Intel Coffee Lake (8th & 9th Gen Core CPUs) + Skylake-X Refresh & W-3175X MegaThread! FAQ and Resources

[Hellfire13]

Finally a balanced review here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZIVaGcax70

 

[Olle P]

so when are these hitting the stores?

Some CPUs will likely reach stores before christmas.
Real availability will be shortly before the Ice Lake launch...

 

[juanrga]

The first 8600K/7600K comparison at HardOCP hits the web...
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/10/05/intel_coffee_lake_core_i58600k_vs_7600k_at_5ghz_review/1
Summary: IPC gains? Zero.... Clock for clock, core for core, they perform the same at 5 GHz....

and the early HardOCP results confirm that, clock for clock, it's a 7600K with 2 cores glued on....; zero IPC gain....

It has been known for years that CofeeLake is a second optimization of Skylake. So, the core muarch is exactly the same. The only IPC gains over Kabylake come from the use of faster memory (2666 vs 2400; only for i5 and i7 models) and the larger L3 cache. Some of us estimated in HardOCP forums that CoffeeLake would have ~4% higher IPC in memory-bound workloads, that don't use all the cores.

Cinebench is not memory-bound and its sensitivity to to memory speed is small, but it already seems to show some IPC gain. Clocks alone would give score of 204, but the 8700k does 206

So, it's an almost confirmed fact Intel just slapped/glued 2 extra cores into KabyLake, rebrand it as CoffeeLake and force you to get a new platform for it.

There are more cores, more cache, faster RAM, higher clocks for both CPU and GPU, and superior overclocks; with part of those advantages coming from using the new 14nm++ process. There are also changes on the mobos, with one-clicks overclocking as part of the "enhanced overclocking" features

 

[ms5555]

I haven't seen any reviews of the i3s. A 3.6 ghz quad core for $120? That's insane, it's specs are nearly identical to the i5-7400 which is a very solid gaming cpu. Very few games benefit from more than 4 cores, but the old i3 dual cores weren't sufficient for them. I can't find any benchmarks for the i3-8100 though, only the i3-8350k (which is apparently very fast).

 

[RobCrezz]

I haven't seen any reviews of the i3s. A 3.6 ghz quad core for $120? That's insane, it's specs are nearly identical to the i5-7400 which is a very solid gaming cpu. Very few games benefit from more than 4 cores, but the old i3 dual cores weren't sufficient for them. I can't find any benchmarks for the i3-8100 though, only the i3-8350k (which is apparently very fast).

They should be similar performance to the 7000 series i5s with similar clock speeds. I dont think anyone has them for reviews yet.

 

[juanrga]

so when are these hitting the stores?

People has been purchasing them since yesterday.

 

[juanrga]

Found this in another forum

 

[ms5555]

I haven't seen any reviews of the i3s. A 3.6 ghz quad core for $120? That's insane, it's specs are nearly identical to the i5-7400 which is a very solid gaming cpu. Very few games benefit from more than 4 cores, but the old i3 dual cores weren't sufficient for them. I can't find any benchmarks for the i3-8100 though, only the i3-8350k (which is apparently very fast).

They should be similar performance to the 7000 series i5s with similar clock speeds. I dont think anyone has them for reviews yet.

Which is quite amazing since the price is $60-80 less on the 8100. Seems like a pretty big price jump to the 8350. This is basically like finding the i5-7400 on sale.

I've needed a cpu upgrade for a while but have been holding off not sure whether to go with a hex core or a quad, but this pretty much seals the deal for me.

 

[paul159944]

http://www.pcgamer.com/intel-i5-8400-review-the-best-new-gaming-cpu-in-years/ looks very tempting to buy the 8400.

 

[rob.salewytsch]

In doing this whole Coffee Lake vs Ryzen dance, all of the 4k comparisons I see have basically the same framerate. From what I've read, this is because the GPU actually becomes the bottleneck at 4K. Has anyone seen any comparisons that remove the GPU from being the bottleneck? The reason I ask is because if I buy a new GPU in a year or 2, I would rather have the CPU that will be better suited to 4k. KWIM?

 

[-Fran-]

http://techreport.com/blog/32661/just-how-hot-is-coffee-lake

Overclockers be warned. It seems a lot of sites are finding that Coffee Lake is not a summer drink and can be quite hot when pushed.

That strengthens my belief that the locked i7 8700 is the better purchase in the upper tier and i5K will be the "smart buy" for games.

Jeez, I wonder why Intel is so hell bent on using TIM...

Cheers!

 

[rob.salewytsch]

Judging by the table posted by Juanrga, the 8400 is the clear winner. Basically the same performance as the 8700k at ~half the price. Granted, no OC, but come on...

 

[weberdarren97]

Will overclocking motherboards be able to do a base clock overclock on non-K SKUs?

 

[goldstone77]

http://www.pcgamer.com/intel-i5-8400-review-the-best-new-gaming-cpu-in-years/ looks very tempting to buy the 8400.

I agree with you after reading that review! i5-8400 looks to be the real gaming king when it comes to price to performance!

Intel BX80684I58400 8th Gen Core i5-8400 Processor Price: $187.00 Free Shipping for Prime Members

 

[randomizer]

Judging by the table posted by Juanrga, the 8400 is the clear winner.

It would be clearer if you could buy a more appropriate motherboard to go with it.

 

[rob.salewytsch]

So if the 8400 seems to be the p2p champ, can anyone give an idea how the motherboard prices compare to say a Ryzen mobo? For instance, when looking at ryzen I was looking at 370, b350, and b320 (although not really this last one).

Does the 8400 lose some of it's p2p win when you factor in the entire platform cost?

 

[JohnMiller92]

So if the 8400 seems to be the p2p champ, can anyone give an idea how the motherboard prices compare to say a Ryzen mobo? For instance, when looking at ryzen I was looking at 370, b350, and b320 (although not really this last one).

Does the 8400 lose some of it's p2p win when you factor in the entire platform cost?

Yes, it's going to be a little more now because the h-series and cheaper mobos are not out yet. But it's still definitely worth it. 8400 is a monster that can still be bclk'd on some mobos to 5GHz+.

 

[paul159944]

So if the 8400 seems to be the p2p champ, can anyone give an idea how the motherboard prices compare to say a Ryzen mobo? For instance, when looking at ryzen I was looking at 370, b350, and b320 (although not really this last one).

Does the 8400 lose some of it's p2p win when you factor in the entire platform cost?

I can find z370 boards goin for around £100 https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/fjPzK8/msi-z370-a-pro-atx-lga1151-motherboard-z370-a-pro i am just unsure as to whether or not i should spend £60 more on a good board so i might be able to get a K CPU in the future. but it does look like the 8400 can keep up with any GPU out today so i might just get the 8400 and slap it into a cheap z370 board here in the uk that would be £266 CPU and Mother.

 

[madmatt30]

@paul159944 - you listed a z270 board which is not compatible.

The cheapest z370 are the gigabyte z370 hd3, asrock z370 killer & MSI z370 gaming pro which are £125-130

You're looking at £310 for combined Intel CPU/mb & £260 for ryzen 1600/mb

 

[paul159944]

@paul159944 - you listed a z270 board which is not compatible.

The cheapest z370 are the gigabyte z370 hd3, asrock z370 killer & MSI z370 gaming pro which are £125-130

You're looking at £310 for combined Intel CPU/mb & £260 for ryzen 1600/mb

oops my bad i meant this one https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/fjPzK8/msi-z370-a-pro-atx-lga1151-motherboard-z370-a-pro

 

[paul159944]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUU_XJeSLqA this is very interesting they claim that they managed to overclock using the FSB and they also claim that you might be able to overclock the i5 8400 doing this......

 

[madmatt30]

^ those 2 asrock boards have an external hardware based blck generator , they did the same with a few older sky/kaby boards when Intel forced manufacturers to lock down blck overclocking in the past.

Essentially it means you can overclock any chip via blck without affecting ram speeds or any other aspect of the chipset.

I had an i5 6400 running at 4.2ghz on the b250 fatality k4

You lose any & all power saving features though , it ran that speed 100% of the time, no down stepping clock or voltage wise & it disabled the integrated graphics completely.

So yes I would imagine its the same unless they've managed to improve it in some way.

In essence though those boards are likely $60-70 expensive so you'd pay about the same for the 8600k & a cheaper board & have none of those pitfalls.

To be honest the 8400 looks fast enough as it is with no overclocking.

 

[paul159944]

^ those 2 asrock boards have an external hardware based blck generator , they did the same with a few older sky/kaby boards when Intel forced manufacturers to lock down blck overclocking in the past.

Essentially it means you can overclock any chip via blck without affecting ram speeds or any other aspect of the chipset.

I had an i5 6400 running at 4.2ghz on the b250 fatality k4

You lose any & all power saving features though , it ran that speed 100% of the time, no down stepping clock or voltage wise & it disabled the integrated graphics completely.

So yes I would imagine its the same unless they've managed to improve it in some way.

In essence though those boards are likely $60-70 expensive so you'd pay about the same for the 8600k & a cheaper board & have none of those pitfalls.

To be honest the 8400 looks fast enough as it is with no overclocking.

8400 and a cheap board like the MSI Z370-A PRO and not worry about overclocking is the way i think i am going to go. i just hope 3 to 4 years down the line i do not regret not getting a 8600k to overclock to keep up with a 3-4 year newer GPU....

 

[juanrga]

Just as expected the 6C Coffeelake i7-8700k has similar performance than top 8C Ryzen, thanks to higher clocks and IPC

it play games so well as 4C Kabylake

and consumes less power. The 95W R7 1800X draws 129W from the socket, whereas the 95W i7 8700k draws 100W.

So CFL is faster, cheaper, consumes less power, and overclocks better.

 

[juanrga]

PcPER has interesting numbers as well

i7-8700K is 7% faster than R7-1800X on Ashes (a game that uses lots of threads, the fastest CPU is 10C), but the i7-8700K is 48% faster than R7-1800X on Far Cry. Interesting that in three games the i5 was 3% faster than the i7. I guess it is SMT problem with those games.

As expected CoffeLake is faster in ST CB15, but slower in MT

The 6C 8700k is 13% behind the 8C 1800X in CB15, but the i7 is only 5% behind in Handbrake

on pair with RyZen in two pass X264

8% behnid ni POV-Ray

the i7 is 14% and 9% faster in Blender

the i7 is 52% faster in Audacity

and 15% faster i 7-zip

Total power consumption for the i7-8700k is only 24W above the i7-7700k, despite having higher clocks and 50% more cores. The R7 1800X consumers more power.