Intel Core i9-10980HK spec is leaked ahead of battle with AMD Ryzen 4000 laptop CPUs
We were pretty disappointed by Intel’s revelations at the recent CES 2020 event, in terms of what was missing on the desktop front – but one thing the chip giant did reveal was powerful next-gen Comet Lake-H processors for laptops, and now some spec details have been spilled on the flagship chip.
This is the Intel Core i9-10980HK, with the alleged details of the CPU being shared on Twitter by that veritable fountain of leaks TUM_APISAK, courtesy of Geekbench results.
i9-10980HKhttps://t.co/ZxI4YhJg5Whttps://t.co/7v09Ef7ZDohttps://t.co/xQuy24fKZwJanuary 20, 2020
According to these benchmarks, then – assuming they are genuine of course – the 10980HK will run with 8-cores (16-threads) with a base clock of 3.1GHz and Turbo up to 4.98GHz (at least according to one of the results in the latter case – although another benchmark has it pegged at 4.38GHz Turbo).
Now, as Tom’s Hardware highlights, Intel did actually promise at CES that the Comet Lake-H flagship Core i9 offering would comfortably exceed 5GHz (which, after all, is the rated Turbo speed of the current 9980HK chip – and that arguably demands to be beaten).
So the boost results in these benchmarks aren’t indicative of what Intel might achieve, as can be seen in the wide variation in them – these are simply the highest speeds reached during the respective benchmarks. And the finished silicon may perform better anyway, of course.
Or indeed could this perhaps be a slightly worrying indication that maybe Intel won’t blast past 5GHz as easily as it seemed to be hinting at CES? (Remember that the chip giant also promised that next-gen Core i7 chips would actually surpass 5GHz, so given that, Core i9 would definitely have to go further).
At any rate, perhaps a more interesting result is the base clock of 3.1GHz here, which is considerably higher than the 2.4GHz of the 9980HK.
Hotting up
The level of boost speed reached will naturally be highly dependent on the design, build and cooling of the host laptop – and so while these monster headline Turbo clocks may look extremely impressive, it’s really how they perform in real world usage which is important. If you can only get that boost for very short times due to the power and heat issues involved, then it’s not particularly useful.
Still, we shouldn’t get carried away with speculation at this point, but it is becoming apparent that Intel is having to push increasingly hard with its silicon – uncomfortably so in some cases – to keep up with AMD’s progress.
At CES, AMD revealed its new Ryzen 4000 mobile chips, and these look to be impressive offerings, so Intel needs to make sure its Core i9-10980HK and other Comet Lake-H offerings are up to the challenge.
The new Intel mobile processors are expected to start shipping this quarter, so before the end of March. Ryzen 4000 processors should start popping up in laptops in the next couple of months, and if early leaks are anything to go by, AMD’s mobile chips are closing in on desktop levels of power.
The importance of this battle of next-gen notebook processors can’t be underestimated for Intel, because it certainly can’t afford to lose its dominant position in laptops – after having been overrun on the desktop CPU side by Ryzen.
We were pretty disappointed by Intel’s revelations at the recent CES 2020 event, in terms of what was missing on the desktop front – but one thing the chip giant did reveal was powerful next-gen Comet Lake-H processors for laptops, and now some spec details have been spilled on the…
Recent Posts
- Google now offers ‘web’ search — and an AI opt-out button
- Ayn’s new gaming handheld looks like a PSP, and it might just fill the hole in your heart left by Sony’s best portable
- Google Search is getting a massive upgrade – including letting you search with video
- Google Project Astra hands-on: Full of potential, but it’s going to be a while
- OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is officially leaving
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011