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Intel have now fully revealed their latest processors today, with the Core i9-10900K now their flagship with a claim of it being "the world's fastest gaming processor".

These are their 10th Gen, otherwise known as "Comet Lake". Although it's a new series, this and other chips in it are remaining on 14nm while AMD pushes through 7nm. This doesn't make them bad though, as Intel has repeatedly refined the process to keep them highly competitive.

With their new top end processor, the Core i9-10900K, it does sound like quite a beast with 10 cores, 20 threads, DDR4-2933 memory speeds, a 125W TDP and with their "Thermal Velocity Boost" it can reach speeds of 5.3 GHz.

Here's the full lineup (click to open gallery):

"Intel is committed to enabling the future of powerful desktop gaming by continuously pushing the performance boundary to deliver an amazing PC gaming experience. The 10th Gen Intel Core S-series for desktops, and the Intel Core i9-10900K processor, the world’s fastest gaming processor reinforces our commitment to the gaming and enthusiast communities." said Brandt Guttridge, Intel senior director of the Desktop Products Group.

It's definitely interesting to see how Intel are also upping their core counts now, which is part of the reason AMD has been picking up so much in the last few years as Zen not only allows higher core counts but also competitive performance so Intel are now trying to match again and try to gain the upper-hand once more. Once the newer consoles come out from Sony and Microsoft, higher core counts might truly start to matter for gaming too as more developers and game engines spread across them better. There's a lot to look forward to for hardware enthusiasts on a PC.

AMD did also recently announce their budget processors with the Ryzen 3 3300X and Ryzen 3 3100, plus AMD have their next-gen stuff with Zen 3 on the way this year too. Will you be looking to upgrade or are you going for an AMD CPU? Let us know in the comments.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Hardware, Intel
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19 comments Subscribe

Zlopez 30 Apr 2020
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I will probably go for AMD CPU when seeing how many vulnerabilities Intel CPUs are having right now. With ME as a little bonus.
x_wing 30 Apr 2020
Updated my CPU last year. No regrets...
fabertawe 30 Apr 2020
Still getting an AMD CPU. Can Intel be trusted? I wonder what "tricks" they've used with these new CPUs to be competitive.

And talking of "ME", it's high time I disabled it finally!
Shmerl 30 Apr 2020
You can see it's 14 nm since it boosts to 5 GHz still. On 7 nm nothing will be boosting to such frequency. AMD got ahead of Intel thanks to TSMC, and it's surprising Intel still couldn't get to smaller node process.


Last edited by Shmerl on 30 Apr 2020 at 4:21 pm UTC
Nevertheless 30 Apr 2020
Just upgraded from i7 to Ryzen 5 3600. Sounds like a downgrade, but isn't, and, more important, it has a lot less security flaws...
Nevertheless 30 Apr 2020
I will probably go for AMD CPU when seeing how many vulnerabilities Intel CPUs are having right now. With ME as a little bonus.

ME is the most idiotic idea they ever had!
Arehandoro 30 Apr 2020
I will probably go for AMD CPU when seeing how many vulnerabilities Intel CPUs are having right now. With ME as a little bonus.

I agree with you 100%, and am a happy AMD costumer, but let's not forget about the ME version of AMD; PSP.
Nevertheless 30 Apr 2020
I will probably go for AMD CPU when seeing how many vulnerabilities Intel CPUs are having right now. With ME as a little bonus.

I agree with you 100%, and am a happy AMD costumer, but let's not forget about the ME version of AMD; PSP.

Maybe secure boot was the most idiotic idea, and ME and PSP came because of it..
At least it seems PSP is much better implemented than ME...
Alm888 30 Apr 2020
Maybe secure boot was the most idiotic idea, and ME and PSP came because of it..
At least it seems PSP is much better implemented than ME...
Yeah, much better.
If I were you, I wouldn't be so glad some obscure dude at AMD or its partner (like Netflix or CIA) controls my PC more "professionally". :S:
Besides, these guys are already working on it and have achieved some success.
And their findings and tools are here.
Nevertheless 30 Apr 2020
Maybe secure boot was the most idiotic idea, and ME and PSP came because of it..
At least it seems PSP is much better implemented than ME...
Yeah, much better.
If I were you, I wouldn't be so glad some obscure dude at AMD or its partner (like Netflix or CIA) controls my PC more "professionally". :S:
Besides, these guys are already working on it and have achieved some success.
And their findings and tools are here.

Can't trust anything today...
pete910 1 May 2020
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DOA
Nanobang 1 May 2020
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After decades of Intel usage, I switched to AMD this past winter. Looking over the spec list for this new Intel series I was delighted to find that my new Ryzen 9 3900x still rates better in almost every metric and for less money, less wattage (and doubtless, lower temperature) than anything on this list.

You know what? That feels pretty damn good. :)


Last edited by Nanobang on 3 May 2020 at 11:28 am UTC
mahagr 1 May 2020
Same here, my last AMD CPU was Athlon 64, Since then I've owned only Intel CPUs until now. I'm really glad that I bought R9 3900X -- except that I had to buy beefy after market cooler as I was getting crazy from the stock cooler ramping up and down all the time, even when browsing here on Gaming On Linux. Oh, and I had to wait for Ubuntu 20.04 to get wired networking to work in my motherboard as I was too lazy and thought that I can as well wait for few more weeks.

It is good to have competition and Intel CPU being on par with AMD (depending on what you do) but I would never buy latest Intel CPUs as for me efficiency is just as important as performance is.
pete910 2 May 2020
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Same here, my last AMD CPU was Athlon 64, Since then I've owned only Intel CPUs until now. I'm really glad that I bought R9 3900X -- except that I had to buy beefy after market cooler as I was getting crazy from the stock cooler ramping up and down all the time, even when browsing here on Gaming On Linux. Oh, and I had to wait for Ubuntu 20.04 to get wired networking to work in my motherboard as I was too lazy and thought that I can as well wait for few more weeks.

It is good to have competition and Intel CPU being on par with AMD (depending on what you do) but I would never buy latest Intel CPUs as for me efficiency is just as important as performance is.

What board you using ?
mahagr 2 May 2020
What board you using ?

I'm using MSI MEG Unify as I got 70€ cashback from it. I also wasn't going to buy 12-core CPU, but I was lucky enough to get super limited offer for €349 and I just couldn't let it pass. Seconds later it was all sold out.
pete910 2 May 2020
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I'm using MSI MEG Unify as I got 70€ cashback from it. I also wasn't going to buy 12-core CPU, but I was lucky enough to get super limited offer for €349 and I just couldn't let it pass. Seconds later it was all sold out.

I got a 3900x for 400 monthish after release, luck as they held their price for a good while to start with.

Never been fond of MSI to be frank, Got a 570 taichi my self, all worked out the box for me.
Does the MSI have an odd ethernet chip then ?
mahagr 4 May 2020
New MSI motherboards have 2.5 gig LAN, which wasn't supported in older Kernels (<5.4).


Last edited by mahagr on 4 May 2020 at 1:07 pm UTC
Nanobang 5 May 2020
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... I had to buy beefy after market cooler as I was getting crazy from the stock cooler ramping up and down all the time, even when browsing here on Gaming On Linux.

Just curious about which cooler you bought. The stock one that came with my CPU is pretty beefy looking --- at least compared to the little propeller beanie rigs that came with my Intel CPUs --- and keeps things cool (though it does spin up and down regularly, I'll admit.)
mahagr 5 May 2020
Just curious about which cooler you bought.

Noctua NH-D15 (black). It is much, much better than the Wraith Prism. :) It almost feels overkill on temps, though the good thing is that while not quite silent, it is usually not noticeable.

and keeps things cool (though it does spin up and down regularly, I'll admit.)

I was able to slightly fix the stock cooler by making it ramp down slower, but it was still way too annoying for me to listen to it. I didn't mind the cooling performance, it was fine, but it was really noisy in my otherwise silent case.
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