New Intel CPU could be a gamer's delight
Flying through the air, using your grappling hook to gain purchase on one ledge before jumping to another, or just to wreak havoc, is what makes Just Cause 3 so awesome... except when the open-world system stutters on your underpowered PC, and your glides take a low-frame-rate-induced tumble.
Graphically intense games like Just Cause 3, Doom, and Grand Theft Auto V are about to get some performance help thanks to Intel's new 8th-Gen Core processors made specifically for big desktop machines (i.e. gaming rigs), which, the company claims, can boost frame rates by up to 25% over the previous 7th-Gen Core desktop CPUs.
"As gaming continues to expand to include a social audience while playing, performance while mega-tasking is critical so game + stream + record is now up to two times faster compared with a three-year-old machine," said Intel in a press release.
The 8th-Gen Core family (AKA Coffee Lake), which follows last month's reveal of the laptop CPUs, boasts up to six cores (two more than the 7th-Gen desktop family) and a max performance of 4.7GHz (when using the built-in Turbo Boost technology).
Designed for gamers and content creators, who could experience a 65% performance increase over systems at least three years old, these CPUs are also unlocked so system builders can squeeze maximum performance out of the processors, including something new: per-core over-clocking.
The 8th-Gen CPU is also designed to support 4K video, HDR, 360 video and immersive VR experiences.
Intel's 8th-Gen Cores take on AMD's 8-core (also over-clockable) Ryzen 7 desktop CPUs. Intel 7th-Gen Core have typically matched or slightly edged comparable Ryzen 7 CPUs. It's possible the 8th-Gen Cores could leapfrog AMD's desktop offering.
Available in Core i3, i5 and i7 models. Intel's 8th-Gen Core CPUs go on sale Oct. 5, with prices ranging from $117 for the Core i3 8100 with 6 MB cache to $359 for the Core i7 8700K with a 12 MB cache.
[Updated with pricing information]
Topics Intel Innovations
Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
