Intel's upcoming "Comet Lake" processor family leaks online, prices could start at US$129 for a quad-core

Intel might be stuck at 14 nm on its mainstream desktop processors — a manufacturing process the company has been using since 2015, but the next-gen "Comet Lake" processor lineup that has just leaked online looks quite interesting if we take the specs and prices into account. Unfortunately, there are no benchmarks to talk about yet and, unsurprisingly, this entire story needs to be taken with a grain of salt for now, although the specs and prices of quite a few SKUs are now public.

Without further ado, these are the 13 different "Comet Lake" chips that could arrive soon on the market and the prices for 12 of them:

• Intel Core i3-10100: 4 cores, 8 threads, 3.7 GHz base clock, 4.4 GHz single-core boost, 7 MB cache, 62 W TDP, US$129 
• Intel Core i3-10300: 4 cores, 8 threads, 3.8 GHz base clock, 4.5 GHz single-core boost, 9 MB cache, 62 W TDP, US$149
• Intel Core i3-10320: 4 cores, 8 threads, 4.0 GHz base clock, 4.7 GHz single-core boost, 9 MB cache, 91 W TDP, US$159
• Intel Core i3-10350K: 4 cores, 8 threads, 4.1 GHz base clock, 4.8 GHz single-core boost, 9 MB cache, 91 W TDP, US$179
• Intel Core i5-10400: 6 cores, 12 threads, 3.0 GHz base clock, 4.4 GHz single-core boost, 12 MB cache, 65 W TDP, US$179
• Intel Core i5-10500: 6 cores, 12 threads, 3.1 GHz base clock, 4.6 GHz single-core boost, 12 MB cache, 65 W TDP, US$199
• Intel Core i5-10600: 6 cores, 12 threads, 3.2 GHz base clock, 4.8 GHz single-core boost, 12 MB cache, 65 W TDP, US$229
• Intel Core i5-10600K: 6 cores, 12 threads, 3.7 GHz base clock, 4.9 GHz single-core boost, 12 MB cache, 95 W TDP, US$269
• Intel Core i7-10700: 8 cores, 16 threads, 3.1 GHz base clock, 4.9 GHz single-core boost, 16 MB cache, 65 W TDP
• Intel Core i7-10700K: 8 cores, 16 threads, 3.6 GHz base clock, 5.1 GHz single-core boost, 16 MB cache, 95 W TDP, US$339
• Intel Core i9-10800F: 10 cores, 20 threads, 2.7 GHz base clock, 5.0 GHz single-core boost, 20 MB cache, 65 W TDP, US$409
• Intel Core i9-10900F: 10 cores, 20 threads, 3.2 GHz base clock, 5.1 GHz single-core boost, 20 MB cache, 105 W TDP, US$449
• Intel Core i9-10900KF: 10 cores, 20 threads, 3.4 GHz base clock, 5.2 GHz single-core boost, 20 MB cache, 105 W TDP, US$499

Now, we just need to wait for the first benchmarks, but it is already obvious — only considering the specs and prices above — that existing Ryzen chips might finally get some noticeable competitors from Intel. Even if these new chips turn out to fall below expectations, Intel fans should thank AMD for the revised pricing policy of their favorite chip maker. We should also keep in mind that all chips mentioned above — with the exception of the high-end Intel Core i9 — feature UHD 730 graphics.

These upcoming chips will apparently need a new platform, known as LGA 1159 for now. This socket will probably come with a new chipset, so since the mobile "Ice Lake" platform has 400-series chipsets ready, it would be logical for the desktop "Comet Lake" to get some Z490 mainboards which are expected to feature native DDR4-3200 support.

Sadly, there is no word about the launch date of all these new processors (and chipset), but they definitely have to hit the market before the end of the year. In the meantime, we should get ready to see the first benchmarks — it will probably take a few weeks for them to go online, so stay tuned.