Intel officially announces 8th Gen Core desktop processors
AMD has been making big moves lately, releasing the Radeon RX Vega graphics cards and its Ryzen 3, 5, 7, and Threadripper desktop processors. The company now has a very diverse portfolio that can meet the needs of many consumers with various budgets.
Intel is not content to be out of the spotlight, however. After all, the company has long been the market leader for consumer desktop performance. Today, Intel announces its much-anticipated 8th Gen Intel Core desktop processors. Believe it or not, pricing is quite reasonable. This line ranges from Core i3 to i7, meaning regardless of your budget or needs, there should be a product for you. Gamers and enthusiasts in particular should be very excited. As per usual, overclockers can have a field day with the unlocked "K" variants.
"This new family introduces the first-ever 6-core Intel Core i5 desktop processor and first-ever 4-core Intel Core i3 desktop processor. The family offers a wide range of performance options for consumers with unlocked 'K' processors that deliver maximum tuning flexibility at each brand level and up to 40 platform PCIe 3.0 lanes for system expandability on graphics, storage and I/O. These processors are supported with new Intel Z370 chipset-based motherboards," sats Intel.
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The famed company further says, "The top of the product stack -- the Intel Core i7-8700K -- is Intel's best gaming desktop processor ever. It is capable of 4.7 GHz maximum single-core turbo frequency, the highest frequency ever from Intel thanks to Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, making it a performance powerhouse for both single and multi-threaded applications."
The 8th generation Core i5 and i7 processors feature 6 cores, but the latter has up to 12 threads thanks to hyper-threading. They both use dual-channel DDR4-2666 for impressive memory performance too. The budget-friendly Core i3 is "only" a quad-core processor, but that should be fine for many. RAM for that processor is a bit slower with dual channel DDR4-2400, but that difference should prove negligible.
All of the chips have 4K-capable Intel 630 graphics. The Core i3 and i5 feature a graphics frequency of 1.1GHz, while the performance-focused i7 is a bit faster at 1.2GHz. Let's be honest though, many buyers will opt for a dedicated PCIe 3.0 AMD or NVIDIA graphics card anyway, so it is sort of inconsequential.
If you would like to buy an 8th generation processor, please know the pricing is as follows -- Core i3 8100 ($117), Core i5 8400 ($182), Core i7 8700 ($303), Core i3 8350K ($168), Core i5 8600K ($257), and Core i7 8700K ($359). You will not have to wait long either -- these chips will hit popular retailers, such as Newegg, on October 5, 2017.