Intel 10th-generation Comet Lake PC processors announced

Intel 10th-generation Comet Lake PC processors announced

HIGHLIGHTS

• Intel has launched the 10th-generation Comet Lake processors.
• The top-end Core i9-10900K costs $448 while its low-end variant costs $439.
• There are new Pentium and Celeron processors as well.

Intel is expanding its processor lineup with the 10th-generation CPUs that are touted to be the "world's fastest gaming processor." The chipmaker has announced the launch of the 10th-generation Comet Lake processor series include Pentium, Celeron, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and Core i9 variants, which are total 32 in number. The top-end processor variant has 10 cores and can offer a turbo clock speed of 5.3GHz. While the overall performance and a maximum 125W TDP, Intel is using the 14nm manufacturing technology, which was used on the last-generation Coffee Lake series, which itself was an improvement over the Skylake microarchitecture.

With the Comet Lake processors, Intel is promising big enhancements, especially to gamers, pitching the top-level performance of the high-end Core i9-10900K variant that comes with 10 cores, 20 threads, and a 125W TDP. This is enough to convince gamers but the competition is measuring up with up 16 cores and the 7nm manufacturing technology for its processor. It is also strange on the company's part since Intel's own Ice Lake chipsets, which was launched in 2019, use the 10nm architecture.

But since Intel's top-end Core i9 processor has a base frequency of 3.7GHz and supports HyperThreading, it should not be Herculean task for processors to support heavy and resource-intensive gaming. The Intel Core i9-10900K costs $488 (roughly Rs 37,000). There are other variants in the family, including the low-end Core i9-10900T with a TDP of 35W and a base frequency of 1.9GHz, but can be boosted all the way up to 3.7GHz. It costs $439 (roughly Rs 33,300).

Intel has a lineup of processors under each family. The Intel Core i7-10700K sits atop all other variants in the family with a base frequency of 3.8GHz, eight cores, 16 threads, a TDP of 125W, and HyperThreading. It has a boost speed of 5.1GHz. The model costs $374 (roughly Rs 28,000). The Intel Core i5-10600K is another unlocked chip variant that has six cores, 12 threads, a base frequency of 4.1GHz, a boosted speed of 4.8GHz, and a 125W TDP. It costs $262 (approximately Rs 20,000). Then there is the Core i3-10320 that sits atop its junior siblings in the family. It has four cores with a base clock speed of 3.8GHz, which can be boosted to 4.6GHz. It has a 65W TDP and costs $154 (roughly Rs 11,700).

Intel's entire 10th-generation Comet Lake Core chipset family supports HyperThreading, which means the product stack will be better understood by the processors. The Pentium and Celeron processors have dual cores and lack Hyper-Threading. The average TDP for chipsets is 65W, however, a maximum of 320-350W TDP can be reached if manufacturers customise the chipsets accordingly.

The high-end chips use what is called the Turbo Boost Max 3.0 and the Thermal Velocity Boost technologies. The former will increase the clock speed on a favoured core to the maximum when the temperature is at 70 degree Celsius or lower. The favoured core works in isolation to render the full performance. But its working would depend on sufficient power supply to the machinery. The Turbo Boost Max 3.0 was previously seen on the X-series family of Intel Core processors. The latter, Thermal Velocity Boost manages the overloads on the cores by increasing the frequency, although temporarily, at least until the temperature threshold is not exceeded. The new chipsets support DDR4-2933 memory and up to 2.5-gigabit Ethernet, alongside support for Wi-Fi 6.