July 25, 2018 This story was updated due to Intel’s i7 9700K appearing on the SiSoft benchmarking database.
Intel’s i7 9700K has appeared on the SiSoft benchmarking database without hyperthreading enabled. Hyperthreading, or a doubling of the threads available per core, has been a signature feature of all i7 processors in the past, however recent rumours had suggested that the penultimate Intel Coffee Lake refresh chip, the i7 9700K, would, rather strangely, forego the multitasking boost.
The rest of the details within the SiSoft entry are identical to those outlined within the previous leak, which was posted by a user on the Coolaler forums. This leak also covered the 16-thread Core i9 9900K. As it currently stands, the i7 9700K will quite likely be an eight-core / eight-thread CPU, running with a 3.6GHz base clock, and will come with 12MB of L3 cache.
The latest benchmark from SiSoft follows on from further leaks regarding Intel’s upcoming Core i9 9900K processor, which appeared recently on a Chinese tech forum. The latest Intel Coffee lake processor will be the first 14nm part in Intel’s mainstream lineup to come with eight CPU cores and sixteen threads, and the latest leak suggests it will run with a base clock of 3.6GHz and feature a 5GHz two-core boost.
This isn’t all that surprising for the chip that has been on the cards for some time, however, the leak also covers the Core i7 9700K – and it’s not what we were expecting. It was initially expected that this would follow in the footsteps of the i7 8700K with slightly higher clockspeeds out of the box, but the latest leak, since removed from the Coolaler forum, begs to differ.
According to the forum post, the i7 9700K would actually be an eight-core / eight-thread processor with a 3.6GHz base clock and 4.9GHz single core boost. Which is odd.
With the 9600K maintaining its expected six cores and six threads config, Intel’s whole product stack would seem suddenly a little skewed. If this leak (via HardwareLuxx) proves true, which seems pretty likely considering the latest SiSoft entry, Intel’s i7 9700K would then end up as the first Core i7 without hyperthreading enabled in recent history. That will leave the i7 8700K as almost the superior chip, with its six cores and a full 12 threads of processing goodness giving it the edge over the eight threads of this 9700K.
The anticipated Intel i9 9900K would be the best of both worlds, blending both eight discrete cores with 16 threads of multitasking prowess. But we really have no idea what sort of price tag Intel intend for the top-end i9 chip.
And that will make all the difference if this chip is truly meant to take the place of the enthusiast top-end i7. If it’s too expensive, it’s going to be the 8700K, with six cores and 12 threads, facing down the 9700K, potentially an eight-core / eight-thread chip with slightly higher clockspeeds than its predecessor.
There’s also rumour Intel may return to soldering the top-end Intel chips, so there’s a chance that could work in the i7 9700K’s favour in what will inevitably be a benchmark showdown to look out for… so long as this leak actually comes to pass, that is, right now it seems rather implausible.