Intel's Coffee Lake Listed At Canadian Retailer, With Pricing

Intel's 8th-generation Coffee Lake architecture has been subject to the usual assortment of leaks that we see before a big launch. The Coffee Lake specifications leaked earlier this week, and now PC Canada, an online retailer celebrating its 21st anniversary, posted the models on back order. VideoCardz reports that the retailer lists restocking on September 16. Most importantly, the retailer also posted pricing, and that pricing indicates a similar cost (generation over generation) for standard SKUs, but a slight increase in "K" model pricing.

The following charts include a combination of a leaked table and a recent slide from a Chinese distribution event. Some of the readings on the slide are blurry, so we've italicized Coffee Lake entries that are open to interpretation. We also included the underlined specifications that we derived from leaked tables that appeared at AnandTech’s forum last month. Both sources feature identical specifications, and our sister site AnandTech has confirmed through external sources that the slide is genuine. As usual with any leak, we do have to caution that the information may not represent final, or even actual, specifications or pricing.

These prices, which we've converted from CAD to USD, are not indicative of Intel's final MSRPs. However, they do give us a good sense of overall pricing trends for the new processors.

We already knew that Intel would bring more cores to the mainstream desktop models with the Coffee Lake processors, but pricing is the wildcard. The company risks cannibalizing its existing product stack if it places pricing on par with its own less-equipped alternatives, but raising prices would also essentially shift the goalposts for the i7, i5, and i3 lineups and encroach on other segments.

PC Canada's i7-8700K pricing lands roughly $30 over the -7700K's $350 MSRP, but PC Canada also lists the -7700K at $462 CAD, implying a smaller $20 price increase for the six-core -8700K. Surprisingly, the Coffee Lake i7-8700 shares nearly the same pricing as its four-core i7-7700 predecessor, which we constantly see on sale at various retailers.

Moving down the stack, the i5-8600K comes with a $20 price delta, while the i5-8400 again shares the same price range. It appears that Intel is merely tacking on an additional $20 premium for the unlocked "K" models.

The i3 lineup slots in as the gamer-friendly mid-range. We see a $10 price delta between the -8350K and the -7350K, and again, almost identical pricing for the locked models.

Both tables above include Coffee Lake's projected performance increases over their Kaby Lake counterparts, and with such a large potential advance in the making, it's obvious that savvy customers will opt for Intel's newest processors over the previous-generation counterparts. The addition of more cores at similar price points is going to place plenty of pressure on AMD's Ryzen lineup, addressing AMD's core count advantage.

AMD's processors are still price-competitive, with a range that extends from $120 for the low end of the Ryzen 3 series to $250 for the Ryzen 5 1600X. AMD also has its pricier Ryzen 7 series that officially ranges from $329 to $499, though we often see them sell far below recommended pricing.

The Intel processors are all also expected to come with integrated graphics, which is already a key advantage over the Ryzen models. The addition of more host processing resources in tandem with integrated graphics would potentially allow Intel to effectively stave off the existing Ryzen models and possibly AMD's future APU contenders.

Intel has been particularly steadfast in its current pricing for mainstream models; it hasn't budged an inch in the face of the Ryzen competition, and this likely has more to do with long-term margin goals, especially in light of the company's famed ~60% margin. We have seen Intel lower pricing on its new Skylake-X models, at least relative to the Broadwell-era chips, which indicates the company is more willing to be flexible as it introduces new products.

In light of the increased cadence of leaks, it appears that Intel's 8th-generation processors will come to market much earlier than many expected. If the listed pricing holds true, and it's likely given the nature of the newly-competitive processor market, it could be a sign that Intel is striving to make Coffee Lake a better value proposition for regular users and enthusiasts alike, even if the new lineup will require the step up to a new motherboard.