There's still no word on exactly when these processors will arrive at the moment (or what their UK pricing is going to be like), but I'll update this article again once I've heard back from Intel.
Now, they've announced the rest of the line-up, which you can view in full in the tables below. In October 2018, Intel announced the first three processors that would make up their 9th generation of Coffee Lake CPUs: the Core i9-9900K, Core i7-9700K, and the Core i5-9600K. Intel Coffee Lake: new 9th gen desktop CPUs inbound The end result is a massive increase in performance across the board - particularly at the lower end of Intel's Core family - without too much of a massive increase in price, making them more competitive in the face of AMD's exceedingly good value Ryzen CPUs. Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 branches also got a boost, going from four cores to six, while their very first Core i9 CPUs have eight. Whereas previous Core i3 processors only ever had two cores at their disposal, Coffee Lake Core i3 CPUs now come with four. The most important thing about Coffee Lake, however, isn't the number of transistors it has - it's the number of cores that come with each CPU. To use the official parlance, it's technically called 14nm++. Intel, on the other hand, have chosen to stick with the same 14nm manufacturing process as its last three generations of processor for Coffee Lake, albeit using a process that's greatly 'improved' and more efficient than their previous 14nm Broadwell, Skylake and Kaby Lake chips. Technically, Intel are a bit behind the curve here, as AMD have already jumped to using a 12nm process for their latest Ryzen CPUs. The smaller they are, the more you can cram onto a single piece of silicon, resulting in better performance than chips with larger, and thus fewer, transistors packed into the same surface area.
This refers to the size of a processor's individual transistors. If it's part of Intel's 8000 or 9000 family - for example, the Intel Core i5-8400 or Intel Core i7-9700K - then you're in Coffee Lake territory.Ĭoffee Lake CPUs all use a 14 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process.
The easiest way to find out if a Core CPU is a Coffee Lake one is to have a look at its model number. This includes their most recognisable Core brand, as well as their entry-level Pentium and Celeron processors. The latter two tend to only be found in very basic systems that aren't kitted out for gaming, so for the remainder of this article, I'll be concentrating on Intel's Coffee Lake Core processors.
Intel Coffee Lake: what is it?Ĭoffee Lake is the manufacturing code name given to all of Intel's 8th and 9th generation processors. You'll also find out what separates a Coffee Lake from a Kaby Lake/Skylake/Ice Lake and all other manner of 'lakes', which motherboard you need for an Intel Core CPU, as well as what's coming next from the world of Intel.
To help you make sense of it all, I've put together everything you need to know about Intel's current crop of desktop Core CPUs, including all the details about the upcoming round of additional 9th gen processors, plus a list of all the different model names, specs and prices for the Coffee Lake processors you can buy right now. That's because right now we're entering that weird crossover period between the 8th and 9th generation of Intel Core CPUs, which are all collectively known under the umbrella term of 'Coffee Lake'. Intel's Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 and (now Core i9) CPUs have been the go-to gaming processors since time immemorial - and following yesterday's announcement that even more 9th generation Intel Core desktop CPUs are on their way, there are now more of them to choose from than ever before.