It's almost hard to believe that Intel didn't officially, publicly announce its Comet Lake desktop processors when they were available in laptops, and how AMD continues to strengthen its position.
But, rumors and leaks have suggested that Intel is coming, with the latter showing off the Intel Core i5-10400 desktop processors as well as the HPA, which suggests a release, according to a report from kitguru.
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Photos of the chip look quite authentic. They show how the cover, with the name of the chip and 2.9 GHz base speed, as well as the bottom of the processor. The 2.9GHz base frequency lines up with earlier leaks that suggested the Intel i5-10400 would be a 6 core/12 thread processor with a 4.3GHz Turbo frequency.
Comparing the chip design to the 9th generation chip, one can see some differences in pins and alignment with the cutouts, which suggest the Intel processor will move to a new socket on the lake-comet desktop processors. Intel is expected to use the yet-announced LGA 1200 chip connector.
Terms and prices
The NCO included in this leak suggests that the new Intel processors will launch sometime between April 13th and June 26th. This could mean that Intel's next generation of desktop chips isn't all that far away.
But, that timing is pretty big. If Intel waits until the second half is in that window, it'll be a year since AMD announced its Zen 2 processor family, and buyers may be turned on to hold off on new Intel chips until they hear what AMD has in store for Zen 3 .
Considering AMD supported its AM4 socket on all chips from Ryzen 1000 series to Ryzen 3000 series, budget-conscious shoppers currently running a Ryzen processor will have a lot to gain, waiting to see if Zen 3 will continue to support the AM4 socket. If AMD doesn't change sockets, all existing customers will face learning new motherboards by switching to Intel. Meanwhile, it seems more and more likely that all existing Intel users will face the price of a new motherboard to get a 1200 LGA socket.
The Intel Core i5-10400 processor may not be the chip that converts AMD users, although it may be a better job to leave the rumored Core i9 non-10900K processor.
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