An engineering sample of Intel's next flagship notebook processor, the Core i7-8720HQ, surfaced on Chinese tech-forums. Built in the same 1440-pin BGA package as 7th generation Core mobile processors, this chip is unique, in that it is truly "8th gen" featuring the six-core "Coffee Lake" silicon. The chip features 6 cores, 12 threads enabled by HyperThreading, and yet interestingly, only 9 MB enabled of the 12 MB L3 cache physically present on the chip. The chip is clocked at 2.40 GHz, with 3.60 GHz Turbo Boost frequency. It rivals the desktop Core i5-8600K in multi-threaded tests, making up for the lower clock speeds with HyperThreading. The chip could power the next generation of high-end gaming notebooks, when it launches some time in Q1-2018.

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