Intel releases info on Coffee Lake 9000-Series CPU

Intel has just released more information regarding the 9000-Series CPU’s. As we know, Coffee Lake CPU’s were released Q4 last year. The 9000 series will be a refresh of the current Coffee Lake lineup similar to that of the Devil’s Canyon/Haswell refresh. On average, it looks like we’ll be seeing a 100-200MHz boost in Turbo Mode while keeping the same TDP of the previous generation.  The new SKUs were observed as a  Microcode Update in the June 2018 8th Gen Core Family update. Though this is not an official confirmation from Intel, there is enough evidence to suggest the information is 100% credible.

The Core i3-9000 and 9000T chips will have embedded single core GPUs. Each of the other processors will  have dual-core GPUs as designated by (6+2). The Core i3 chips will support up to DDR4-2400 memory and the Core new i5-series processors can handle DDR4-2666 memory.

Here is an easier breakdown of each CPU:

• Core i3-9000 – 4 cores, 3.7 GHz CPU, 350 MHz – 1.1 GHz GPU, 65W TDP
• Core i3-9000T – 4 cores, 3.2 GHz CPU, 350 MHz – 1.1 GHz GPU, 35W TDP
• Core i3-9100 – 4 cores, 3.7 GHz CPU, 350 MHz – 1.1 GHz GPU, 65W TDP
• Core i5-9400 – 6 cores, 2.9 GHz – 4.1 GHz (Turbo) CPU, 350 MHz – 1.05 GHz GPU, 65W TDP
• Core i5-9400T – 6 cores, 1.8 GHz – 3.4 GHz(Turbo) CPU, 350 MHz – 1.05 GHz GPU, 35W TDP
• Core i5-9500 – 6 cores, 3 GHz – 4.3 GHz CPU(Turbo) , 350 MHz – 1.1 GHz GPU, 65W TDP
• Core i5-9600 – 6 cores, 3.1 GHz – 4.5 GHz CPU(Turbo) , 350 MHz – 1.15 GHz GPU, 65W TDP
• Core i5-9600K – 6 cores, 3.7 GHz – 4.5 GHz CPU(Turbo) , 350 MHz – 1.15 GHz GPU, 95W TDP

So is it worth the upgrade if you’re already running a current-gen Coffee Lake? Probably not. The difference in raw performance will be overall very minimal at best. Unless you’re putting together a new system and can’t wait any longer, Holding out for Intel’s Cannon Lake would be your best option in the long run.