As we approach October, the rumored launch date of Intel's Core 9000-series processors, the trio comprised of the Core i9-9900K, i7-9700K and i5-9600K processors has started surfacing at various retailers around the globe.
The Intel Core 9000-series processors, also commonly known as Coffee Lake Refresh, have been one of the chipmaker's worst-kept secrets. The amount of leaks floating around the Internet is simply impressive. In case you haven't been following the topic, here's a quick recap of what we know so far from the rumor mill. The Intel Core i9-9900K, i7-9700K and i5-9600K processors are expected to be the only unlocked models of the 9000-series lot and supposedly feature a 95W TDP (thermal design power). However, it's important to note that only the Core i9 and i7 SKUs have a soldered IHS (integrated heat spreader).
Specs
The Intel Core i9-9900K is expected to be Intel's first octa-core mainstream processor. It will reportedly come equipped with eight cores, 16 threads and 16MB of L3 cache. It runs at a base clock of 3.6GHz with a single-core and dual-core boost of 5GHz, 4-core boost of 4.8GHz and a 6-core and 8-core boost of 4.7GHz.
The Intel Core i7-9700K will likely make history in its own right with reports claiming it'll be the first Core i7 model in the chipmaker's history to come without Hyper-Threading. The processor reportedly has eight cores, eight threads and a L3 cache of 12MB. The Core i7-9700K is said to have a 3.6GHz base clock, 4.9GHz single-core boost, 4.8GHz dual-core boost, 4.7GHz 4-core boost and 4.6GHz 6-core and 8-core boost.
As expected, the Intel Core i5-9600K is said to retain the same six cores, six threads and 9MB L3 design as its predecessor. However, Intel is reportedly giving it a significant upgrade in terms of operating frequencies. Reports says the Core i5-9600K will be equipped with a 3.7GHz base clock, 4.6GHz single-core boost, 4.5GHz dual-core boost, 4.4GHz 4-core boost and a 4.3GHz all-core boost.
Pricing
With the technical specifications out of the way, let's look at the most important factor: pricing. After some diligent investigative work, the three processors showed at a few European retailers: Alza.cz, PC21.FR and Informaticazone. After subtracting the VAT and making the necessary currency conversions, here are the estimated prices of the upcoming processors.
Note: Prices in the table below are without VAT (value-added tax).
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| Model | Alza.cz | PC21.FR | Informaticazone |
| Core i9-9900K | 11658.33 Kč (~ $526.30) | € 432.59 (~ $503.17) | € 459.02 (~ $533.95) |
| Core i7-9700K | 9158.33 Kč (~ $413.44) | € 336.04 (~ $390.86) | € 357.38 (~ $415.72) |
| Core i5-9600K | 6241.66 Kč (~ $281.77) | € 229.29 (~ $266.70) | € 220.49 (~ $256.49) |
Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
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ssdpro This is the AMD payoff: Intel releasing a product at $500 that is 8 cores 16 threads with a boost of 4.7 on all cores and 5.0 on two out of the box. Now AMD has competitive products, Intel has more competitive pricing.Reply -
ubercake Reply
For sure! These would have easily been the next gen of $1000+ X-series processors.21269582 said:This is the AMD payoff: Intel releasing a product at $500 that is 8 cores 16 threads with a boost of 4.7 on all cores and 5.0 on two out of the box. Now AMD has competitive products, Intel has more competitive pricing.
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kinggremlin No doubt. Intel released an 8 core SkylakeX cpu last year for $600. So it goes without saying that without AMD, when Intel released the cheaper to make mainstream coffeelake 8 core, they would raise the price $400 to $1000. Totally logical assumption. How much does AMD pay you to post such garbage?Reply -
techgeek This is always the case with any industry (particularly the tech industry), competition always results in lower pricing. Not to mention drives innovation. Thankfully AMD finally came to market with a compelling product, Intel has been sitting on their laurels since Nehelam. The last time this happened in the CPU arena was when Intel released the Core 2 Duo to compete against the Athlon 64's X2's etc. Let's just hope that AMD keeps firing on all cylinders for awhile. Maybe shift some of this newfound success over to their GPU product lines, so we can get graphics card pricing down.Reply -
feelinfroggy777 I think $399 makes sense for the 9900k. It is not easy to justify much more than that.Reply -
stdragon Good or bad, I'm thinking the older lithography tech has something to do with the reduced price.Reply -
coozie7 Those numbers may make sense in the USA but over here in Europe, where we DO pay VAT they're looking expensive-at PC21.fr the R7 2700x is selling at 344 Euro while the i7 9700K is priced at 403 Euro, with what looks like a hefty discount from 489 Euro: https://www.pc21.fr/fiche/bx80684i79700k-intel-core-i9-9700k-3-60ghz-boxed-cpu-i2417728.htmlReply
Add in the likelihood that the i7 won't ship with a cooler and it better be VERY fast compared to the 2700X if these prices stay as they are. -
Sn34kyF0x Competition fuels innovation. Look at Mazda Wankel Engines, amazing little powerhouses that fizzled out because all technologies had to come from inhouse as no one else wanted to build their own versions.Reply
The same is similar with Intel in the late 80's/early 90's, you had AMD, Cyrix, VIA, and others making their own versions and tweaks. Hell, even AMD gave Intel the RISC based performance tweaks with their K6 line. Will all of this the lowly little consumer x86 beat out the newer stronger POWER series and them came up and started eatingninto the high-performance markets.
All this stuff facinates me but I am just glad I can arbitrarily argue with my best friends about why I think Coke, Mazda, Android, and PS4 are better than Pepsi, Ford, iOS and Xbone as all of those things wouldnt exist without the other. ... (Maybe coke would, it's liquid crack to a lot of americans lol) -
Shumok Reply21269743 said:No doubt. Intel released an 8 core SkylakeX cpu last year for $600. So it goes without saying that without AMD, when Intel released the cheaper to make mainstream coffeelake 8 core, they would raise the price $400 to $1000. Totally logical assumption. How much does AMD pay you to post such garbage?
Of course, we never would have seen that $600 Skylake-X without Ryzen. He was accurate with the big picture.