It appears that Intel might have another Comet Lake-S desktop processor in the works, as spotted by TUM_APISAK. The core i9-10900K is currently the fastest flagship model in the Comet lake-S series and it has been in the market for quite some time, though with very poor availability or stock.
Recently one Intel CL-S processor was spotted in an unannounced Apple iMac device, the Core i9-10910.
Now, another new Comet Lake processor the Core i9-10850K has popped up in a benchmark database, showing clock speeds hovering around 3.60 GHz base and 5.20 GHz boost. Assuming that this chip isn’t an OEM-only part/SKU, Intel might be readying a Comet Lake refresh to ward off AMD’s recent Ryzen 3000XT lineup. We don’t know for sure whether this processor will come to the market though, but the part does look promising.
This new unannounced processor comes with an identical 10-core, 20-thread configuration as the Core i9-10900K. The Core i9-10850K packs 20MB of L3 cache, and 256KB of L2 cache per core. There’s no doubt that the Core i9-10850K is closely related to the Core i9-10900K.
The Core i9-10850K processor differentiates itself from the Core i9-10900K with the lower clock speeds. The base clock for this 10-core processor is 3.6 GHz, which is just 100 MHz lower than the Core i9-10900K. The Core i9-10850K appears to be boosting up to 5.18 GHz, close enough to call it 5.2 GHz, as evident from different Geekbench 5 submissions.
From the above geekbench entries it appears that the Core i9-10850K doesn’t feature Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB), and this would explain why this 10-core part maxes out at 5.2 GHz, instead of 5.3 GHz like the Core i9-10900K.
To put this in a nutshell, the Core i9-10850K is technically speaking a Core i9-10900K with a 100 MHz lower base clock value, and without TVB. We can’t fully discard the fact that the Core i9-10850K is for Intel’s OEM clients, but this seems unlikely given that the processor is a K-series unlocked chip.
Unless of course some brand is planning to offer an overclockable prebuilt system, I don’t see the Core i9-10850K being an OEM-only SKU. This processor should hit the retail shelves. The main contributing factor for the Core i9-10850K would be its price tag. For context, the Core i9-10900K has MSRP of $499, though in reality this chip retails for $529.99, assuming you can find it in stock.
Being an unlocked K processor, it would be easy to overclock the Core i9-10850K to match or even surpass the performance of a stock Core i9-10900K processor. And if Intel manages to shave off $30 to $50 off the price tag, then that would place this new processor in a slightly better position in the market.
On paper, the Core i9-10850K definitely appears to be an enticing option, but I hope Intel releases it to the market soon.
Hello, my name is NICK Richardson. I’m an avid PC and tech fan since the good old days of RIVA TNT2, and 3DFX interactive “Voodoo” gaming cards. I love playing mostly First-person shooters, and I’m a die-hard fan of this FPS genre, since the good ‘old Doom and Wolfenstein days.
MUSIC has always been my passion/roots, but I started gaming “casually” when I was young on Nvidia’s GeForce3 series of cards. I’m by no means an avid or a hardcore gamer though, but I just love stuff related to the PC, Games, and technology in general. I’ve been involved with many indie Metal bands worldwide, and have helped them promote their albums in record labels. I’m a very broad-minded down to earth guy. MUSIC is my inner expression, and soul.
Contact: Email