We’ve spoken here at AnandTech several times on the upcoming Z390 chipset and also a few words on new processors for those motherboards. Intel has promised a new consumer-grade launch this year, so we are patiently waiting for more information. As it turns out, some retailers get that itch early – in this case, a Vietnamese retailer has listed five processors for sale.

Intel 9000-Series CPUs
  uArch Cores/
Threads
Base Turbo L3 DRAM TDP Price
Core i9-9900K CFL-R 8C/16T 3.6 5.0 16 MB DDR4-2666 95 W -
Core i7-9700K CFL-R 8C/8T 3.6 4.9 12 MB DDR4-2666 95 W -
Core i5-9500 CFL-R 6C/6T 3.0 4.3 9 MB DDR4-2666 65 W -
Core i5-9400 CFL-R 6C/6T 2.9 4.1 9 MB DDR4-2666 65 W -
Core i3-9100 CFL-R 4C/4T 3.7 - 6 MB DDR4-2400 65 W -
8th Gen Offerings
Core i7-8086K CFL 6C/12T 4.0 5.0 12 MB DDR4-2666 95 W $425
Core i7-8700K CFL 6C/12T 3.7 4.7 12 MB DDR4-2666 95 W $370
Core i5-8600K CFL 6C/6T 3.6 4.3 9 MB DDR4-2666 95 W $258
Core i3-8350K CFL 4C/4T 4.0 - 8 MB DDR4-2400 91 W $179

There are several key points to gather from the table.

Intel doesn't seem to like multithreading anymore: when the product stack had multithreading and went up to four cores, it was easy to segment. When six core processors came along, there was a mix between 6C/6T parts in some tests being outperformed by 4C/8T parts that were cheaper. The best way to eliminate that issue is to either make all parts have HT, or none of them. Intel has gone for the latter across its stack, except at the high-end with the 8-core part. This might also have something to do with recent side channel attacks, which can take advantage of HT. Removing HT removes the attack vector, although has a knock-on effect in performance.

Intel is moving up to 8-cores: as promised, Intel is bringing 8-cores to the mainstream to compete against AMD’s 8-core Ryzen parts that have been on the market for over a year. Intel will use the Core i7 brand for 8C/8T processors, like the i7-9700K, and then the Core i9 brand for 8C/16T processors like the i9-9900K.

Cache is a commodity: For the 9000-series, it would appear that only the Core i9 will get the full 2 MB L3 cache per core, while all the others get only 1.5 MB L3 cache per core. This will have a knock-on effect as this cache is an inclusive cache, which keeps a full record of L2. In the previous generation, All Core i7 parts had a full 2 MB L3 per cache, as well as the Core i3-8350K and Core i3-8300 series.

Ignore TDP if you want Turbo: As stated several times in the past, Intel's use of TDP only refers to power consumption at the base frequency. It's going to be interesting to see how much power these chips draw under turbo.

 

Prices were not listed on the leak, and instead users have to contact the retailer. Memory support appears to be DDR4-2666 for all parts except Core i3. Also, all the parts are listed as Coffee Lake Refresh, using a 14nm class process.

Source: Hanoi Computer

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  • mgc1 - Sunday, September 23, 2018 - link

    I think thermals on the 9700k are going to be quite good because of the drop of HT
    HT was never a good perf/Watt, it was good perf/num_of_transistors only, which translates to perf/cost for them.
    For this reason I am quite interested in the 9700k. I hope it can do full 8 core load @5ghz at 140W or much less a few mhz lower, together with rumors of soldered IHS I think it will be a good buy.
    Looking forward for reviews!
  • eddman - Sunday, September 23, 2018 - link

    We've always had the option to disable HT in bios settings, so I don't see how removing an optional feature is a good thing.

    HT has a sizeable perf/watt advantage in proper multi-threaded scenarios, rendering, encoding, and alike.
  • Yaldabaoth - Monday, September 24, 2018 - link

    Why not compare like-to-like in the "8th Gen Offerings"? Please at least add the equivalent non-K parts for the i5 and i3 levels even if the K parts are not removed.
  • Kamgusta - Friday, September 28, 2018 - link

    So... no HT, 25% less cache, no "not-k" versions, old 14nm fabrication process, increased TDP, same old hardware bugs, no support for DDR4 3000 & 3200.
    Does Intel want to lose its crown? It seems so.
    It's really hard to beat the Ryzen 5 2600 at 150$.

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