When Intel’s “Rocket Lake” desktop CPUs arrive, they’re going to beat AMD’s rival processors in at least one important area: price.
Intel is finally dropping details for the full lineup of its 11th-generation Core processors, including their clock speeds, core counts, and costs. In addition, the company has revealed the CPUs’ official launch date: March 30.
The desktop chips, codenamed “Rocket Lake-S,” will arrive as AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs have been receiving rave reviews for their outstanding performance. So how will Intel respond? In a win for consumers, the company is pricing certain Rocket Lake CPUs significantly lower than their direct competitors in the Ryzen 5000 line.
Trying to Undercut AMD Ryzen
Intel is releasing 19 processor models for Rocket Lake that scale from Core i5 to Core i9. Intel, originally, had shared details only on the flagship Core i9-11900K. But two other processors in the newly announced line drew most of our attention.
The first one, the Core i7-11700KF, is an eight-core, 16-thread processor with a 3.6GHz base clock speed, but no integrated graphics. Intel’s “F”-series chips, present in the last few generations of Core processors, are slightly cheaper variants of certain chips in the line, but with the integrated graphics processor (IGP) disabled due to the IGP silicon not being up to spec. This puts the Core i7-11700KF firmly in line against AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X, a PCMag Editors’ Choice award winner. The 5800X is another eight-core, 16-thread chip, which has comparable clock speeds and no on-chip graphics. Intel’s recommended price on the Core i7-11700KF is $374, making it, depending on how street prices shake out, $75 cheaper than the Ryzen 5800X.
The second chip, the Core i5-11600KF, is a six-core, 12-thread processor, again with the IGP turned off, with similar specs to the Ryzen 5 5600X. But again, Intel is pricing the product lower. The Core i5-11600KF is slated to retail for $239, or $60 cheaper than the Ryzen 5600X. (Both of these Rocket Lake CPUs can also be purchased with integrated graphics, but you’ll have to pay an extra $25.) As you can see above, Intel will also be offering IGP-disabled F-variants of several other chips in the line, including the Core i9 flagship.
Intel also offered a benchmark-results teaser for the Core i5-11600K, which has onboard graphics. Tested using a GeForce RTX 3080 as the graphics processor, it shows the CPU outperforming last year’s Core i5-10600K by 7% to 16% on several different PC gaming titles at 1080p.
The price differences may sway PC builders to opt for Team Intel even as reviews have shown the Ryzen 5000 CPUs currently rank as the best consumer processors in the market. Unlike AMD, Intel’s manufacturing technology for desktop CPUs has been stuck on the 14-nanometer node for the last six years, which continues to be true for Rocket Lake. (With one twist on that, more about which in a moment.)
With Rocket Lake, Intel is also adding support for PCI Express 4.0 and DDR4 RAM speeds up to 3,200MHz, bringing the company’s silicon, at this platform level, up to date with AMD’s own Ryzen 5000 chips.
Still, it’s important to note Intel’s motherboards based on the Z590 chipset for the Rocket Lake CPUs, which started shipping earlier this year, can get quite pricey. Although a few models start at around $150, many more Z590 boards are in the $200 to $300 price range. However, the Rocket Lake CPUs can also work with the more affordable B560, H570, and H510 motherboards, which have just started hitting the market; a few models are selling at the moment for under $100.
If you’re on a budget, the bad news is you won’t find a Rocket Lake CPU at the Core i3 level. Instead, the company is refreshing last year’s 10th generation Core (“Comet Lake-S”) desktop processors to feature 11 new versions at the Core i3 and Pentium Gold tiers. Estimated prices will range from $154 down to $64.
The Core i9: Can Eight Cores Really Deliver?
The most powerful Rocket Lake CPU in the bunch is the Core i9-11900K, which has a boost clock speed at 5.3GHz, higher than anything the current Ryzen 5000 CPUs can offer. However, it’s an odd chip.
Intel has priced the product at $539, which is slightly higher than last year’s Core i9-10900K, which is a 10-core, 20-thread chip. But surprisingly, the i9-11900K sees some core-count regression: It’s merely an eight-core, 16-thread processor. The spec difference becomes even more jarring when you compare it to AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X, which has an estimated selling price of $549, but has 12 cores and 24 threads.
On the spec sheet, the Core i9 also shows only modest variation from the Core i7-11700KF, save for the integrated graphics, slightly higher boost clock speeds, and access to Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost technology. But we’re skeptical whether the features can justify the $165 price jump for most buyers.
Why only eight cores? The Rocket Lake CPUs are built using elements of the chip architecture found on Intel’s more advanced 10-nanometer “Tiger Lake” processors, which are currently used in laptops. The company decided to “backport” the technology onto the older 14nm node to squeeze out an instructions-per-cycle speed gain of up to 19%. However, both the CPU and integrated GPU architecture are large, and can only fit on a chip die big enough to fit eight cores.
Despite the fewer cores, Intel claims the Core i9-11900K can still beat the competition. The company has released some benchmark test results showing the chip outperforming last year’s Core i9-10900K and AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X processors in certain games at 1080p resolution. (Again, the gaming tests were run with a GeForce RTX 3080 card.)
However, the biggest edge the Core i9-11900K has over the other chips is on video processing, Intel claims. Intel’s benchmarks show the chip beating AMD’s Ryzen 5900X in double digits when it comes to “video creation workflow,” and machine learning applications, although the company didn’t break down how it arrived at the performance numbers.
“We understood the trade-off we were making on multi-threaded by reducing by two cores from ten to eight. But adding that integrated graphics also sees a performance benefit for some of those multi-threaded applications,” said Marcus Kennedy, general manager for Intel’s gaming and esports segment.
Nevertheless, the company acknowledges the i9-11900K may lag behind rival chips when it comes to heavy multi-threaded applications, such as Cinebench. “If you’re looking at the 10-core versus the eight-core, yes, you may see a little less performance with Rocket Lake just because of the cores and threads,” said Scott Rouse, Intel product marketing manager. “But if you look at most of the usage that people are doing, mostly content creation, especially gaming and other applications, you don’t need the 10 cores.”
Let the Core Wars Begin (Again)
A whole lot has already been leaked about the Rocket Lake chips after a German retailer began selling dozens of Core i7-11700K models to consumers a month before the formal release date. AnandTech got its hands on one of these chips, and found its performance, at least with the drivers and code available at the time of testing, more lackluster than Intel’s prerelease projections, especially on gaming.
Not helping the matter, from Intel’s point of view, is how supplies for AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5800X CPUs are starting to become readily available from major retailers. As a result, Intel may have had no choice but to lower the price of the upcoming Rocket Lake CPUs to stay competitive. Stay tuned for our reviews, where we’ll examine whether they’re worth a buy.
