Leaked Intel 10th gen Comet Lake-S lineup led by the 10C/20T Core i9-10900K does not seem to offer much for 9th gen owners

Intel almost ran out of answers to AMD's Ryzen 3rd gen lineup across mainstream desktop and HEDT in 2019, but Team Blue may stand a chance to recover some lost ground in 2020. We've already known for sometime that Intel is working on the 10th gen mainstream processors for a 2020 launch. Now, Informatica Cero has accessed slides that offer even more details into the entire Comet Lake-S lineup.

The 10th gen Intel Comet Lake-S lineup starts from the Core i3-10100 and tops with the Core i9-10900K. While all the Core i3 and lower-end Core i5 SKUs are all non-K variants, the Core i5-10600, Core i7-10700, and Core i9-10900 all come in both K and non-K variants. The Core i9s now feature 10 cores and 20 threads while the Core i7-10700 is an 8-core part and is essentially a Core i9-9900K. Unlike last gen's Core i7-9700K, the Core i7 series now support hyperthreading.

The Core i9-10900K is a 125 W TDP processor with 20 MB cache and offers a 3.7 GHz base, 5.2 GHz single-core boost and a 4.8 GHz all-core boost. Intel is indicating boost speeds on the Core i9-10900 and 10900K with a feature called Thermal Velocity Boost. The concept of Thermal Velocity Boost first debuted with the Coffee Lake-H launch in 2018 and denotes an opportunistic increase in clocks under appropriate temperature and power budget conditions. With Thermal Velocity Boost made possible thanks to a more generous 125 W TDP, it is possible to squeeze an additional 100 MHz on both the single-core and all-core boost on the Core i9-10900K. 

Some other noteworthy platform features include the following:

• 40 PCIe Gen3 lanes — 16 from the CPU and 24 from the 400-series PCH (no PCIe Gen4 support).
• Enhanced core and memory overclocking.
• Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ support.
• Intel Rapid Storage Technology 17.x for the new Optane H10 drives.
• Hyperthreading across all SKUs.
• Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0
• DDR4-2933 memory support.
• 2.5G Intel i225 LAN support.
• C10 and S01X support for modern standby.

Wccftech reports that the new Comet Lake-S lineup will feature Intel UHD Graphics 730. We do not know much about the new iGPU but if we were to speculate, it is likely to offer modest improvements over the UHD Graphics 630. 

Availability of Comet Lake-S SKUs is not yet known but if previous launches are any indication, expect to see these processors on shelves sometime around Q3 2020. Of course, all this is still leaked info so it is important to take them with a pinch of salt till the official unveil happens. From the looks of it though, it appears as if 10th gen may not warrant an immediate upgrade if you are already rocking a 9th gen part.

Comet Lake-S will continue to be fabbed on the 14nm process while AMD is all set to improve upon its highly successful 7nm parts in 2020 with the launch of Ryzen 4th gen. It remains to be seen how competitive Intel's offerings will be for the mainstream desktop segment. Pricing will, no doubt, be ultimate deciding factor.