Intel Comet Lake looks to be more of the same according to leaked bootlogs

Intel is set to release a full Comet Lake product stack, with it retiring its Coffee Lake architecture in the process. However, recent Intel GFX CI bootlogs spotted by @InstLatX64 hint that Comet Lake H (CL-H) and Comet Lake S (CL-S) will offer only minor refinements over their Coffee Lake Refresh predecessors.

According to the bootlog, CL-H will include an octa-core SKU, although we already know from an Intel roadmap leaked earlier this year that the company is planning a deca-core variant too. The octa-core SKU in question will feature 16 MB of L3 cache and a 2.4 GHz base clock, putting it on par with the Core i9-9980HK. The bootlog reports the CPU boosting to 4.4 GHz, which is far short of what the Core i9-9880H and Core i9-9980HK are capable. Engineering samples typically do not reflect the boost clock speeds of their retail counterparts, so this is nothing of concern at this stage. Essentially, we are looking at a re-bodied Core i9-9880H or Core i9-9980HK.

The CL-S bootlog paints a more curious picture though. Intel GFX CI reports that the hexacore chip supports Hyper-Threading, which Intel currently extends to only its octa-core Coffee Lake S Refresh SKUs. The chip also has 12 MB of L3 cache, 2 MB per core, which puts it in line with Hyper-Threaded Coffee Lake S Refresh processors. So, it appears that Intel is bringing Hyper-Threading lower down its CL-S product stack than it did with its Coffee Lake S line-up. The hexacore CL-S processor also appears to clock between 3 GHz and 3.4 GHz, the former of which is in line with the base clock speeds of comparable Coffee Lake S Refresh processors.

Overall, the above represents minor improvements over the Coffee Lake Refresh architecture. Intel will introduce deca-core processors to CL-H and CL-S, which will undoubtedly offer upwards of 25% better multicore performance than octa-core Coffee Lake Refresh chips. However, Comet Lake will be another 14 nm refinement, a die size that it brought to market in 2014. By contrast, AMD has already released 7 nm chips, upon which it will refine with Zen 3 in 2020.