There's a glut of new Hooray for China!
What about if you need a new processor today? Well, these are the best Us for gaming right now.
A release notes post for the benchmarking and analytics tool, AIDA64, has highlighted a whole bunch of new Intel processors which are likely on the way in the new year. The software has added detection for a broad set of previously unannounced Coffee Lake processor names, from Celeron and Pentium right up to Core i7 and Core i9.
Yes, Core i9.
There's reference to a notebook Core i9 chip, based on the Coffee Lake architecture (so, not of the Skylake-X design), which is designated as the Core i9 8950HK. It's the only i9 processor mentioned, with a pair of H-series mobile Core i5 and Core i7 Us too. Quite what the difference will be with the top-end Core i9 is unknown as yet – maybe Intel have decided not to use the Kaby Lake G nomenclature for their AMD Radeon-toting laptop chip.
That's probably unlikely; we're guessing it will just be the only unlocked six-core, 12-thread laptop processor in the high-end notebook market, and not really a massive departure from the Core i7 range.
Given that there's likely going to be an advanced 12nm lithography, early next year, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise for Intel to be looking to ship more Coffee Lake to counter team red.
But that's not the only cause for surprised and moderately intrigued facial expressions – the AIDA64 release notes also reference some potential 9th Gen Core architecture too. There are eleven 9-series chips noted in the Core i3 and Core i5 ranges, in standard, low-power, and presumably business trim, but strangely nothing suggested for the Core i7s.
So, is that a reference to next year'sIce Lakeplatform, or some half-generational refresh… some sort of Iced Coffee Lake, if you will?
One of the new 9th Gen Us is a multiplier-unlocked Core i5 9600K, but since there is no other new identifiers noted in the release it seems the 9th Gen will essentially purely be a Coffee Lake refresh. Even if it gets a new generational naming scheme.
What's that we're going to be on? 14nm++++++++++++?
Intel look like they're going to be getting seriously chip-happy in the new year, let's just hope they can actually manufacture enough of them…