Intel’s 11th-gen Rocket Lake-S is the primary main rework of the corporate’s desktop pc cores for the reason that Sixth-gen Skylake CPU in 2015, and arguably the largest step ahead in years.
It’s additionally one of many least-secret chips in current reminiscence. Unofficial data began trickling out proper after it was launched at digital CES in January, adopted by almost weekly efficiency leaks. Most not too long ago, a retailer in Germany by chance began promoting the CPUs a month earlier than its official launch, engendering a spate of early, unauthorized critiques and even a delidding to take a look at the cores.
There’s quite a bit to maintain up with, so we’ll break down every thing it’s good to know. You also can bounce to a subject space utilizing the helpful checklist under:
What is Intel 11th-gen Rocket Lake?
- Why is Rocket Lake constructed on the ‘ancient’ 14nm course of?
- Why does the 11th-gen Core i9 have fewer cores?
- What are the speeds and feeds?
Want to purchase Intel 11th-gen Rocket Lake?
- How a lot do Rocket Lake CPUs price?
- When can I purchase Rocket Lake?
How does 11th-gen Rocket Lake carry out?
- Doesn’t having solely Eight cores imply it’s slower?
- What does ‘improved efficiency’ imply?
- Is 11th-gen Rocket Lake quicker than Ryzen 5000?
- Is Rocket Lake quicker than Ryzen solely in video games?
- Should I consider these efficiency numbers?
- But wasn’t 11th-gen Rocket Lake already reviewed?
More About Rocket Lake
- Should I care about AVX512 assist?
- Memory might matter extra with Rocket Lake
- The highest gear is simply on Core i9
- Real-time reminiscence overclocking
- You can overclock RAM on cheaper motherboards
- Any Rocket Lake CPU helps reminiscence overclocking
- Rocket Lake helps PCIe 4.Zero on Z490 too
- Rocket Lake’s 500 chipsets assist wider DMI 3.0
What is Intel 11th-gen Rocket Lake?
Rocket Lake is an attention-grabbing mashup of various CPUs and applied sciences Intel has amassed. It’s constructed on Intel’s 14nm course of, utilizing cores Intel calls Cypress Cove. Cypress Cove cores are primarily based on the 10nm Sunny Cove cores from Intel’s 10th-gen Ice Lake laptop computer chips. For graphics, Intel makes use of the Xe cores from its 11th-gen Tiger Lake laptop computer CPUs, in addition to Tiger Lake’s extra superior media engine, which may decode next-gen codecs equivalent to AV1.
Why is Rocket Lake constructed on the ‘ancient’ 14nm course of?
Although primarily based on CPU and GPU architectures that had been initially constructed on the extra superior 10nm and 10nm+ Enhanced Finfet manufacturing processes, Intel nonetheless determined to construct Rocket Lake on its older 14nm course of.
Intel likes to say this was a alternative that allow it push the design to larger speeds, however that’s in all probability extra spin than actuality. More possible the corporate simply doesn’t have the capability to construct each chip on a 10nm course of at present. Basically, when life offers you lemons, you make Rocket Lake.
Why does the 11th-gen Core i9 have fewer cores?
When you are taking CPU and GPU cores initially designed for a a lot denser 10nm course of after which blow them as much as match on the less-dense 14nm course of, they’re going to take up extra space. That’s why the 11th-gen desktop chips merely can’t match 10 cores onto the die area together with the brand new graphics cores. That means the 11th-gen Core i9-11900Okay will max out at Eight cores, whereas the older 10th-gen Core i9-10900Okay has 10 cores.
What are the speeds and feeds?
If you doubt 11th-gen Rocket Lake will see widespread adoption, Intel’s launch plan suggests in any other case, with a reasonably deep checklist of 18 totally different chips. They will vary from lower-power 6-core Core i7-11400T with a lift clock of 3.7GHz, to the 8-core Core i9-11900Okay chip, with a 5.3GHz prime clock and all-core clock of 4.8GHz.
How does 11th-gen Rocket Lake carry out?
Doesn’t having solely Eight cores imply it’s slower?
There will certainly be some duties the place the older 10th-gen, 10-core Core i9 flagship CPU outperforms the newer 11th-gen, 8-core Core i9 flagship. But there can even be some duties, even multi-threaded ones, the place the brand new era will prevail, particularly with its improved effectivity.
