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At CES earlier this calendar month, Intel announced that it would launch a new range of high-terminate Core i9 CPUs, but didn't give many details on the chips. Over the terminal ten days, new details on these cores have go available — and they're more than a scrap unusual.

The new KF CPUs (equally in, the Cadre i9-9900KF, 9700KF, etc) are identical in every respect to the "K" version of these chips, with the aforementioned clocks, TDPs, DDR4 standard support, and cache subsystem. The one deviation is the integrated graphics. "KF" chips accept nonfunctional GPUs, while the "One thousand" CPUs take fully functional graphics.

When we say the just departure, past the way, we mean it. The KF CPUs are also listing for exactly the same cost as the K fries, pregnant that Intel has simultaneously removed features and nevertheless not reduced the overall toll. And admittedly, that seems similar a crummy thing to do. One would expect the company to at to the lowest degree throw a few bones to the idea that features toll money, correct?

Why the KF Chips Exist

Information technology helps to proceed in mind that these KF CPUs are highly unusual to start with. Starting with Sandy Bridge, Intel has included onboard graphics on all of its consumer CPUs. HEDT silicon is derived from the Xeon product family and follows the same rules. This is one of the petty oddities in the CPU world: AMD did far more than than Intel to popularize the idea of building a capable iGPU on-dice, and spent far more than energy talking upwardly concepts similar HSA and APUs — but between the ii firms, a much larger percentage of AMD's total CPU shipments lack integrated graphics.

Intel-Comparison-KF

The only reason for Intel to break ane of its ain rules of product segmentation in this fashion is if doing then helps the company run into demand for its 9th Generation CPU family. These KF chips are most certainly dice-recovered CPUs with bad graphics engines that Intel otherwise wouldn't have been able to sell.

There's no mode for us to know how many CPUsSEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce Intel is recovering this mode, but the obvious answer is "Enough." If there was no advantage to bringing these parts to market, they wouldn't exist in the first place. Yes, the absolute number of cores is probably pocket-size, merely Intel is also responding to tight demand allocations that accept limited its ability to ship its top-end chips. Cutting price on these chips relative to their GPU-equipped brethren would probable increase need for them, which works against the idea of using these cores to help fill a shortage.

Information technology'll be interesting to run into how availability for both sets of SKUs stacks up in retail. Intel could choose to prioritize ane design or another for the retail channel, especially if it knows its OEM customers tend to still prioritize on-die graphics, while channel customers might be much more likely to equip a CPU with a discrete GPU.

While nigh gamers and enthusiasts are unlikely to brand much employ of onboard graphics, no iGPU means no Intel QuickSync support and no using the integrated in the upshot of a primary GPU failure or in a secondary system at some bespeak down the line. The KF family unit does non take any enhanced overclocking capabilities or expected superior functioning equally a issue of this change.

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