News Rumor Outlines Intel Comet Lake Features, Specifications, and Launch Window

salgado18

Distinguished
Feb 12, 2007
981
438
19,370
Oh, look! What's that? The second leak about the next Intel CPUs, four days after Zen 2 lauches? What a coincidence! </sarcasm>

Intel is in damage-control mode, until a new architecture and/or 10nm is ready. But it doesn't help that a new socket is needed. Top end will keep dominated by Ryzen 9 3950X, but they will battle hard from 10/12 cores down, which could be interesting.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bit_user
May 3, 2019
14
2
15
So for the next H-Series Mobile CPUs for high-end laptops, should we expect 14nm Comet Lake or the 10nm Ice Lake during H1 2020?
 
So for the next H-Series Mobile CPUs for high-end laptops, should we expect 14nm Comet Lake or the 10nm Ice Lake during H1 2020?

intel isn't able to get high clock speeds out of their 10nm process. thus far the only planned 10nm release is for their atom/low end mobile chip lineup, and apparently (per some insider leaks) while there is a 15% ipc improvement over current atom processors, there is almost a 20% max clock speed hit, netting a nearly -5% total performance from their 10mn node.

The rumor is Intel is already planning to skip 10nm all together because it just doesn't work right for them, on the desktop/server market.
 
May 3, 2019
14
2
15
intel isn't able to get high clock speeds out of their 10nm process. thus far the only planned 10nm release is for their atom/low end mobile chip lineup, and apparently (per some insider leaks) while there is a 15% ipc improvement over current atom processors, there is almost a 20% max clock speed hit, netting a nearly -5% total performance from their 10mn node.

The rumor is Intel is already planning to skip 10nm all together because it just doesn't work right for them, on the desktop/server market.

Oh wow, really? So for the high-end laptop market (i.e. the i7 & i9 H-Series CPUs), what's the rumor? Are they introducing Comet Lake (14nm) in 2020 followed by Rocket Lake (14nm) in 2021, and then straight to Meteor Lake (7nm) in 2022? So no 10nm Ice Lake, 10nm Tiger Lake & 10nm Alder Lake CPUs for the H-Series? That would shock me to be honest.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: bit_user
yeah, thus far even intel's roadmaps don't seem to indicate any impending 10nm release on HEDT, DT, or HELT. They made a huge hullabaloo about their 10nm process netting them a 15% IPC uplift and hid in their release that it was for their atom/low power mobile chips only. Considering the rumor for YEARS has been Intel can't seem to clock up their 10nm process which is why it's been delayed for so long, this seems like confirmation of that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Armani316
May 3, 2019
14
2
15
yeah, thus far even intel's roadmaps don't seem to indicate any impending 10nm release on HEDT, DT, or HELT. They made a huge hullabaloo about their 10nm process netting them a 15% IPC uplift and hid in their release that it was for their atom/low power mobile chips only. Considering the rumor for YEARS has been Intel can't seem to clock up their 10nm process which is why it's been delayed for so long, this seems like confirmation of that.
It makes sense now why Intel talked about their 7nm products a couple of months ago!
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1431...oadmap-refined-nodes-specialized-technologies

I thought the priority for the 7nm architecture is for their upcoming Xe GPUs, but if what you're saying is true, if Intel does not plan on releasing any 10nm H-Series CPUs, we could see the 7nm H-Series Meteor Lake CPUs in H1 2022 if they release the following:

14nm Comet Lake H-Series CPUs (H1 2020)
14nm Rocket Lake H-Series CPUs (H1 2021)
7nm Meteor Lake H-Series CPUs (H1 2022)

This is assuming what you said, that Intel will completely skip the 10nm architecture (2020 Ice Lake | 2021 Tiger Lake | 2022 Alder Lake) for the H-Series CPUs.

Is this what you think is going to happen? I was planning on upgrading my laptop in a couple of years once Tiger Lake H-Series CPUs are out, but now it looks like I'll be waiting another year for Meteor Lake. No way I'm getting yet another 14nm CPU.
 

bit_user

Titan
Ambassador
yeah, thus far even intel's roadmaps don't seem to indicate any impending 10nm release on HEDT, DT, or HELT. They made a huge hullabaloo about their 10nm process netting them a 15% IPC uplift
I think it was the architecture changes that delivered the IPC uplift, but the process node that's holding back the clockspeeds.

Unfortunately, the two are sort of intertwined. That's why 14 nm has continued seeing Skylake-offshoots.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TJ Hooker
May 3, 2019
14
2
15
Let's see what AMD has to offer, in a laptop power envelope. Perhaps a non-14 nm upgrade is closer than you think...
All laptops in the categories that I'm interested in (Creators laptops / Thin & light gaming laptops) have been using Intel's H-Series for years. Unless the manufacturers (e.g. Gigabyte, Razer) decide to switch CPU vendors, AMD will unfortunately remain irrelevant to me.
 

MasterMadBones

Distinguished
Looks like yet another nail in Ice Lake's coffin. Mid-2020 now becomes late 2020, which is very likely after or at the same time as Ryzen 4000. Every step in clock speed that Intel takes with 14nm is one they have to make with 10nm too if they want to improve performance at all. They're making it harder for themselves at this point.

Intel has even had to concede on its high-end TDP, further widening the power consumption gap that AMD made with Ryzen 3000. If i9-9900K numbers are anything to go by, these CPUs could consume more than 200W, perhaps beating AMD by 5-10% single-threaded but still miles behind otherwise. If the i9-9900KS wasn't already reminiscent of the FX-9000 series (or Pentium EE), then Comet Lake certainly will be.

intel isn't able to get high clock speeds out of their 10nm process. thus far the only planned 10nm release is for their atom/low end mobile chip lineup, and apparently (per some insider leaks) while there is a 15% ipc improvement over current atom processors, there is almost a 20% max clock speed hit, netting a nearly -5% total performance from their 10mn node.

Let's not exaggerate the numbers, Intel claims an 18% IPC improvement and a 4.1 GHz peak boost clock for a quad core i7 mobile CPU, at 28W TDP. Intel's current highest-tier 28W mobile i7 is the i7-8569U, which has a peak boost of 4.7 GHz and is also quad core. We're basically looking at the very SKU it's replacing. Assuming Intel's claims are true, we should see a 3% single threaded improvement over Coffee Lake. That is still abysmal, but it's certainly no regression.

That doesn't necessarily tell us anything about desktop CPUs; 4.1 GHz may be all Ice Lake will do, even if it turns out to be relatively efficient, which we also don't know yet. Intel says that Ice Lake has been released to OEMs last month so it will take a while before we see any products with it. It's sure to beat Picasso easily, but that isn't so impressive now since that is still on Zen+ with 12nm.

Don't forget the integrated graphics though. If Ice Lake has one selling point, it's the fact that Intel's IGP finally surpasses AMD's APUs. That should be extremely valuable in ultrabooks.
 
Last edited:

GetSmart

Commendable
Jun 17, 2019
173
44
1,610
If Intel ever sticks to this type of roadmap then it would be disastrous (too little and too late) and would lose a nice chunk of the market share especially in the DIY PC space (and home productivity workstations). The effect of AMD's new 3rd generation Ryzen CPUs currently just released have not fully made an impact yet but pretty sure Intel will push the panic button after several quarters.