10th Generation of intel: everything we know so far

We know that AMD's arrival on stage has somewhat shaken the processor landscape. However, if you still trust Intel and what it has to show us, you are in the right place. We are going to tell you everything we know and all the leaks about the 10th Generation of Intel , the so-called Ice Lake.

Index of contents

The status of Intel processors

Currently for Intel, the situation is somewhat clouded.

After the departure of Ryzen 3000 it is more than evident that AMD has recovered much of the terrain that it lost years ago. Also, problems with vulnerabilities such as Specter or Meltdown have affected the image of the company, so it is surely not going through its best moments.

However, Intel remains erect and strong and even though they have gone through some difficult times. Proof of this were statements by Troy Severson , Intel's manager of sales development, Gaming & Virtual Reality PCs . According to the representative, although AMD has done a great job in shortening distances, Intel is still a more reliable bet.

Both in day-to-day tasks and in gaming (a very relevant section) the CPUs of the blue team seem to be superior. If you have followed some of our processor reviews you will have noticed that Intel is still very high in terms of gaming. Despite having lower specifications (less cache memory, fewer cores…), the good optimization of your systems allows you to get more performance.

However, the confusion that is being generated with the world of processors may perhaps be cleared up a bit with Intel's 10th Generation . These new processors bring improvements in every way. They have new transistors, IPC enhancements, and other cool stuff.

The 10th Generation of Intel , 10nm processors

As usual, we will start by highlighting the most important update that the I ntel Ice Lake processors bring: their transistors.

The new “Sunny Cove” micro-architecture is the one we will see in the next generation of CPUs and they mount considerably smaller transistors. Compared to the 14nm we have had for several years, a reduction to 10nm is quite remarkable. Not surprisingly, technologically they still lag behind their competition, who already has 7nm transistors.

When we reduce the size of the parts in our processor we always have the same improvements:

• More space to place more transistors More power because transistors are considerably more efficient New and optimized ways of calculating data, which usually improves the overall performance of the units

For these reasons, we know that both Ice Lake and Tiger Lake will bring fresh air and plenty of power to the duel between AMD and Intel . Unfortunately, the first thing we will see of the 10th generation of Intel will be its U and Y versions, that is, laptop models.

On the other hand, we have to comment that Intel will add for the first time an Artificial Intelligence to support the CPU . Unlike what we see in some laptops where they regulate consumption, the Californian company assures us of an improvement of around 2.5 times greater with Intel Deep Learning Boost .

The data on this subject is very brief, but it is something that we are very interested in learning.

Release date

As we understand it, Intel was at the beginning of the year giving the final touches to its Ice Lake line. Later, during this summer they have dedicated to build and finalize the first samples for certain users and have already shared some test models.

An example of this was the laptop with Intel Ice Lake that the information portal PCWorld got where they showed the great improvement that team got. Sadly, these units are not yet for sale, but you can wait a bit, because they will be out sooner than you think.

If you are thinking of buying a light, powerful and elegant laptop, you should possibly wait until Christmas. As we expect, the first laptops for sale with Intel's 10th Generation will be out later this year.

Any computer with the 10th Generation of Intel inside will have a label with the “Engineered for Advanced Mobility” brand similar to that of “Intel Inside” . As for desktop CPUs, we don't know anything solid yet, so surely we know more about them already in 2020.

Overall performance

Regarding performance, we can affirm that they will be almost entirely quite powerful teams.

According to data from the same Intel , the new processors have an average improvement in the IPC (Instructions Per Cycle) of 18%. In the best case, Intel Ice Lake managed to achieve a speed-up of 40%. The conditions to reproduce this are a mystery, but it is certainly something to highlight.

Regarding more solid data, we have benchmarks taken from the PCWorld test notebook, which were tested at 15W and 25W of power.

It was not a retail computer, so some of its parts were not suitable for its chassis. However, the results they obtained were quite positive.

They were compared to the Dell XPS (the best notebook with 8th Generation Intel) and the HP Specter (a notebook with Intel 8th Generation of acceptable performance). As for processor brute force, the advantage was quite acceptable.

On tasks like transferring files, PCMark 10 and Cinebench , the test team used to get better results in most cases.

It is true that on rare occasions it was surpassed by the Dell XPS , but we have to remember that this laptop has a great cooling system as well as a good combination of components, something that the test equipment does not have.

Then we have to talk about graphics power, something in which Intel has improved a lot.

Graphics performance

In the graphic section, we have to talk about the new platform that the company has for integrated graphics. In place of the old Intel HD Graphics , some of the new processors will mount the next graphics integrated with the new Xe Gen 11 architecture, the Iris Plus .

In theory, these new graphs have a performance of up to 1.1 TeraFlOps (Tera-Floating Operations), doubling the previous generation of iGPUs .

As for real benchmarks, this new power standard will mean a before and after regarding portable performance. In the benchmarks made by PCWorld we could clearly see how the graphics power really doubled in many cases, compared to the previous generation.

It is not as powerful as a discrete graphics, but it is very close to the power that Radeon Vega offers us , for example. In fact, Intel itself has made a small comparison against its direct competition and the results were mostly positive:

Iris Plus vs Radeon Vega

As a conclusion, we can expect new Intel portable processors to perform much better in more situations.

For light and some medium video games they will work perfectly, but also for other tasks such as content creation. In this last type of task it is not vital to have a lot of graphic power, but the more you have the better. Therefore, we believe that these graphics will satisfy a large number of users, especially those seeking a light experience with ultrabooks and the like.

General characteristics

The 10th Generation of Intel will bring a series of improvements in all its processors, but what can we expect.

To start, in all its units it will implement new standards such as Thunderbolt 3 or Wi-Fi 6 . These small advances add value to processors and bring innovative technologies that few brands still use to the discussion table .

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Regarding consumption, the new Intel processors will try to lower the consumption that they have usually needed. Depending on the model, we will see a consumption that will range between 9W and 28W.

Regarding RAM , we should not expect support for much larger numbers. Apparently, the 10th Generation of Intel will support memory frequencies of up to DDR4-3200 , something that does not compare with the numbers that AMD offers us.

However, we have to remember that the way in which both brands treat memories is different. The clearest case is that Intel tends to achieve considerably lower response speeds , despite testing the tests with the same modules.

Regarding more general specifications, we will have:

• Core distributions from 2/4 to 6/12 (cores / threads) Higher clock frequencies in some units (up to 4.9 GHz) A good Intel Smart Cache cache base (up to 12 MiB) Specialized consumption modes (maximum performance at 25W / performance at 4 cores without fan 4.5W) Faster memory interfaces Intel Adaptix and Intel Dynamic Tuning technologies to improve activation times and performance in everyday tasks, respectively.

The future after the 10th Generation of Intel

We already have the route drawn after Intel Ice Lake and it exists under the pseudonym Intel Tiger Lake .

As they have programmed the blue team, this new processor will release new architecture both processor and integrated graphics. Therefore, we hope it will bring significant improvement in all respects.

We know that Intel Ice Lake already seems to be a significant improvement over Sky Lake . However, Intel hopes that Tiger Lake will also become a similar upgrade by being noticeably more efficient and powerful. The first data we have on Userbenchmark is from engineering parts, although the results are incredibly good.

On the other hand, Intel has also spoken about an even more distant future. Apparently they expect that in two years they will start with the first 7nm models, so possibly in 2021 we already have fresh news.

Route after the 10th Generation of Intel

It seems like a very abrupt movement, considering the time 14nm has lengthened, but it is definitely a good thing for users. However, as you can imagine, we do not have any information about these future processors.

Final Words on Intel's 10th Generation

The truth is that the 10th Generation of Intel will bring a considerable improvement to laptops. If you need or want to buy a laptop, our recommendation is to wait for the first models to come out with Intel Ice Lake .

Thanks to the powerful integrated graphics, we can have equipment without discrete graphics, so the weight will be reduced without sacrificing much power. In addition, in terms of single-core and multi-core power, we will be well served, so most tasks will be quite simple.

Currently, to have equipment of this caliber we have to resort to gaming models. Although they offer us a very good power, they always weigh more than 1.8kg and many of them tend to have screens of 15.6 ″, so they lose mobility. Instead, due to the power distribution of the new processors, the first portable computers are expected to be ultrabooks.

If we talk more directly about processors, we think it is a good generational jump. The change in architecture and transistors brings new blood to the landscape and the inclusion of new technologies is always appreciated. We will not have support for some like PCIe Gen 4 , but we will have Wi-Fi 6 or Thunderbolt 3, which seems to us a better decision.

But now you tell us: what do you expect from Intel Ice Lake ? How much would you pay for a laptop with a 10th Generation Intel Core i7 ? Share your ideas in the comment box.

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