U.S. Retailer Lists Rocket Lake CPUs, Core i9-11900K For $599

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Milwaukee PC (via Harukaze5719), a retailer that has been around since 1988, has shared the pricing for Intel's 11th Generation Rocket Lake processors that will soon vie for a spot on our list of best CPUs for gaming. The company didn't reveal the launch date but did affirm that the new 14nm chips are coming soon, meaning they'll be new entries in our CPU Benchmark hierarchy soon.

The Core i9-11900K will be this generation's flagship, and according to Milwaukee PC, the chip will retail for $599.99. For comparison, the Core i9-10900K debuted at $499.00, so we're looking at 20.2% increase in price for its successor, despite losing two cores, but we do caution that these could be either placeholder or inflated listings. Besides, the Core i9-11900K does bring the new Cypress Cove cores along with Intel's 12th Generation Xe LP graphics unit, so we should wait for in-depth performance testing before passing judgment. If you don't fancy integrated graphics, the Core i9-11900KF will save you $20.

From a price-to-performance standpoint, the Core i7-11700K will likely be one of the fan favorites again. The Rocket Lake part shares the same core configuration as the Core i9-11900K, albeit slower clock speeds. Apparently, the Core i7-11700K carries a $484.99 price tag, representing a 26.3% rise in pricing compared to the previous Core i7-10700K. At least from what we've seen so far from benchmark leaks, the Core i7-11700K paints itself as the new Core i9-10900K.

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Customers with tight budgets will be happy to know that the Core i5-11600K will only set them back $309.99. Out of the three major K-series parts, the Core i5-11600K accounts for the least price increase. The Core i5-11600K only costs 14% more than the widely popular Core i5-10600K. At launch, we crowned the Core i5-10600K as the ultimate mainstream gaming chip, but that was back before AMD's Ryzen 5000 series landed. We're excited to see whether the torch will pass to the Core i5-11600K.

Once again, gamers who plan to pair the Core i5-11600K could opt to grab the Core i5-11600KF. The iGPU-less variant easily nets them $30 in savings that can be put to good use in other components.

Intel has committed will launch Rocket Lake next month, and thanks to an MSI representative, we've narrowed the timeframe down to late March. The processors are backward compatible with the current 400-series motherboards through a simple firmware upgrade. However, motherboard manufacturers have already revealed their new 500-series offerings that are designed to extract every bit of performance out of Rocket Lake.

Rocket Lake is in all likelihood the last wave of Intel processors to grace the LGA1200 platform. Many consider it a band-aid to fend off AMD's Ryzen 5000 (codename Vermeer) army until Alder Lake is ready. Although Intel maintains the notion that the hybrid desktop chips belong to the "performance" segment, it remains to be seen whether there is any truth in the chipmaker's claims.