rumor mill.
According to recent leaks, as reported by Wccftech.com, the 9th-generation flagship processor will be the Core i7-9700K which will up the ante to 8-cores from 6-cores (as seen in the current Coffee Lake flagship Core i7-8700K).
There isn’t any speculation regarding the other specs such as clock speeds or TDP, although Wccftech.com speculates that the 9th-gen processors will use a honed version of the current 14nm++ process. So it’ll be a Coffee Lake Refresh, effectively, not Cannon Lake which will drop down to an entirely new process (10nm).
Although even if architectural efficiency gains aren’t massive, sticking on an extra pair of cores for these top-end processors will obviously help Intel stay competitive when it comes to Ryzen’s large core counts.
Threads aplenty
There’s also further speculation that while the 9th-gen Core i5 and i3 ranges will keep the same core count as the current models, they will double up on the thread count (so Core i5 will be 6-cores, 12-threads, and Core i3 will be quad-core, 8-threads).
Take all this with a liberal sprinkling of salt as ever.
When might we see such processors, if they are indeed in the pipeline? They will apparently be launching at some point in 2018, although the report doesn’t hint at any rough timeline next year.
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