Intel 8th Gen Core ‘Coffee Lake-S’ Review Roundup

Intel’s Coffee is ready

Seven months after Ryzen’s domination in multi-core mainstream market Intel finally has a response. It is rushed, so the availability might be a problem. Intel finally understood that quad-core CPUs out of interest of gamers who also like to stream or create their own content.

The 6-core family products spans across Core i7 and Core i5 series. For the first time Intel has a mainstream processor with 6 cores and for the first time, Intel has a 6-core CPU under 200 USD (i5-8400). This is a serious move from Intel, the competition in multi-core market has just begun.

Intel Coffeelake-S CPUs will only support 300 series motherboards. This means that an upgrade from Skylake or Kabylake will much more expensive. Unlike AMD, Intel did not officially confirm whether upgraded LGA1151 socket will support future CPUs, so this is something to consider before buying a new motherboard.

The new 6-core family is also likely to affect the sales of 7th Gen Core-X CPUs, especially the i7-7800X. The Coffelake-S has much better overclocking potential, it is cheaper and has lower TDP. Unless you need more PCIe lanes, the 8700K will definitely be a better choice.