Rumor: Intel Comet Lake 10th-Gen CPUs Feature Up To 10 Cores, New LGA1200 Socket and 400-Series Chipset

A leak courtesy of WCCFTech (which certainly has a spotty track record with leaks, it has to be said) has outed several purported Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 processors, all of which are expected to be based on the 14nm Comet Lake architecture. As with all  unverified rumors, you should take this information with a shovelful of salt. That said, the expansive number of slides appear, at least on the surface, to be legitimate. However, there is no way for us to verify this information independently.  

(Image credit: Intel)

Though this information isn't necessarily new, much of it confirms previous leaks and assumptions about Comet Lake and 10th-Gen desktop CPUs: up to 10 cores that require a new 400-series chipset and LGA 1200 socket.

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CPU NameCores / ThreadsBase / Boost Clock (GHz) TDPCachePrice
Intel Core i9-10900K 10/20 TBDTBD20 MB TBD
Intel Core i9-10900 10/20 3.0 / 5.165W 20 MB TBD
Intel Core i9-10900T 10/20 2.0 / 4.535W20 MB TBD
Intel Core i7-10700K 8/16 TDPTDP16 MB TBD
Intel Core i7-10700 8/16 3.0 / 4.865W 16 MB TBD
Intel Core i7-10700T 8/16 2.0 / 4.435W16 MB TBD
Intel Core i5-10500K 6/12 TBDTDP12 MB TBD
Intel Core i5-10500 6/12 3.2 / 4.365W 12 MB TBD
Intel Core i5-10500T 6/12 2.3 / 3.735W12 MB TBD
Intel Core i3-10100K 4/8 TBDTDP8 MB TBD
Intel Core i3-10100 4/8 3.2 / 3.865W 8 MB TBD
Intel Core i3-10100T 4/8 2.3 / 3.635W8 MB TBD
Intel Pentium G6400 2/4 3.8 / 3.865W 4 MB TBD
Intel Pentium G6400T 2/4 3.2 / 3.2 35W4 MB TBD
Intel Celeron G5900 2/2 3.2 / 3.265W 2 MB TBD
Intel Celeron G5900T 2/2 3.0 / 3.035W2 MB TBD

*Information in table compiled by WCCFTech, not verified

The leak comes in the form of presentation slides that appear to be from Intel's IoT (Internet of Things) Group. In terms of features and specifications, we see that Comet Lake could deliver up to 10 cores, 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes (not 4.0 sadly) from the CPU, and up to 40 total lanes thanks to 24 additional PCIe lanes that hang off the PCH. 

The platform also purportedly supports WiFi 6, but that listing has been annotated with "Under Evaluation," meaning it may not make it into the final revision of hardware. Another slide says Comet Lake will have 18% higher multi-threaded performance than Coffee Lake (no word on single thread). An 18% improvement is not as big as one might expect, given the 25% increase in core count.

Unsurprisingly, the high-end Core i9-10900 is a locked SKU (meaning without a K) has ten cores and 20 MB of cache, though curiously the slide says the chip will run at a mere 65-watt TDP. Both the Core i7-8700 and i9-9900 have a 65-watt TDP, so it wouldn't be surprising if Intel also slapped a 65-watt TDP on a 10-core CPU. 

Down the line, it seems all of Intel's upcoming 10th-Gen CPUs will have Hyper-Threading and the i7, i5, and i3 branded products will have 8, 6, and 4 cores, respectively, which has been rumored and backed up by test submissions to public databases, for some time now. The leak also mentions several Xeon SKUs that are not properly named yet.

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Chipset Name Intel Z490 Intel W480 Intel Q470 Intel H410
HSIO Lanes46 Lanes (16 CPI + 30 PCH) 46 Lanes (16 CPI + 30 PCH) 46 Lanes (16 CPI + 30 PCH) 30 Lanes (16 CPI + 14 PCH)
PCIe 3.0 Lanes (CPU/PCH)Up To 40 (16 CPU + 24 PCH) Up To 40 (16 CPU + 24 PCH) Up To 40 (16 CPU + 24 PCH) 22 (16 CPU + 6 PCIe 2.0)
Chipset LanesUp To 24 Up To 24 Up To 24 6 (PCIe 2.0 Only)
SATA 3.0 PortsUp To 8 Up To 8 Up To 64
Maximum USB 3.2 Ports Gen 2 (10 Gb/s) / Gen 1 (5 Gb/s) 8/10 8/10 6/10 0/4
Tota USB Ports (Maximum USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s)) 14 (10) 14 (10) 14 (10) 10 (4)
Intel RST Technology For PCIe 3.0 storage ports 3 PCH 3 PCH 3 PCH 0
eSPI 2 Chip Select 2 Chip Select 2 Chip Select 1 Chip Select
Overclocking Support YesN/A N/A N/A
Processor PCIe Express 3.0 Lanes Configuration 1x16 or 2x8 or 1x8 + 2x4 1x16 or 2x8 or 1x8 + 2x4 1x16 or 2x8 or 1x8 + 2x4 1x16
Display Support (Ports / Pipes) 3/3 3/3 3/3 3/2
DMI 3.0 Lanes 4444 (DMI 2.0 Only)
System Memory Channels / DPC 2/2 (DDR4-2666) 2/2 (DDR4-2666) 2/2 (DDR4-2666) 2/1 (DDR4-2666)

*Information in table compiled by WCCFTech, not verified

Finally, Intel is supposedly moving away from the LGA1151 socket to LGA1200, meaning Comet Lake will not be compatible with 300-series motherboards at all. The document lists the new 400-series chipsets as the Z490, the W480, the Q470, and the H410. Only Z490 supports overclocking, but W480 is otherwise identical. Q470 is missing a few SATA and USB ports, and H410 has the least lanes, USB ports, SATA ports, and display options.

According to the leak, all of this will come in the first half of 2020, which could be anywhere from January to June. Though we could not find anything obviously wrong or off about this leak, take it with some salt, same as any other leak. If this information is true, then it certainly confirms many previous Comet Lake benchmark submissions to public databases from earlier this year.

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Matthew Connatser

Matthew Connatser is a freelancing writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes articles about CPUs, GPUs, SSDs, and computers in general.

  • dave.jeffers
    Rumoured delay: A2BLLBSd3Yc:1085View: https://youtu.be/A2BLLBSd3Yc?t=1085
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    dave.jeffers said:
    Rumoured delay: A2BLLBSd3Yc:1085View: https://youtu.be/A2BLLBSd3Yc?t=1085

    Rumor are rumors. Always taken with a grain of salt. Rumor was that we would have 16 core 5GHz Ryzen 3 chips now.
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    I'm not happy seeing WCCFTech-sourced content show up on Tom's. I have seen so much incorrect information show up on WCCFTech that I do not trust the site even on mild leaks. I wish their information was good because I'd have much stronger computers than I do now.

    If this information is true, then I'm surprised to see Intel content to lag 2 cores behind AMD. Intel tends to like parity and slightly higher prices. I'm not sure Intel has realized that the latest AMD products are beating the Intel ones in both performance and power consumption. It's time for Intel to deliver their answer to Ryzen. Comet Lake isn't it if these specs are true.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    bigdragon said:
    I'm not happy seeing WCCFTech-sourced content show up on Tom's. I have seen so much incorrect information show up on WCCFTech that I do not trust the site even on mild leaks. I wish their information was good because I'd have much stronger computers than I do now.

    If this information is true, then I'm surprised to see Intel content to lag 2 cores behind AMD. Intel tends to like parity and slightly higher prices. I'm not sure Intel has realized that the latest AMD products are beating the Intel ones in both performance and power consumption. It's time for Intel to deliver their answer to Ryzen. Comet Lake isn't it if these specs are true.

    I agree on the WCCFTech. I have seen rumors there change over night for the same product.

    That said, Intel still has a performance edge, still ever so slightly higher IPC depending on the task, in desktop especially being able to clock 8 cores to 5GHz.

    Desktop is however not the most important market. If I were to set them myself it would go HPC/Server, mobile (laptops and such) and then desktop and then allll the way to the very very end is the enthusiast (us) market. HPC/Server makes vastly higher margins and mobile sells vastly more volume than desktops.

    Thats why there are 10nm parts in mobile, where AMD doesn't have as competitive of a processor (they max out at 4 cores while Intel has up to 6) with current plans, unless it changes, for server 10nm parts next. Desktop I am not sure. I almost think they would be better off skipping 10nm desktop and going to 7nm along with skipping Sunny Cove and going with Golden Cove.
    Reply