Intel Comet Lake Core i9 10-Core 20-Thread Beast Chip Shows Big Performance Gains In Leaked Doc

Intel Engineer
In case you've been living under a rock, then you know that Intel has a new family of desktop processors on the way developed under the codename Comet Lake. These Comet Lake-S processors are still built on 14nm process tech (which has been refined again, and again) and will use the new LGA-1200 socket, which will require new motherboards.

With that being said, a new internal Intel doc has leaked onto the web, and it is giving us a bit of insight into the flagship for the upcoming Comet Lake-S family: the Core i9-10900K. As you might surmise from its naming, the Core i9-10900K will replace the Core i9-9900K in Intel's lineup. However, unlike its predecessor, which is an 8-core/16-thread part, the Core i9-10900K bulks up to 10 cores capable of executing 20 threads.

The document leak plots out Intel’s "Performance Projections" for the Core i9-10900K, and we're looking at some nice generational gains across the board in a number of benchmarks including SYSmark, XPRT, SPEC, and even Cinebench. That last benchmark is one that Intel has called out in the past as not being indicative of the real-world performance of its processors.

comet lake 10 core benchmarks intel
(Click to Enlarge)

In the XPRT benchmarks, we're seeing anywhere from a 2 percent to 4 percent uplift in performance compared to the Core i9-9900K, while SYSmark sees a heathy 10 percent increase. The biggest gains, however, come with SPEC, which sees anywhere from a 25 percent to 30 percent advantage for the Core i9-10900K. Not to be left out, Cinebench numbers usher in a 26 percent uplift for the Core i9-10900K versus the Core i9-9900K.

The leaked slide also confirms that the Core i9-10900K has a TDP of 125 watts (compared to 95 watts for the Core i9-9900K). Also mentioned is a 250W TDP (PL2 power state) for all-core boost.

Comet Lake Platform

The Core i9-10900K represents the first expansion past 8 cores for Intel's consumer processors, but still puts its behind AMD's efforts with Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000 processors. AMD got the ball rolling with the 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 3900X, then really dropped the hammer with the 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 3950X.

Given AMD's strength in multi-threaded benchmarks, it remains to be seen if the Core i9-10900K will put up a better showing compared to its predecessors. And even if the Core i9-10900K does put up strong numbers, we'll have to keep in mind that Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 processors won't be too far behind...

Brandon Hill

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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