Let's interrupt AMD's media dominance for a moment and focus on Intel. What is Santa Clara doing? What are its next steps? It takes two to compete, and beyond the noise generated by Ryzen, Intel's hardware hasn't lost robustness. The latest news gives us leaks on the specifications of Core i5 and Core i7 processors based on the Coffee Lake architecture. The most attractive of the group is the Core i7-8700K, which apparently will have six cores and twelve processing threads, reaching 4.7 GHz in Turbo mode.
This is the rumor control, here are the facts: Those users who weren't seduced by Ryzen and its cores prefer to concentrate their firepower on processors like the Core i7-7700K. Unfortunately, it's a fairly expensive alternative, especially considering that it doesn't come with a stock cooler, but this chip has managed to defeat Ryzen in a wide number of benchmarks. One of the many problems Intel must face now is its core anemia in lower models. Nobody disputes its supremacy in instructions per clock cycle and single-core performance in general; however, Intel's offering is split in the middle. Only its extremes (the i7-7700K or the Pentium G4560) are attractive these days.
That said, the latest information suggests Santa Clara finally picked up the gauntlet. Four new processors appear on the horizon, two under the Core i5 series and two in Core i7. All belong to the Coffee Lake architecture, although it hasn't been confirmed if they'll be compatible with the LGA 1151 socket (it would be a very good decision by Intel to continue with that design). The two models that immediately caught our attention are those with the K designation, but there's another even more relevant detail: all the chips are hexa-core. The Core i5-8600K comes with six cores and no Hyper-Threading (6C/6T), a base frequency of 3.6 GHz, and four Turbo levels, with a maximum of 4.3 GHz. If that seems little, the Core i7-8700K activates Hyper-Threading for a 6C/12T configuration, offers a 3.7 GHz base, and reaches an impressive 4.7 GHz in single-core Turbo.
As always, all technical data linked to leaks need a pinch of salt, but the simple change in cores anticipates very interesting developments, including the possibility that the next Core i3 processors abandon their dual-core profile to add four real cores. Ryzen hit very hard thanks to its surprise factor, but it's time for the empire to counterattack. Welcome competition.
