Intel Comet Lake Specs Leak – 10 cores, New Socket and 14nm+++

Intel needs an answer to AMD’s Zen 2 series of processors, a product which will enable them to combat the coming onslaught of Ryzen 3rd Generation processors. Today, Intel’s consumer chipset offers users up to eight cores, whereas AM4 is set to support up to 16-core processors, moving Intel out of its top spot in the CPU market. 

10nm isn’t ready yet, at least not for desktop processors. Right now, Intel is focusing its 10nm efforts on mobile platforms, a market segment where AMD has no 7nm offerings, securing Intel the high-end mobile marketplace while leaving their desktop and server divisions to make do with their refined 14nm manufacturing. This limits Intel’s options in the desktop space, but newly leaked specifications are hinting at plans to release a new desktop socket with larger processors than ever before. 

Later this year, or in early 2020, Intel is expected to release Comet Lake, a new series of 14nm processors which are designed to utilise a new socket called LGA 1159. Looking at the specifications below, Intel is taking a leaf out of AMD’s Ryzen handbook and plans to offer hyperthreading on all of their new CPU models, as well as official support for DDR4 3200MHz memory on i5 or higher SKUs. 

On the high-end Comet Lake is set to deliver users up to 10 cores and 20 threads with boost clock speeds of up to 5.2GHz. At this time Comet Lake is thought to offer the same CPU core design as Coffee Lake, but offer more cores at the cost of the component’s iGPU, leaving the company’s 10-core offerings as a CPU-only product. 

The 10th Generation i9-10900KF is said to be a 10-core CPU without an iGPU, which means that Intel has traded their iGPU die space for more CPU cores. If the leak below is true, this new 10-core processor will compete with AMD’s 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X and cost $499.