Complete Intel Comet Lake desktop F-series lineup with no iGPUs leaks out

Back in 2018, Intel came up with the F-series desktop CPU lineup with disabled iGPUs that essentially use the same silicon as non-F processors, although this aspect was never officially confirmed. Intel figured out that, instead of completely discarding all the processors with malfunctioning iGPUs, it can easily disable the graphics component and market the chips accordingly for some increased revenue. According to a leaked slide from a private presentation held last December brought to us by the folks over at Informatica Cero, Intel will repeat this marketing scheme with the upcoming 10th gen Comet Lake desktop CPU models. The company needs that extra money to keep up with the demand, apparently

The leaked slide lists all the F-series models that will be released together with the regular iGPU SKUs. Most iGPU models have an F-series equivalent, including the unlocked K models. The only segment to feature no F models is the entry-level 4-core i3-series. Thus, the F-series roster includes KF and F models for the i9-10900 10-core / 20-thread  and the i7-10700 8-core / 16-thread processors, while the i5-10600 6-core chips only get a KF model and the i5-10400 6-core ones get an F model.

All the specs from the non-F processors, including base clocks and single / multi-core boost clocks are entirely the same on F processors, and, interestingly enough, Intel even lists the same TDPs. Now we know that Intel mentions TDPs for base clocks only, but since the iGPUs are gone from the equation, the F-series processors will certainly require quite a bit less power. There have been reports that the 9th gen KF processors show an increased overclocking potential, especially on the high-end SKUs, so we could see the same behavior with the upcoming i9-10900K chips.

Unfortunately, the slide does not provide any price points for the F-series models. Still, judging from known gen 9 prices, each F-series chip should be US$25 cheaper than the non-F counterpart.