Intel's upcoming Core i7-8700K and Core i5-8400K Coffee Lake processors have been spotted over at SiSoft Sandra. This is one of the first major leaks regarding the upcoming Coffee Lake lineup from Intel and shows the relative performance of both the i5 and i7 flavors. Both processors will be 6-cores with the Intel Core i7-8700K supporting Hyper-Threading for a total of 12 threads instead of 6.
Intel Core i7-8700K with 6 Cores / 12 Threads SiSoft Sandra Benchmarks
The first entry we have is of the i7 flagship, which for the first time ever in the mainstream segment, will feature 6 cores with 12 threads. Intel has usually kept the core count of the mainstream segment to a measly 4 cores, but with competition heating up from Ryzen, the company has finally decided to step it up to 6 cores. With the addition of 2 additional cores (a full 50% increase in core count) we are expecting heavy performance upgrades from both the i5 and i7 variants of Coffee Lake. I have taken the liberty of comparing these numbers with the past generation to get an idea of just how fast these are compared to their predecessors.
Processor Arithmetic: 217.98 GOPs (48% Increase)
Processor Multi Media: 658.57 Mpix/s (47% Increase)
Processor Cryptography: 10.47 GB/s (12% Increase)
Scientific Analysis (Single Precision): 61.41 GFLOPS (26% Increase)
Scientific Analysis (Double Precision): 32.11 GFLOPS (32% Increase)
Aggregate Delta Over Last Generation: ~33%
The performance increase we are seeing here is simply exceptional. In the two core use cases, Arithmetic and Multi Media, we are seeing an almost flat 50% scaling across the board over the last gen 7700K. Cryptographic capability has also received a modest upgrade of 12% as well. 2 other benchmarks were also tested in the run and we see that the CPUs have increased capability in both single precision and double precision metrics as far as Scientific Analysis goes. Interestingly, we are seeing a higher increase in Double Precision as compared to Single Precision. (We compared the results against the Intel Core i7-7700K processor. You can find the SiSoft entry for the Intel Core i7-8700K over here.)
Intel Core i5-8400K with 6 Cores / 6 Threads SiSoft Sandra Benchmarks
Up next, we have the Core i5-8500K which, just like its big brother, has the honor of being Intel's first ever 6-core i5. Like most of its i5 lineup however, it will not be featuring Hyper-Threading so will be locked in at 6 cores and 6 threads. Just like before, we are expecting a flat 50% increase in performance (with properly optimized software) due to the addition of 2 more cores.
Processor Arithmetic: 145.05 GOPs (40% Increase)
Processor Multi Media: 420.54 Mpix/s (50% Increase)
Processor Cryptography: 9.78 GB/s (14% Increase)
Scientific Analysis (Single Precision): 71.68 GFLOPS (24% Increase)
Scientific Analysis (Double Precision): 31.35 GFLOPS (16% Increase)
Aggregate Delta Over Last Generation: ~28.8%
In terms of processor arithmetic, the i5-8400K gets a very decent increase of 40% over the 7600K whiles the Multi Media metric is at a perfect 50% increase over last generation. Cryptographic capabilities have received a bump of 14% while single precision and double precision have received bumps of 24% and 16% respectively. (We compared the results against the Intel Core i5-7600K processor. You can find the SiSoft entry for the Intel Core i5-8400K over here.)
In any case, we now have a very good idea of what to expect in terms of real-world performance gains with well-optimized software. With the Core i7-8700K you are looking at a roughly 33% increase in performance while with the i5 you are looking at a roughly 28.8% delta over last generation. Interestingly, this is a much higher number than what has been claimed before. Depending on how Intel prices this, 8th Generation Coffee Lake processors could very well be the first generation in many years that truly catalyzes a complete upgrade from consumers (assuming AMD's offerings don't snatch them up beforehand of course).
Intel Coffee Lake 8th Gen Desktop Core Lineup:
CPU Name | Intel Core i3-8100 | Intel Core i3-8350K | Intel Core i5-8400 | Intel Core i5-8600K | Intel Core i7-8700 | Intel Core i7-8700K | Intel Core i7-8086K |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CPU Family | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S |
CPU Process | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm |
CPU Cores | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
CPU Threads | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
Base Clock | 3.60 GHz | 4.00 GHz | 2.80 GHz | 3.60 GHz | 3.20 GHz | 3.70 GHz | 4.00 GHz |
Boost Clock (Max) | N/A | N/A | 4.00 GHz | 4.30 GHz | 4.60 GHz | 4.70 GHz | 5.00 GHz |
Boost Clock (6 Core) | N/A | N/A | 3.50 GHz | 4.40 GHz | 4.20 GHz | 4.30 GHz | 4.30 GHz |
L2 Cache | 1 MB (256 KB per Core) | 1 MB (256 KB per Core) | 1.5 MB (256 KB per Core) | 1.5 MB (256 KB per Core) | 1.5 MB (256 KB per Core) | 1.5 MB (256 KB per Core) | 1.5 MB (256 KB per Core) |
L3 Cache | 6 MB | 6 MB | 9 MB | 9 MB | 12 MB | 12 MB | 12 MB |
Overclocking Support | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Socket Support | LGA 1151 | LGA 1151 | LGA 1151 | LGA 1151 | LGA 1151 | LGA 1151 | LGA 1151 |
PCH | 300-Series | 300-Series | 300-Series | 300-Series | 300-Series | 300-Series | 300-Series |
TDP | 65W | 91W | 65W | 95W | 65W | 95W | 95W |
Price | $117 US | $168 US | $182 US | $257 US | $303 US | $359 US | $429 US |