Intel’s next generation desktop chips are finally here: after a brief preview at CES, the company unveils its 11th Gen Core desktop chips (better known by their code, Rocket Lake-S.).
The leading package is Intel’s new flagship chip, the Core i9-11900K, with eight core locks, 16 wires, increased clock speeds up to 5.3 GHz, support for DDR4 RAM at 3,200 MHz, a total of 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes and backwards compatibility with Intel’s 400 series chips.
Eagle-eyed Intel fans may notice that the new chip on paper is actually a downgrade from last year’s top model, the Core i9-10900K, which offered 10 cores and 20 threads (and a similar increased clock speed of 5.3 GHz ).
This is because for the first time in more than half a decade, Intel is launching a new desktop core architecture with its 11th Gen Rocket Lake-S chips called Cypress Cove. Cypress cove eventually replaces the Skylake microarchitecture, which the company has been using since its 6th generation chips in 2015.
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But the Cypress Cove design is not a whole new micro-architecture – it is actually Intel’s Willow Cove disk designs and technologies that the company used on its 11 nm 10th generation Tiger Lake chips, which Intel supports with the production process of 14 nm.
However, since these designs were intended for 10nm chips, Intel is limited to the number of cores it can fit when scaled to a 14nm size; therefore, the reduction of the core score is year to year. But Intel still says the new chips will offer better performance (at least, in some cases) than the 10th generation, with the core architecture enabling up to 19 percent IPC (instructions per cycle) than the previous generation.
Intel’s argument here is effective that mere core count alone is not enough – frequency speed and performance are also important, and thanks to the maturity of the 14 nm manufacturing process, Intel is very good to pick up every last drop of performance from these chips.
11th generation desktop chips from Intel
| Model | Kere / drade | Base clock speed (GHz) | Increased clock speed (GHz) | Turbo Boost Max 3.0 clock speed | Increase rate for thermal velocity, single core / all core (GHZ) | Slim kas | TDP (W) | Graphics | Recommended price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Kere / drade | Base clock speed (GHz) | Increased clock speed (GHz) | Turbo Boost Max 3.0 clock speed | Increase rate for thermal velocity, single core / all core (GHZ) | Slim kas | TDP (W) | Graphics | Recommended price |
| i9-11900K | 8/16 | 3.5 | Up to 5.1 | Up to 5.2 | Up to 5.3 / 4.8 | 16M | 125 | Intel UHD Graphics 750 | $ 539 |
| i9-11900 | 8/16 | 2.5 | Up to 5.0 | Up to 5.1 | Up to 5.2 / 4.7 | 16M | 65 | Intel UHD Graphics 750 | $ 439 |
| i7-11700K | 8/16 | 3.6 | Up to 4.9 | Up to 5.0 | AFTER | 16M | 125 | Intel UHD Graphics 750 | $ 399 |
| i7-11700 | 8/16 | 2.5 | Up to 4.8 | Up to 4.9 | AFTER | 16M | 65 | Intel UHD Graphics 750 | $ 323 |
| i5-11600K | 6/12 | 3.9 | Up to 4.9 | AFTER | AFTER | 12M | 125 | Intel UHD Graphics 750 | $ 262 |
| i5-11600 | 6/12 | 2.8 | Up to 4.8 | AFTER | AFTER | 12M | 65 | Intel UHD Graphics 750 | $ 213 |
| i5-11500 | 6/12 | 2.7 | Up to 4.6 | AFTER | AFTER | 12M | 65 | Intel UHD Graphics 750 | $ 192 |
| i5-11400 | 6/12 | 2.6 | Up to 4.4 | AFTER | AFTER | 12M | 65 | Intel UHD Graphics 730 | $ 182 |
And Intel’s benchmarks support (of course) the argument: head to head with last year’s Core i9-10900K, the i9-11900K offers between 8 and 14 percent better performance on games like Rat 5, Rooster 2019, Microsoft Flight Simulator, en Total War: Three Kingdoms. Intel also says that its top chip performs better than AMD’s flagship Ryzen 9 5900X processor for the titles, although it is slightly smaller (by Intel’s standards) between 3 and 11 percent better.
That said, Intel’s tests all ran at 1080p, so we need to stay abreast of more comprehensive benchmarks on a wider range of titles – and especially with 4K resolution.
The new architecture also offers other improvements, with up to 50 percent better integrated graphics compared to Gen9, thanks to the company’s new Xe graphics, with a third more EU than the Gen9 graphics.
However, since these are desktop disks that are almost certainly paired with a high-discrete graphics card, they are not the most groundbreaking improvement. And although Intel will offer several F-Series models of the new chips without GPUs, the overall design is still the same on those models. This means that Intel will not offer any niche models that drop integrated GPUs to fit at least more core points, at least for now.
The new chips also contain other enhancements. The 11th generation chips add Resizable BAR for an increased frame rate on compatible Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. There is built-in support for both USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 at 20 Gbps, as well as Intel’s own Thunderbolt 4, along with DDR4-3200 RAM. And Intel has added four additional Gen 4 PCIe lanes, for a total of 20.
As is traditional for a major new chip launch, Intel will also be launching its 500 Series motherboards with the new processors, but the Rocket Lake-S processors will also be backwards compatible with 400 motherboards.
In addition, there are some new overclocking options with the new chips for users who want to express even more power. Specifically, Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility software is refreshed with a new UI and some updated features along with the 11th generation chips.
The new 11th generation Intel desktop processors are available from today.