New Intel Core Chips Offer Speed Boost For Desktop PCs

Intel has launched the first mainstream desktop chips in its 8th-generation Core chip series, including a 6-core, 12-thread part, the Core i7-8700K,

In addition to the flagship i7 Intel added more cores to its i5 and i3 chips, with a 6-core i5 processor and its first quad-core Core i3, and rolled out workstation chips for tasks such as high-resolution video editing, the i9-7940X, i9-7960X and i9-7980XE, with 14, 16 and 18 cores.

Gaming boost

The i9 parts, aimed at content creators and enthusiasts, allow users to edit 4K, 360-degree videos up to 32 percent faster than last year’s range, Intel said.

Intel will begin taking orders for the mainstream Core chips on 5 October and are to ship later in the fourth quarter, while the i9 is shipping to partners immediately, the company said on Sunday night.

The flagship of the ‘Coffee Lake’ lineup, the Core i7-8700K, offers a 25 percent boost in frames-per-second while running demanding games such as Microsoft’s Gears of War 4, when compared to the 7th-generation Core i7-7700K, with 4 cores and 8 threads.

Multitasking shows an even more significant improvement at 45 percent over the previous generation, Intel said.

Overclock mode

The chip has a base rate of 3.7GHz and can reach 4.7 GHz maximum single-core frequency using Intel’s Turbo Boost technology. Intel also released ‘locked’ versions of the i7, i5 and i3 that don’t include Turbo Boost.

“Our 8thGen Intel Core desktop processors deliver tremendous improvements across the board and – for gamers, in particular– offer an unbeatable experience,” stated Anand Srivatsa, general manager of Intel’s Desktop Platform Group.

In August Intel launched the 8th-generation Core with the U-series for Ultrabooks and two-in-one devices, improving performance by 40 percent over the previous generation, and is expected to introduce less expensive Celeron and Pentium chips later this year and in early 2018.

All the chips use the LGA 1151 socket and the new Intel Z370 chipset and support Optane, Intel’s memory acceleration technology.

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