Intel's entire 10th Generation Desktop family, codenamed Comet Lake-S, has leaked out, detailing the various unlocked and locked SKUs that will be featured in the next-generation 2020 family. The 10th Generation Comet Lake-S family has seen various leaks recently but Informatica Cero got hold of the entire specifications deck which lets us know what to expect from the upcoming lineup.
Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake-S Desktop CPU Family Full Specs Confirmed - Core i9-10900K Flagship With 10 Cores, 5.3 GHz Velocity Boost
Just like the previous two leaks that we covered here and here, the latest one talks about the specs but in more detail, letting us know what Intel is really cooking up with their 6th 14nm iteration and the fifth installment of the Skylake core architecture, albeit refined in certain ways to help Intel stay competitive with AMD's current Ryzen lineup.
Starting with the details, there seem to be 11 initial Core SKUs that will be offered to the masses. The Xeon, Pentium and Celeron chips are also missing from this list but let's just focus on the chips that have been detailed in the slides. There are three unlocked SKUs with 125W TDP and eight 65W TDP CPUs.
The full specifications of Intel's 10th Generation Comet Lake-S Desktop CPU family have leaked out. (Image Credits: Informatica Cero)
Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake-S Unlocked 125W Desktop CPU Family
There are three SKUs in the unlocked lineup which is one less than what we were told. There's the flagship Core i9-10900K which is followed by the Core i7-10700K and the Core i5-10600K. The Core i3 variant is missing but it's such a crucial SKU that would be targetting a very competitive market and it would be a bad decision for Intel to not launch an unlocked quad-core part in the budget tier segment.
Intel Core i9-10900K - 10 Cores, Up To 5.3 GHz Single-Core, 4.9 GHz All-Core
The Intel Core i9-10900K will be the flagship part of the 10th Generation Desktop CPU family. Intel has a few tricks up their sleeves to offer even better performance than the Core i9-9900KS. The i9-10900K features 10 cores, 20 threads a total cache of 20 MB and a 125W TDP. The chip has a base frequency of 3.7 GHz and a boost frequency of 5.1 GHz. However, using Intel's Turbo Boost Max 3.0 technology, the chip can boost up to 5.2 GHz on a single-core and what's even better is the 4.9 GHz all-core boost. Some of the features of this particular chip, as detailed by Videocardz, include:
- Up to 4.8 GHz All-Core Turbo
- Up to 5.3 / 4.0 GHz Thermal Velocity Boost Singe / All-core Turbo
- Up to 5.2 GHz Intel Turbo Boost Max 3.0
- Up to 10C and 20T
- Up to DDR4-2933 MHz dual-channel
- Enhanced Core & Memory Overclocking
- Active Core Group Tuning
Here's the interesting part, the chip would also get Thermal Velocity Boost, similar to the current flagship parts. CPUs that support this algorithm, like the Core i9-10900K, would feature even faster boost frequencies of 5.3 GHz (single-core) and 4.9 GHz (all-core). However, as the name suggests, only top-tier cooling solutions would be able to allow full utilization of the Thermal Velocity Boost feature. So unless you rock a high-end AIO liquid cooler or a closed loop setup, don't expect a sustained velocity boost but rather short bursts until the treshold is hit. It will be interesting to know the full extent of the features that this function has to offer and what kind of cooling would the Core i9-10900K requires in general.
Intel Core i7-10700K - 8 Cores, Up To 5.1 GHz Single-Core, 4.7 GHz All-Core
The Intel Core i7-10700K would be featuring 8 cores and 16 threads. The chip would house 16 MB of total cache and a TDP of 125W. The chip would feature a base clock of 3.8 GHz, a boost clock of 5.0 GHz (single-core) and 5.1 GHz (single-core) with Turbo Boost Max 3.0. The chip will be 100 MHz faster in single-core but slower across all-cores by 100 MHz than the Core i9-9900K which retails for over $500 US. Since this is an i7 part, expect pricing to fall around $350-$400 US.
Intel Core i5-10600K - 6 Cores, Up To 4.8 GHz Single-Core, 4.5 GHz All-Core
The Intel Core i7-10600K would be featuring 6 cores and 12 threads. The chip would house 12 MB of total cache and a TDP of 125W. The chip would feature a base clock of 4.1 GHz, a boost clock of 4.8 GHz (single-core) and 4.5 GHz (all-core). The chip would be faster than the 8th Gen flagship, the Core i7-8700K, featuring a higher base and boost clock across a single and all-cores. The Core i5 should be retailing in the $220-$270 US segment which is a decent price for a fast 6 core and multi-threaded chip.
Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake-S 65W Desktop CPU Family
The rest of the lineup is made up of the 65W SKUs which come in Core i9, Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 flavors. Having a 65W Core i9-10900 with 10 cores and 20 threads which still boosts up to 4.5GHz across all cores and 4.6 GHz if you include the Thermal Velocity boost is pretty good plus 5.2 GHz on a single-core doesn't sound that bad at all, considering this is a 65W chip (at its base frequency).
The Intel Core i3 lineup is also worth pointing out as it is made up of 3 SKUs which seem to be part of the initial launch family. The Core i3-10320 would be leading with 4 cores, 8 threads at 65W. 8MB of cache, clocks of up to 4.6 GHz in single and 4.4 GHz on all-cores sound decent enough for what is supposed to be a budget chip retailing under $200 US. The full list of SKUs along with their specs can be seen in the table below.
Intel 10th Gen Core Comet Lake Desktop CPU Family:
| CPU Name | Cores / Threads | Base Clock | Single-Core Boost Clock | Turbo Boost Max 3.0 (Single-Core) | All Core Boost Clock | Cache | TDP | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i9-10900K | 10/20 | 3.7 GHz | 5.1 GHz 5.3 GHz (Velocity) | 5.2 GHz | 4.8 GHz 4.9 GHz (Velocity) | 20 MB | 125W | $488 US |
| Intel Core i9-10900KF | 10/20 | 3.7 GHz | 5.1 GHz 5.3 GHz (Velocity) | 5.2 GHz | 4.8 GHz 4.9 GHz (Velocity) | 20 MB | 125W | $472 US |
| Intel Core i9-10850K | 10/20 | 3.6 GHz | 5.2 GHz | N/A | 4.8 GHz | 20 MB | 125W | ~$450 US |
| Intel Core i9-10900 | 10/20 | 2.8 GHz | 5.0 GHz 5.2 GHz (Velocity) | 5.1 GHz | 4.5 GHz 4.6 GHz (Velocity) | 20 MB | 65W | $439 US |
| Intel Core i9-10900F | 10/20 | 2.8 GHz | 5.0 GHz 5.2 GHz (Velocity) | 5.1 GHz | 4.5 GHz 4.6 GHz (Velocity) | 20 MB | 65W | $422 US |
| Intel Core i9-10900T | 10/20 | 1.9 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 20 MB | 35W | $439 US |
| Intel Core i7-10700K | 8/16 | 3.8 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.1 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 16 MB | 125W | $374 US |
| Intel Core i7-10700KF | 8/16 | 3.8 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.1 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 16 MB | 125W | $349 US |
| Intel Core i7-10700 | 8/16 | 2.9 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 16 MB | 65W | $323 US |
| Intel Core i7-10700F | 8/16 | 2.9 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 16 MB | 65W | $298 US |
| Intel Core i7-10700T | 8/16 | 2.0 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 16 MB | 35W | $325 US |
| Intel Core i5-10600K | 6/12 | 4.1 GHz | 4.8 GHz | N/A | 4.5 GHz | 12 MB | 125W | $262 US |
| Intel Core i5-10600KF | 6/12 | 4.1 GHz | 4.8 GHz | N/A | 4.5 GHz | 12 MB | 125W | $237 US |
| Intel Core i5-10600 | 6/12 | 3.3 GHz | 4.8 GHz | N/A | 4.5 GHz | 12 MB | 65W | $213 US |
| Intel Core i5-10600T | 6/12 | 2.4 GHz | 4.0 GHz | N/A | 3.7 GHz | 12 MB | 35W | $213 US |
| Intel Core i5-10500 | 6/12 | 3.1 GHz | 4.5 GHz | N/A | 4.2 GHz | 12 MB | 65W | $192 US |
| Intel Core i5-10500T | 6/12 | 2.3 GHz | 3.8 GHz | N/A | 3.5 GHz | 12 MB | 35W | $192 US |
| Intel Core i5-10400 | 6/12 | 2.9 GHz | 4.3 GHz | N/A | 4.0 GHz | 12 MB | 65W | $182 US |
| Intel Core i5-10400F | 6/12 | 2.9 GHz | 4.3 GHz | N/A | 4.0 GHz | 12 MB | 65W | $157 US |
| Intel Core i5-10400T | 6/12 | 2.0 GHz | 3.6 GHz | N/A | 3.2 GHz | 12 MB | 35W | $182 US |
| Intel Core i3-10320 | 4/8 | 3.8 GHz | 4.6 GHz | N/A | 4.4 GHz | 8 MB | 65W | $154 US |
| Intel Core i3-10300 | 4/8 | 3.7 GHz | 4.4 GHz | N/A | 4.2 GHz | 8 MB | 65W | $143 US |
| Intel Core i3-10300T | 4/8 | 3.0 GHz | 3.9 GHz | N/A | 3.6 GHz | 8 MB | 35W | $143 US |
| Intel Core i3-10100 | 4/8 | 3.6 GHz | 4.3 GHz | N/A | 4.1 GHz | 8 MB | 65W | $122 US |
| Intel Core i3-10100T | 4/8 | 3.0 GHz | 3.8 GHz | N/A | 3.5 GHz | 8 MB | 35W | $122 US |
| Intel Pentium G6600 | 2/4 | 4.2 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4 MB | 58W | $86 US |
| Intel Pentium G6500 | 2/4 | 4.1 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4 MB | 58W | $75 US |
| Intel Pentium G6400 | 2/4 | 3.8 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4 MB | 58W | $64 US |
| Intel Pentium G6400T | 2/4 | 3.4 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4 MB | 58W | $64 US |
| Intel Celeron G5925 | 2/2 | 3.6 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4 MB | 58W | ~$60 US |
| Intel Celeron G5920 | 2/2 | 3.5 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2 MB | 58W | $52 US |
| Intel Celeron G5905 | 2/2 | 3.5 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4 MB | 58W | ~$50 US |
| Intel Celeron G5900 | 2/2 | 3.2 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2 MB | 58W | $42 US |
| Intel Celeron G5905T | 2/2 | 3.3 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4 MB | 35W | ~$40 US |
| Intel Celeron G5900T | 2/2 | 3.2 GHz | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2 MB | 35W | $42 US |
Intel 400-Series Platform and LGA 1200 Socket Support
It is now confirmed that Intel is indeed moving to a new socket with their 400-series boards that will be introduced next year too. While the LGA 1200 socket has the same dimensions as the LGA 1151 socket (37.5mm x 37.5mm), the socket keying has shifted to the left side and Comet Lake is no longer electrically or mechanically compatible with Coffee Lake motherboards. Some details of the new LGA 1200 package and socket for Comet Lake:
- Comet Lake will transition to a higher pin-count package
- Comet Lake LGA will not have backward compatibility with legacy platforms
- No changes to ILM dimensions or thermal solution retention
- Comet Lake LGA improves power delivery and support for future incremental I/O features
- Pin 1 orientation remains the same, but socket keying has shifted left
Blueprints of the LGA 1200 socket (H5) have also been leaked by Momomo_Us, showing the design of the new socket itself and comparing it to the existing LGA 1151 socket (H4).
The pin and socket specific changes between the H5 LGA 1200 and the H4 LGA 1151 socket are detailed in the blueprints posted above. (Image Credits: Momomo_US)
The good thing is that your existing coolers would still be compatible with the LGA 1200 socket so that's one hardware change you shouldn't be worrying about. The Comet Lake-S family will retain support for DDR4-2666 memory UDIMM and support up to 32 GB capacity DIMMs per channel.
Intel plans to have several chipsets deployed in the 400-series family. There would obviously be Z490 which will target the 'K' unlocked SKUs I mentioned above, but aside from that we are looking at the W480 (Entry Workstation), Q470 (Corporate with Intel vPro), and H410 (Value) chipsets. These would target more corporate and entry tier users. Also interesting to note is that H410 is not pin-compatible with W480 and Q470 chipsets, which reveals a very cut down design for the entry-level chip.
Following are some of the main platform features of the 10th Generation Comet Lake-S family:
- Up To 10 processor cores for enhanced performance
- Up To 30 PCH-H High-Speed I/O lanes for port flexibility
- Up To 40 PCIe 3.0 Lanes (16 CPU, up to 24 PCH)
- Media & Display features for premium 4K content support
- Integrated + Discrete Intel Wireless-AC (Wi-Fi/BT CNVi) Support
- Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) Support
- Enhanced Core and memory overclock
- Integrated USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (10 Gb/s) support
- Intel Rapid Storage Technology (Intel RST)
- Programmable (Open FW SDK) Quad-Core Audio DSP
- C10 & S0ix Support for Modern Standby
Intel 400-Series Chipset Family:
| Chipset Name | Intel Z490 | Intel W480 | Intel Q470 | Intel H410 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total HSIO Lanes | 46 Lanes (16 CPU + 30 PCH) | 46 Lanes (16 CPU+ 30 PCH) | 46 Lanes (16 CPU+ 30 PCH) | 30 Lanes (16 CPU+ 14 PCH) |
| Total PCIe 3.0 Lanes (CPU + PCH) | Up To 40 (16 CPU + | Up To 40 (16 CPU + | Up To 40 (16 CPU + | 22(16 CPU + 6 PCIe 2.0) |
| Chipset PCIe 3.0 Lanes | Up To 24 | Up To 24 | Up To 24 | 6 (PCIe 2.0 Only) |
| SATA 3.0 Ports | Up To 8 | Up To 8 | Up To 6 | 4 |
| Maximum USB 3.2 Ports Gen 2 (10 Gb/s) / Gen 1 (5 Gb/s) | 8/10 | 8/10 | 6/10 | 0/4 |
| Tota USB Ports (Maximum USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s)) | 14 (10) | 14 (10) | 14 (10) | 10 (4) |
| Intel RST Technology For PCIe 3.0 storage ports | 3 PCH | 3 PCH | 3 PCH | 0 |
| eSPI | 2 Chip Select | 2 Chip Select | 2 Chip Select | 1 Chip Select |
| Overclocking Support | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Processor PCIe Express 3.0 Lanes Configuration | 1x16 or 2x8 or 1x8 + 2x4 | 1x16 or 2x8 or 1x8 + 2x4 | 1x16 or 2x8 or 1x8 + 2x4 | 1x16 |
| Display Support (Ports / Pipes) | 3/3 | 3/3 | 3/3 | 3/2 |
| DMI 3.0 Lanes | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 (DMI 2.0 Only) |
| System Memory Channels / DPC | 2/2 (DDR4-2666) | 2/2 (DDR4-2666) | 2/2 (DDR4-2666) | 2/1 (DDR4-2666) |
In terms of chipset features, W480 would be the most feature-rich of the three chipsets that are mentioned here. Z490 would be the most appealing for the enthusiast and gaming audience, but let's take a look at the mainstream chipsets. The W480 chipset would offer a total of 46 high-speed IO lanes and a total of 40 PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes. The CPUs would retain 16 lanes with the chipset offering up to 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes.
There would be support for up to 8 SATA III ports, 8 USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports or 10 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 14 USB 3.2 Gen ports, and Intel RST. Neither of the three chipsets would feature overclock support since that is restricted to the Z490 chipset but we will get more information on overclocking later on from Intel themselves. Expect more information on the Z490 motherboards and Comet Lake-S desktop CPU family at CES 2020 where we should get more details about Intel's next-gen desktop family roadmap. Our sources have pointed out a proper launch in February 2020.
