Coffee Lake Overview & What’s New
The 8th Generation desktop platform is much like what we’ve seen with 7th Generation, but there are some notable changes. I think the biggest is that we have have a total of 40 PCIe lanes, so that gives you even more expandability for graphics, storage and I/O. These new chips will have more cores, and more L3 cache. They are built on an improved 14nm process, better known as 14nm++.
As we mentioned these new chips do require a new Z370 chipset motherboard. These new boards will have improved power delivery for 6-core processors as well as enhanced package power delivery for better overclocking. We now have DDR4 RAM support up to 2666MHz too.
With the 8th Generation Core Desktop family we are seeing the first 6-core i5 desktop processor, the first 4-core i3 desktop processor, and Intel is saying that the i7-8700K is the best gaming desktop processor ever. The platform also supports Intel’s Optane memory.
Talking about gaming Intel claims 25% more FPS in Gears of War 4 compared to 7th Generation. Intel also tells us these new chips are made for mega-tasking, like streaming etc. You can game + stream + record up to 45% better with PUBG vs. 7th Generation.
When it comes to content creation video editing should be up to 32% faster compared to 7th Generation, there is also hardware support for 4K HDR.
When it comes to overclocking we do have some new features which include Per Core Overclocking, Max Memory Ratio up to 8400 MT/s, real-time memory latency control, extended PLL trim controls, and enhanced package power delivery.
