Alleged Intel Core i7-8086K Coffee Lake CPU With 5GHz Turbo Boost Leaks
Intel is getting ready to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its game-changing 8086, a 16-bit that standardized the x86 architecture for personal computing and basically revolutionized the industry at large. To mark the occasion, there have been rumors of a special Core i7-8086K Anniversary Edition CPU based on the company's 8th generation Coffee Lake architecture. But is it real? Leaked retail listings suggest the chip does in fact exist.
As spotted by Videocardz, a couple of retailers have product pages for the new SKU. One of them has the Core i7-8086K Anniversary Edition priced at a tick over 481 euros, and the other $480 in US. Assuming the chip exists, if that pricing holds true, it would represent a $130 premium over the Core i7-8700K, which is routinely found online for $350. If you happen to live near a Micro Center, you can even score the Core i7-8700K for $300, with a further $30 discount available when bundling with a compatible motherboard.
Intel Core i7-8086K product listing at Connection.com.
Would a commemorative processor release be worth that kind of premium? That will depend in part on the specifications. According to the listings, the Core i7-8086K Anniversary Edition rocks a 4GHz base clock and 5GHz base clock, both of which are 300MHz faster than the Core i7-8700K. It's also expected to be a 6-core/12-thread part with 12MB of L3 cache. It's essentially a cherry-binned Core i7-8700K that's been qualified to run at faster clocks, and that might also mean additional overclocking headroom.
It wouldn't just be going up against Intel's own processor stack, though. AMD recently splashed the market with its second generation Ryzen processors culminating in the Ryzen 7 2700X, which sells for $320. In terms of clockspeed, it's not quite as fast with a 3.7GHz base clock and 4.3GHz boost clock, but is an 8-core/16-thread part that is better equipped for multi-threaded workloads. It also has 16MB of L3 cache.
All that said, if it ends up being real, we think the Core i7-8086K Anniversary Edition will find an audience. It's both a neat SKU and would be the fastest Coffee Lake processor available. As for when it will ship, one of the listings indicates it will be available starting August 6, 2018.
