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Hyper-Threading Coming to Intel's Comet Lake Core i3 Lineup: Benchmark Submission
A SiSoftware benchmark submission, spotted by chip detective @TUM_APISAK, reveals a new Comet Lake Core i3-10100 processor sporting four cores and eight threads. That's a nice improvement over today's Core i3-9100 equivalent, which features four cores and four threads.
That means that the new low-end Comet Lake Core i3 processors will offer the same threaded accommodations as the Core i7 processors from the 2017 time frame, and sets the stage for bigger gains in Intel's higher core-count models.
The benchmark submission lists the four-core eight-thread Core i3-10100 with a 3.6 GHz base clock, but this chip is likely an early engineering sample, meaning the specifications are subject to change.
Intel's response to AMD's Ryzen onslaught has typically been sluggish, largely because the company hasn't resorted to cutting prices on existing models. Instead, the company has slowly added more cores to its processor families with the release of new models, with those increased core counts equating to lower per-core pricing. The company has also added more features to some of its chips, like enabling Hyper-Threading and exposing more PCIe lanes on downstream models.
Unleashing Hyper-Threading on the Core i3 series continues that same strategy.
Like all of Intel's prior alterations to previous-gen low-end chips, the bulking up of the Core i3 series will reverberate all the way through the product stack. That means we're likely looking at a Comet Lake lineup that includes Hyper-Threading in the Core i5 and i7 series, meaning they could come equipped with 6C/12T and 8C/16T configurations, respectively.
We've already seen evidence that Comet Lake's halo Core i9 part will come with a beastly 10 cores and 20 threads, a solid increase from today's 8C/8T Core i9-9900K.
Like Intel's current-gen chips, Comet Lake will be based on the 14nm process, though likely a further-refined version of the manufacturing process that unlocks more frequency and power efficiency. We do know the new chips come with a new platform controller hub (PCH) and socket, meaning you'll need a new motherboard to move up to Intel's new flagship series.
We expect Intel's Comet Lake chips to arrive in Q1 2020 to staunch the bleeding incurred by AMD's ultra-competitive Ryzen 3000 processors. AMD has delayed the 16-core 32-thread Ryzen 9 3900X until November, meaning the company has a smaller window of opportunity to roam entirely uncontested as the performance leader on the mainstream desktop.
