Intel Launches New 14nm 10th Gen Comet Lake Processors

Less than a month ago, Intel debuted 11 new 10th gen processors. The company launched six new U-Series processors and Y-Series processors, dubbed Ice Lake, built on its 10nm processor technology. Today, it’s further expanding the lineup of its 10th gen processors with 8 new chips built on its 14nm process technology, dubbed Comet Lake.

The company is today launching four new U-Series processors and 4 new Y-Series processors as part of the new Comet Lake lineup. These new processors are made for thin and light laptops. Intel is marketing them as the productivity powerhouse, while Ice Lake is more focused at “bringing AI to the PC at scale”.

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The new Comet Lake processors apparently enable 16% overall performance gains and over 41% better productivity and multitasking on apps like Microsoft’s Office 365 suite. Here are some of the main features of the new Comet Lake processors:

  • Up to 6 cores and 12 threads
  • Up to 4.9 GHz max turbo frequency
  • Up to 12MB Intel Smart Cache
  • Configurable up to 25W for maximum performance (U-series)
  • Configurable down to 4.5W for 4-core fanless designs (Y-series)
  • Up to 1.15 GHz graphics frequency
  • LPDDR4x, LPDDR3, DDR4 memory speed increase to 2666 MT/s
  • Intel UHD Graphics

These 8 new processors mean Intel now has a total of 19 10th gen processors, which means the branding is incredibly confusing. The only way to differentiate between these new Comet Lake processors and the 10nm Ice Lake processors is by looking at the naming scheme — the Ice Lake processors have the level of graphics at the end of their model name since they feature Intel Iris Plus graphics, while the Comet Lake processors simply have the U/Y-series branding at the end. These are Intel products, so it’s obviously a confusing mess when it comes to branding.

Intel says we will start seeing these new processors on new devices this holiday season.

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  • djross95

    Premium Member
    21 August, 2019 - 3:06 pm

    <p>Color me confused. Why in the eff would they introduce new 14nm processors one month after launching 10nm processors? And both groups are '10th gen'? Who would want to buy a PC with the latter? What are they smoking at Intel? So many questions, lol. </p>

  • remc86007

    21 August, 2019 - 3:11 pm

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Intel is marketing them as the productivity powerhouse, while Ice Lake is more focused at “bringing AI to the PC at scale”."</span></p><p><br></p><p>I have no idea what the hell this means, but my guess would be: the 14nm parts are better at absolutely every real world application that is CPU intensive and the Ice Lake parts have some new parallel processing capabilities built into their GPU that will have no effect on any current workload.</p><p><br></p><p>Having said that, I am interested to see what kind of sustained clockspeeds the 6 core can get. I really need to replace my 1st Gen Surface book with something that can actually handle photo editing and video editing at 4k, and more cores might be helpful if they can sustain high enough clocks. </p>

  • Lordbaal

    21 August, 2019 - 3:28 pm

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">These new processors are made for thin and light laptops. Intel is marketing them as the productivity powerhouse"</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">With that low of a base </span>frequency?</p><p>It seems like they aren't even trying to beat Ryzen. AMD have some mobile CPU's that have a base frequency&nbsp;of more then 3Ghz.</p>

    • remc86007

      21 August, 2019 - 4:29 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#450870">In reply to Lordbaal:</a></em></blockquote><p>I assume that base frequency is based on some bizarre combination of AVX instructions on the CPU portion and a power virus on the GPU. I'm not exactly sure why they even report base frequencies as such. </p>

    • noflames

      21 August, 2019 - 7:54 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#450870">In reply to Lordbaal:</a></em></blockquote><p>CPU clock rate is only one of many factors that determine productivity. In many cases it's the least important factor. longer battery life, lighter/smaller form factors, always on, etc improve productivity. Clock rate is mostly a factor for CPU intensive applications, but doesn't help that much if all you are doing are web browsing, office applications work etc. Intel using the word "Powerhouse" is easily misinterpreted though.</p>

  • crp0908

    21 August, 2019 - 3:58 pm

    <p>New Y-Series processors being marketed as a productivity powerhouse?</p><p><br></p><p>We fell for that once with the 7th generation Y processors that were labeled "i5" and "i7" when they really should have been labelled "m5" and "m7." We won't be fooled again.</p>

  • Jorge Garcia

    21 August, 2019 - 7:33 pm

    <p>ARM is the future.</p>

  • chrishilton1

    Premium Member
    22 August, 2019 - 1:58 am

    <p>I agree. Very confusing. 19 models. No wonder they take years to ship anything. A bit like Windows, so many SKUs</p>

  • truerock2

    22 August, 2019 - 2:15 pm

    <p>So, Intel is not going to ship Ice Lake, 10nm, high-end-desktop CPUs.</p><p>I assume that it is going to take Intel a year or so to "shake-out" the "wrinkles" in Ice Lake 10nm.</p><p>This is not unusual. Intel often uses older tech for its HEDT CPUs.</p><p>So, apparently – Ice Lake is going to be used in thin-and-light Windows 10 notebook PCs and other thin-and-light devices where power-performance isn't the critical determining design factor.</p><p>It's obvious that Intel plans to continue to use 14nm CPU lithography over the next year or 2 to provide CPUs for desk-top PCs. I'm curious as to when we will see a 90w Ice-Lake-like 10nm CPU.</p><p><br></p><p>Of course TSMC and Samsung will have moved to 7nm lithography within the next year or 2. AMD has a patent sharing arrangement that allows AMD to provide TSMC and Samsung with Intels patents for making CPUs. Personally, IMHO, I think it is questionable that Intel is going to keep up with Taiwan, South Korea (and China, India, etc) in the future because AMD will continue to provide Intel patent rights to other countries. </p><p><br></p><p>Intel has said that they will be able to move to 7nm lithography as soon as the 10nm process is smoothed out. That may help Intel – or it might be too late.</p>

  • Oreo

    23 August, 2019 - 1:24 am

    <p>I used to be on top of things when it came to the CPU market, and I have thoroughly given up on keeping track of and understanding Intel’s line-up. Next-gen cores are launched not across the whole line-up at the same time, but bit-by-bit. Some (low volume parts) are 10 nm and officially do ship, but practically can’t be found in stores, and most are still 14 nm anyway. You have different [modifier] lake parts, yet they are of the same generation. You have different power targets, but the definition of what TDP actually means is different from the way it is used in the competition. </p>

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