https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/james-dawson/could-intel-be-on-the-verge-of-releasing-a-cheaper-10th-gen-core-i9/
 
Various sources around the industry have been reporting that Intel may be prepping a new 10^th generation 10-core part this week, after an entry in the Geekbench platform was spotted by serial leaker TUM_APISAK on Twitter. The Geekbench entry lists a potential addition to the Intel Core 10^th generation Comet Lake-S series, with a new i9-10850K CPU that features a slightly reduced frequency compared with the flagship Core i9-10900K. Intel released its flagship Core i9-10900K in April this year, the CPU boasts a base and boost frequency of 3.7Ghz and 5.3GHz respectively, the flagship Intel CPU is once again regarded as the top dog when it comes to gaming performance. However, the Core i9-10900K comes with a hefty price tag at around £550 in the UK, which is in a similar price bracket to the 12-core AMD Ryzen 9 3900X.
 
The recently spotted Intel Core i9-10850K features the same 10-core, 20-thread count as the 10900K but according to the Geekbench entry, it is equipped with a slightly reduced base frequency of 3.6GHz and boosting up to 5.2GHz which is just 100MHz below the i9-10900K in both scenarios. Other than the reduction in core frequency, the similarities between the two 10^th gen Core i9 processors continue with the same amount of L2 and L3 cache found in each.
Although there is no official TDP rating of the potential i9-10850K, it would most likely be a 125w part. Looking at the figures from the Geekbench result, the Core i9-10850K produces virtually the same single-core score as the i9-10900K but with around 5% lower multi-core score. Whether this is a new retail chip or an OEM only product similar to the AMD Ryzen 9 3900 remains to be seen, However, it would be great news if this turns out to be a cheaper alternative to Intel’s flagship Core i9-10900K. The thought of a 10-core Intel part at around £450-£500 would certainly be good news for gamers.
 
Did Intel finally figure out that they can compete on price point with AMD? Or is this Intel's answer to AMD's Ryzen 9 3900XT which is coming soon.

kougar
Intel will have to respond to Zen 3's launch in some fashion, so new SKUs in the works wouldn't surprise me.

That's what Rocket Lake is for, especially if it turns out it has Willow Cove cores instead of the long rumored Sunny Cove cores.  Sunny Cove and Zen 3 would have had about the same IPC, it would have made AMD look good and Intel look bad if that's all Intel could muster.  Willow Cove ought to boost ahead by around 7% IPC along with frequency gains of their 14nm++ process.  It could give them some breathing room before Zen 4 arrives to raise the core counts again, and then bring Alder Lake.

lehpronThat's what Rocket Lake is for, especially if it turns out it has Willow Cove cores instead of the long rumored Sunny Cove cores.  Sunny Cove and Zen 3 would have had about the same IPC, it would have made AMD look good and Intel look bad if that's all Intel could muster.  Willow Cove ought to boost ahead by around 7% IPC along with frequency gains of their 14nm++ process.  It could give them some breathing room before Zen 4 arrives to raise the core counts again, and then bring Alder Lake.

That's all incredibly optimistic at best. It's very unlikely Intel would launch two desktop generations within six months, let alone the same year. When is the last time they have ever done so? Doing so doesn't exactly leave them anything for next year does it?? Also there's no more frequency room left on 14nm, the 10-series used it all. 

sparetimepc
I bet you will see a pcie 4.0 chip from intel before the end of the year to go along with the Z490 boards. 

I would think Intel would go right to PCIe-5.0 and skip 4.0 personally. The window between 4.0 and 5.0 was really short and if Intel's goal is to beat AMD they would be better off trying to push out 5.0 rather then try to catch up to AMD on 4.0.

kougar
It's very unlikely Intel would launch two desktop generations within six months, let alone the same year. When is the last time they have ever done so?

2017, first Kaby Lake (7700K) then Coffee Lake (8700K).  


14nm isn't 14nm, Intel has been increasing the density slowly, the final 14nm++ out now has about the same density as whatever 10nm version 1.0 should have been as Cannon Lake.  Otherwise 9900K at a 3.6GHz base clock within 95W TDP wouldn't have been possible given that 6700K at 4GHz base was also within the same TDP.  Furthermore, the Cove architecture is different from the Lake architecture such that the IPC is enough against the same 14nm++ process, it's not going to be a Core 2 Duo miracle, just something to start with.  As for the performance claims, those are Intel's own numbers, only third-party reviews will show real-world, depending on whichever bias you may prefer.

lehpron
2017, first Kaby Lake (7700K) then Coffee Lake (8700K). 

 
Hmm, I guess that's technically true. Q1 and Q4 for desktop parts. Irony is Kaby Lake was announced back in August 2016 and the rest of it had already been shipping that year. 6700K was Q3'15, then 7700K was Q1'17 which was a pretty long gap, and why the 8700K launched the same year.
 
 
Intel's own in-house numbers have been with cherry picked edge-case benchmarks for too long for me to believe anything Intel states. Zen 3 is touted to have its own IPC boosts too, so if anything it looks like Intel will be lucky to even keep parity.