Intel introduced the 10th generation of its mobile processors with Comet Lake H. This is the first time a Core i9 that breaks the previous frequency limit of 5GHz.
Intel Comet Lake H specs
Intel’s Comet Lake H is the successor to the Coffee Lake H Refresh , which had already 5GHz in its top model, the Core i9-9980HK. In the Comet Lake H series, now it is not only limited to the top model, Core i9-10980HK, but also the i7 series including 10875H, 10850H and 10750H are 5GHz or faster. The i9 exceeds the previous performance limit with up to 5.3GHz, and the i7 10875H and 10850H with up to 5.1GHz.
The new processors have 4-cores and 8MB L3 cache in the i5 line, 6-cores and 12MB L3 cache in the i7 line and 8-cores and 16MB L3 in the i9 line. An exception is the Core i7-10875H, which also has 8-cores and 16MB L3 cache. As before, the new processors also have Intel’s UHD graphics unit 630 and a thermal power design of 45 Watts.
Other than the maximum clock, the Comet Lake H differed only in the RAM support. In future, there may be 128 GB DDR4-2933 instead of DDR4-2667. However, the real impact of this marginal improvement is unlikely to be felt.
Ultimately, it will depend on the notebook manufacturers how powerful the new processors will be in the overall system. After all, the Core i9-10980HK offers an open multiplier to overclock cores and RAM. The Core i7-10850H can be overclocked with up to 400 megahertz. Intel also allows the thermal power design to be adjusted downwards, but this is also validated up to 65 Watts. Individual manufacturers had already experimented with up to 90 Watts on their predecessor.
Low increase in performance
What looks spectacular in Intel’s product presentation is only a small evolutionary step on closer look. Because the new Comet Lake H are based on the Skylake architecture used since 2015 and will continue to be manufactured using the 14-nanometer process. It is therefore not surprising that the base clock of the new generation is at best 100MHz faster than the previous version.
Like the Coffee Lake H Refresh, the Comet Lake H will now mainly be used in mobile devices with a focus on gamers and creatives. With Ice Lake, Intel had already launched the 10th generation of processors for mobiles last year.
AMD worries Intel
With its revised mobile processors, Intel wants to stand up par with AMD’s new Ryzen Mobile 4000. AMD threatens to slam the former industry leader on the mobile platform. Intel’s strategy looks a bit like a hot needle, which is also suggested by comparing the new processors with 3-year-old systems. Intel does not communicate the increase in performance compared to the previous version in its product presentation.
