Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake & Comet Lake Refresh CPUs Specs & Pre-Order Prices Listed Online, Core i9-11900K Cheaper Than i9-10900K

Intel's entire 11th Generation Rocket Lake & Comet Lake Refresh Desktop CPU family has been listed online along with preliminary prices. A total of 30 CPUs have been listed by Belgian etailer, 2Compute along with prices which suggest that the upcoming flagship might be slightly cheaper than the existing one.

The retailer has listed down 14 Rocket Lake and 5 Comet Lake Refresh Desktop CPUs. All of these are part of the 11th Generation Core lineup that is planned for launch in March 2021. Do note that the prices mentioned here are preliminary and should get lower once we get close to launch. The Intel Rocket Lake CPUs will be featuring the brand new Cypress Cove cores while the Comet Lake Refresh Desktop CPUs will be based on the refined Skylake architecture.

Following are the main Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs that we can expect within the 11th Generation family:

The unlocked K series SKUs will feature a base PL1 TDP of 125W while the non-K SKUs will feature a based TDP of 65W. The 'T' series variants which are the lower TDP SKUs will come with a based TDP of 35W. The Intel Core i9 and Core i7 CPUs based on the Rocket Lake CPU architecture will feature 8 cores, 16 threads, and 16 MB of L3 cache. The Core i5 SKUs will feature 6 cores and 12 threads plus a total of 12 MB L3 cache. All CPUs will be featuring the Intel Xe integrated GPU with 32 EUs or 256 cores.

The most interesting part is that the Intel Core i9-11900K is actually listed for a cheaper price than the Core i9-10900K. This could be due to several reasons with the first one being the total number of cores and threads. The Core i9-10900K rocks 10 cores and 20 threads while the Core i9-11900K will feature 8 cores and 16 threads. Both CPUs will have similar clocks and Rocket Lake comes with a brand new architecture but the 10th Gen 10 core parts still sit at the top end segment so Intel will try not to compete with their own solution which offers better multi-threaded performance as seen in the leaked benchmarks yesterday.

The Intel Core i9-11900K has a listed price of 500 Euros or $600 US while the Core i9-10900K has a listed price of 550 Euros or $665 US. The Core i7-11700K has a listed price of 375 Euros or $450 US while the Core i7-10700K has a listed price of 320 Euros or $390 US. The Core i5-11600K has a price of 240 Euros or $290 US while the Core i5-10600K has a retail price of 230 Euros or $280 US. Again, these are preliminary prices so expect them to be lower at launch.

Moving on to the Comet Lake Refresh lineup, Intel seems to be repositioning its enhanced Skylake architecture for the mainstream and budget tier lineup. The lineup will include the following SKUs:

The Core i3 models will feature 4 cores and 8 threads but all variants except the Core i3-11100 series will feature 8 MB of L3 cache versus 6 MB of L3 cache on the said CPUs. The Pentium line processors will feature 2 cores, 4 threads, & 4 MB of L3 cache while the Celeron lineup will get just 2 cores and no multi-threading support. These chips will also carry 4 MB of L3 cache though. The Core i3 and Pentium models will feature UHD 630 graphics with 24 EUs while the Celeron SKUs will get UHD 610 graphics with 12 EUs.

Intel's Rocket Lake-S desktop CPU platform will feature support on LGA 1200 socket which made its debut with the 10th Gen Comet Lake-S CPUs although on 400-series motherboards. The Intel Rocket Lake-S processors will be launching primarily for the 500-series motherboards but it has been confirmed that LGA 1200 motherboards will offer support for Rocket Lake-S CPUs, especially given the fact that PCIe Gen 4.0 is a prominent feature of Z490 motherboards which would only be enabled with the use of Rocket Lake-S desktop CPUs.

Motherboard makers, especially ASUS will be paying extra attention in incorporating hardware-level integration of PCIe Gen 4 on their Z590 line of motherboards versus their Z490 lineup as we pointed out here. You can also check out our full Z590 motherboard round-up over here.

Main features of Intel's Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs include:

The architecture for Rocket Lake CPUs is said to be Cypress Cove which is reportedly a hybrid between the Sunny Cove and Willow Cove design but will feature Xe Gen 12 GPU architecture. Intel's Core i9-11900K will be the flagship CPU offering in the lineup and expect more info on it soon.

As we reported, the Intel Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs will be shipping months after the 500-series boards that will be available on 11th January. The CPUs are expected to be announced at CES 2021 but a hard launch isn't planned till March-April.

News Source: Momomo_US