According to a report from WCCFTech, Intel is prepping the release of the Z390 chipset and is gearing up to bring their Core i9 branding series to the mainstream desktop platforms. Apparently, Intel's renaming scheme serves as a way to add the required "branding impact" to the fact that the i9 series of processors is finally hitting the mainstream - but don't be deluded. As we've previously covered, Intel's Z390 chipset may well become a rebrand of sorts from the current Z370 chipset, after Intel found insufficient capacity at its 14 nm node (which has to cope with the vast majority of Intel silicon production, following the smattering of delays hitting its 10 nm process). Basically, Intel's Z390 chipset will bring forward features that weren't built on the Z370 chipset at its inception, but have since become part of Intel's lineup (read, for example, its H370 chipset): Intel Wireless-AC 802.11 AC and Bluetooth 5.0; Intel Wireless-AC Adapter; and up to 6 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Ports.

According to WCCFTech, there's only confirmation of an 8-core, 16-thread CPU (Intel Core i9-9900K); a 6-core, 12-thread one (Intel Core i7-9700K) and a six-core, six-thread part (Intel Core i5-9600K ). No confirmation on an i3 part has been had yet, but it's very unlikely Intel has shelved that part of their lineup. A 4-core CPU is simply too important - from a yield perspective, mainly - for Intel to shelve it - and there's still enough demand for these, even with AMD's many-core democratization push.