The 8th generation Intel Core chips for low power laptops are being unveiled via a Facebook Live stream today. A lot of details have been coming out gradually in recent weeks; for example, Intel has already said it will continue to use its Kaby Lake architecture for the chips. The chip maker has promised dramatic improvements in performance from this upcoming generation.
8th generation Intel Core chips to improve performance 40%
According to Intel, its 8th generation Core chips will boost performance by 40% over the previous generation, and for those whose computers are five years old, the new chips may double the performance. That’s quite a significant improvement in just one generation, as typically, the improvements are usually much smaller.
Some Facebook users commented on the company’s page that they were hoping for a more than 5% improvement from the 8th generation Intel Core chips, so they will probably be glad to hear this. In fact, when the chip maker announced its next generation of chips at Computex a few months ago, it stated that the performance boost would only be 30%, so it seems Intel’s new chips have outperformed even the company’s own expectations.
Intel’s laptop chips in focus
The improvements to the 8th generation Intel Core chips for low voltage laptops and all-in-one devices are likely to receive the most attention because the chip maker is finally joining the quad-core world. According to Forbes contributor Antony Leather, Intel will now be selling quad-core laptop chips, while its 7th generation chips topped out at only two cores for this segment of devices.
Intel has traditionally stuck with two cores for its U-series low power chips because of the need to greatly limit heat while also boosting battery life. The 8th generation Intel Core chips for mobile devices will be available in i5 and i7 varieties for the U-Series range. According to Leather, these quad-core processors will also have hyper-threading and eight threads, while the previous generation topped out at two cores with four threads.
The result should be a significant improvement for functions like video editing.
Packaging shows higher core counts for desktop processors too
Although today’s Core chip announcements are focused on low power laptop processors, some new images are revealing new details about the next generation of desktop processors. Intel isn’t officially confirming anything, but it updated the images on the Core i5 and i7 pages on its own website.
Legit Reviews was one of the first to focus on the images and was able to blow them up to get a good look at the side of the box in the pictures. The 8th generation desktop i7 processors will be getting six cores and 12 threads, which matches AMD’s highest-end Ryzen 5 chips. However, AMD still has a leg up on Intel because its Ryzen 7 processors have eight cores and 16 threads. We heard before that Intel was thinking about rolling out its next generation desktop processors early to counter the threat from AMD’s Ryzen chips.
Unfortunately, the images of the packaging also confirm that the 8th generation Intel Core chips for desktops will require new motherboards. We heard that the updated CPUs require a 300-series motherboard, so the Skylake or Kaby Lake Z170 or Z270 motherboards will not support the newest processors.
