We may still be several months to an entire year away from a proper release of Intel’s upcoming line of processors currently going under the code name Coffee Lake, but it’s never too early to take a peek at leaked details for chips to get an idea for what the future may hold.
The latest dribble of information comes for the Core i3-8350K. It’s not the strongest offering in the processor lineup yet boasts CPU power near that of the Core i7-7700K. It might be an uncertain future for this line of processors, but that initial comparison alone for its mid-range offer is quietly promising.
Coffee Lake: A drip more than a torrential downpour
If you’ve been keeping up with Coffee Lake details as they arrive you’ll be happy to know that the i3-8350K is looking fairly attractive to budget builders and you may not need further detail. Simple, that. If you’re unfamiliar with the lineup’s development, however, you should probably take a moment to familiarise yourself with the current state of performance uncertainty.
It’s not so much a case of doubt in Intel’s ability to release proper hardware. The last big reveal included a fairly underwhelming refresh of the existing offerings of Kaby Lake CPUs instead of entirely re-hauled technology. Is that a death knell for the Coffee Lake lineup? Likely not, as the promised updates to its performance should be more than enough to justify its upgrade cost, but it’s hard to be excited when the announcement is as low-key as this one was. Shame, really.
Performance comparisons
Note that these are pre-release specifications and may be subject to change.
As stated before, the most relieving leaked detail so far shows benchmarks for the Core i3-8350k clocking close to the last generation’s flagship i7 CPU. You might expect newer lines of CPUs to be a significant step up in power compared to their predecessors and you won’t be disappointed here regardless of your upcoming CPU buying budget.
Combined with a potential pricing leak it’s starting to look like a very attractive lineup of processors coming our way in a year or so. Though the leak is in Canadian dollars it does paint a very clear picture of what kind of performance you’ll be getting for your money: That flagship i7-7700k retailed for roughly $462 in Canada.
The updated i3-8350k that seems primed to knock it out of its throne? $233 Canadian. Nearly half the price of its predecessor, yet already stacked up to be a chip to contend with.
Make sure you check out the full breakdown of core clocks and information on the entire Coffee Lake lineup. It’s a four core processor clocked at 4.0GHz with an 8MB cache and that’s more than enough to pique the interest of anyone looking for a solid budget processor with high-end performance and overclocking capabilities.
