Intel has been creeping closer to a crossroads ever since it first adopted the Core series naming schema with Nehalem. At some point Intel was going to run out of three- and four-digit names and be forced to either find another nomenclature or adopt an unwieldy five digits, and now we have the answer: the i5 10210U has appeared on 3DMark.
It’s a bit of a mouthful but various leaks across the web over the past week indicate Intel will be sticking to its guns and employing 10th Gen branding for its upcoming processors. We suspect Intel Comet Lake will be the first to make use of the 10th gen brand in the desktop space, the 14nm follow-up to Coffee Lake suspected to launch sometime between Q3 and Q2, 2020. But for mobile Intel has reiterated Ice Lake will be ready for launch before the end of 2019.
Eagle-eyed Twitter leaker Tum_Apisak spotted the Intel Core i5 10210U entry within the 3DMark database, confirming what looks to be a quad-core mobile processor running at 2.1GHz base and 3.8GHz boost. The chip utilises HyperThreading to double its thread count up to eight.
Similarly, fellow hardware archaeologist Komachi_Ensaka has put forward a list of Intel SKUs complete with 10th Gen branding. These include the i7 1065G7, i5 1035G7, i5 1035G4, i5 1035G1, i5 1034G1, i3 1005G1. These processors seem to have been scraped from a forum post, so are far from officially confirmed.
— APISAK (@TUM_APISAK) April 29, 2019
Notably these SKUs include the letter ‘G’, which may indicate improved graphics. That likely indicates these processors, if real, will be amongst Intel’s first to move to 10nm, subsequently making way for greater numbers of EUs (Execution Units) within each chip.
9th Gen or Ryzen? These are the best CPUs for gaming
Intel Ice Lake processors will be the first to utilise the 10nm Sunny Cove microarchitecture. These chips will be fitted with Gen11 graphics, set to arrive before the end of 2019 with 64 EUs – more than double current integrated graphic EU counts.
I7-1065G7/I5-1035G7/I5-1035G4/I5-1035G1/I5-1034G1/I3-1005G1.https://t.co/3tDzOBOUNx
— 比屋定さんの戯れ言@Komachi (@KOMACHI_ENSAKA) April 26, 2019
Intel has no hesitancy to utilise multiple processes within a single generation, and leaked roadmaps allude to its 10th Gen being made up of low-power mobile processors on the 10nm process alongside 14nm mobile and desktop chips.
However it works out, we can now expect the next desktop powerhouse from Intel to be called the Intel Core i9 10900K or something similar. Cool. Cool, cool, cool.