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Intel Claims 30% Performance Improvement For 8th Gen Processors

With every new processor launch, both Intel and AMD throw around big performance gain numbers. Intel, for instance, claimed a 15% performance increase for their  7th Gen Kaby Lake over the 6th Gen Skylake processors. AMD even tossed out a 52% IPC improvement for their new Ryzen processors. For the upcoming Coffee Lake 8th Gen processors, Intel claims a 30% performance boost over Kaby Lake. However, the way Intel came up with that number is a bit disingenuous.

First up, the performance boost figure comes from a highly specific benchmark, SYSmark 2014 version 1.5. Intel also ran the test on 15W U-series processors which operate in a power and a thermally constrained environment. More importantly, the chips Intel chose to make the comparison are of questionable value. The Kaby Lake chip used was the i7-7500U with 2.7 GHz base, 3.5 GHz turbo clocks, offering 2 threads and 4 cores with HyperThreading. The unnamed Coffee Lake chip features 4 cores and 8 threads along with a 4 GHz turbo clock. While belonging to the same TDP category, the chips are obviously of a different performance bracket.

With such widely disparate chips, the 30% performance figure really tells us nothing about Coffee Lake. The new lineup is expected to feature a slightly tweaked architecture and improved process so a 30% increase is fantastically optimistic. With a higher clock speed and double the core/thread count, it was inevitable that the Coffee Lake chip would come out ahead. The fact that there was only a 30% performance increase goes to show the thermal limitations of the design. Intel has also previously produced quad-core mobile chips with a TDP as low as 28W, the same as the higher end dual-core chips.

Prior to this recent announcement, Intel had claimed a more modest 15% performance increase. This is in line with the performance gains Kaby Lake saw with the increased clock speeds. Of course, Intel isn’t the first to claim a performance increase by simply boosting the core count. However, unless the new Coffee Lake chip fills the price range of the i7 7500U, the 30% simply isn’t a fully honest number to claim.

Samuel Wan

Samuel joined eTeknix in 2015 after becoming engrossed in technology and PC hardware. With his passion for gaming and hardware, tech writing was the logical step to share the latest news with the world. When he’s not busy dreaming about the latest hardware, he enjoys gaming, music, camping and reading.

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