Intel Says 10th Gen Intel Core S-series Desktop Processors Are The World’s Fastest for Gaming

Intel oficially introduced today the 10th Gen Intel Core S-series desktop processors, including Intel’s flagship Core i9-10900K processor -- the world’s fastest gaming processor according to the company.

With speeds reaching up to a maximum of 5.3 GHz with Intel Thermal Velocity Boost out of the box, 10th Gen Intel Core desktop processors promise to deliver real-world performance for gaming.

Though overall base clock speeds appear to be higher than those offered in the Coffee Lake-R chips we saw a year ago, however, don’t be fooled by the 10th-gen nomenclature. These are still 14nm parts, with the same UHD 630 integrated GPU as the prior generation. Comet Lake S will also require new LGA 1200 socket motherboards to accommodate TDP power that has climbed to 125W in places.

Even if you're not sold on the idea of hyper-threading being added to yet more 14nm CPUs, Intel does have one other really interesting feature it's adding to its 10th Gen CPUs. It has a thinner CPU die at 0.8mm thick and a 0.3mm-thicker heat spreader. This means that heat should find its way out of the CPU cores quicker than with previous generations, while the thicker heat spreader is purely there to ensure the top of the CPU sits at the same height as usual.

At the top of the stack is the unlocked 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10900K, featuring up to 10 cores, 20 threads and DDR4-2933 memory speeds. The $488 chip looks to tackle AMD's popular Ryzen 9 3900X. Intel claims the 10900K beats the eight-core Core i9-9900K by anywhere from 10% to 33% in several Intel-optimized game titles. The new Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 provides automatic performance boosts on lightly threaded applications, while per-core hyperthreading control allows experienced overclockers to decide which threads to turn on or off on a per-core basis.

Acording to Intel, improvements in this generation include:

• Up to 187 frames per second (Megatasking workload on PUBG on 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10900K ) for in-game performance while streaming and recording, and up to 63 percent more frames per second (Players Unknown Battleground (PUBG) on 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10900K vs. 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7700K.) in gaming compared with a 3-year-old PC
• Up to 12 percent faster (Adobe Lightroom Classic workload RUG 1010 on Intel Core i9-10900K vs. Intel Core i9- 9900K) video editing compared with the previous generation, and up to 15 percent faster6 video editing (Adobe Lightroom Classic workload RUG 1010 on Intel Core i9-10900K vs. Intel Core i7-7700K) compared with a 3-year-old PC.
• Up 18 percent faster (Adobe Premier Pro CC workload RUG 1209 on Intel Core i9-10900K vs. Intel Core i9- 9900K) 4K video editing compared with the previous generation, and up to 35 percent faster (Adobe Premier Pro CC workload RUG 1209 on Intel Core i9-10900K vs. Intel Core i7-7700K) 4K video editing compared with a 3-year-old PC.
• Up to 31 percent better overall system performance compared with a 3-year-old PC (SYSMark 2018 on on Intel Core i9-10900K vs. Intel Core i7-7700K).

Features:

• Intel Thermal Velocity Boost: Gamers and creators get an opportunistic and automatic boost across single-core and multicore workloads, with up to 5.3 GHz.
• Intel Hyperthreading Technology: Now across 10th Gen Intel Core i9 to i3 processors.
• Enhanced Core & Memory Overclocking: Gain control when overclocking your processor and key system components with features enabled by new unlocked and overclockable 10th Gen Intel Core processors.
• Intel Ethernet Connection I225: Now available on the 10th Gen platform, 2.5G Intel Ethernet Connector I225 delivers greater than two times the network speeds of 1GB Ethernet on existing cabling.
• Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201: Now integrated into 10th Gen Intel Core desktop processors, Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) delivers responsive gameplay, nearly three times faster downloads and more reliable connections.

The range of 32 new processors from Intel will vary from two core Celeron parts at 35 W all the way up to ten-core Core i9 hardware rated for 125 W, with per-unit pricing from $42 to $488. The standard rated TDP is 65 W, with the overclocked models at 125 W, the low-power T models at 35 W, and Pentium/Celeron at 58 W. All of the Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 processors will have HyperThreading. Certain models will also have F variants without integrated graphics, which will have a slightly lower per-unit cost.

Intel said that the UHD630 graphics core runs at 350MHz, boosting to 1.2GHz if needed. The exceptions lie in some Core i5 processors, where the dynamic boost speed falls slightly to 1.15GHz or 1.10GHz speeds.

You'll need to buy a new Z490 motherboard with the LGA 1200 interface to support the Comet Lake lineup, and the chips aren't backward compatible with older motherboards.

Intel is still stuck on PCIe 3.0 while AMD supports PCIe 4.0 with twice the throughput. Motherboard vendors accommodated PCIe 4.0 on some Z490 motherboards for unspecified future chips, but that comes with higher pricing, and you won't be able to use the feature any time soon.

Most Z490 motherboards will offer 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports while the new platform will also offer WiFi 6 and Thunderbolt 3 support.

With Comet Lake, Intel bumped memory support up from dual-channel DDR4-2666 to DDR4-2933 for the Core i9 and i7 models, while the Core i5 and Core i3 chips largely maintain the same DDR4-2666 support as the previous-gen Coffee Lake Refresh chips.

Unfortunately, the Core i9 series and the overclockable chips still don't come with a bundled cooler. Meanwhile, AMD provides bundled coolers with all but one of its mainstream chips. In either case, LGA 115x coolers are compatible with LGA 1200 motherboards, which is a plus.

10th Gen Intel Core S-series processors are expected to be available globally through normal retail channels and in desktops sold worldwide by OEMs and channel system integrators, starting in May.

Comparison with AMD'offerings

How does Intel’s hardware stack up against the Zen 2 processors from AMD? Take a lok at the tabkes below.

Priced at about ~$430, the Core i9-10900F goes up against the R9 3900X:

It seems that Intel has the higher turbo favored core and lower TDP, but AMD has the much higher base frequency, PCIe 4.0 support, and faster memory.

At the $180 segment, the , the Core i3-10500 and i3-10400F go up against the popular Ryzen 5 3600:

The Core i3-10500 has the higher turbo frequency, but since we have to do with Zen 2 vs Skylake, it still may be a win for AMD. The fact that the base frequency is in AMD’s favor considerably, plus the DDR4 support and PCIe support, means that the AMD chip is likely the option here.

ATX12VO motherboard standard reduces idle desktop power

In related news, PC manufacturer ASRock launched the industry’s first ATX12VO motherboard, the Z490 Phantom Gaming 4SR on April 30.

The ATX12VO standard takes out the 3.3- and 5-volt rails from the power supply and moves the creation of these voltages to the motherboard where they can be more energy-efficient.

Stephen Eastman, platform power specialist in Intel’s Client Computing Group, and his team work on reducing the idle power that desktop PC’s use. Desktop computers often spend more time idle than in any other use. Any way to reduce power used during these long stretches of minimal activity is vital to cutting a PC’s overall power consumption.

Using less power is always good, but it will be even more important when governments around the world introduce new energy regulations for desktop computers. This includes EPA’s ENERGY STAR for Computers v8 in 2020, the California Energy Commission Title 20, Tier 2 requirement in 2021 (with other U.S. states following), and Japan’s Top Runner program in 2022. All these regulations are requiring PC makers to adjust their desktop power targets.

A single rail power supply design is one answer to help OEMs reduce desktop PC idle power and meet the new government regulations. For years there have been custom single rail power supply designs. But until Intel created the ATX12VO design and publicly shared it, there was no industry standard to help PC-makers reduce the energy desktop systems use when idling.

But it’s more complicated than just a new power supply. The new ATX12VO standard requires a redesign to the motherboard. The two parts work in tandem under the new standard.

“This is a part of Intel’s greater PC story to enable the most energy efficient desktop computers,” says Eastman. Intel is a processor company, he says, but it is also a company that helps OEMs. And that’s why Intel spent the last two years creating and sharing this standard.

On April 30, PC manufacturer ASRock launched the industry’s first ATX12VO motherboard around the Intel 10th Gen Intel Core S-series platform. It reduces idle power by 27% compared to a similar featured motherboard and traditional ATX multi-rail power supply design.

“We’re extremely delighted to co-develop this revolutionary motherboard — Z490 Phantom Gaming 4SR — with Intel. This new design is able to improve power efficiency of the PC and meet new energy regulations. We believe the new ATX12VO will be the solution for the next generation of personal computer,” says Chris Lee, general manager of ASRock Motherboard BU.

Intel is also working with power supply unit builders such as FSP, High Power, Channel Well Technology and Corsair to build ATX12VO power supply units to go with the motherboards.

Intel is releasing the spec to provide the industry with a consistent design. It’s especially important for medium to smaller OEMs that don’t have the resources to create their own power supply spec. It will allow them to continue selling devices once new energy regulations go into effect. For a consumer who wants to build their own PC, they’ll have to have both the new power supply and the new motherboard that work together.

Currently, power supplies change the AC current at the plug to the DC current your computer needs. That conversion can cause the greatest loss of power when a computer is idling and at its most inefficient. Most power supply units have 12-, 3.3- and 5-volt rails, or circuitry that creates the voltage. The ATX12VO standard takes out the 3.3- and 5-volt rails and moves the creation of these voltages to the motherboard where they can be more energy-efficient.