New SKUs for Intel, defeating the purpose of higher tier CPUs?

[Fasauceome]

Just read this article:

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/msi-announces-support-for-core-i9-9900kfi7-9700kfi5-9600kfi5-9400kfi5-9400and-i3-9350kf.html

And I noticed something

Quote

which can support Intel Core i9-9900KF, i7-9700KF, i5-9600KF, i5-9400KF, and i3-9350KF

There are 2 overclockable i5 models listed. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the more expensive one if the cheaper one overclocks? I doubt the binning difference for the SKUs would create any kind of appreciable difference in performance, and I think I'm seeing an i7 2600k vs i7 2700k here, because who bought a 2700k when the 2600k was basically the same?

[Crunchy Dragon]

I actually forgot the 2700K existed until I read this post....

 

I would imagine the two Core i5s being equal in performance clock for clock. I don't see them both reaching 5Ghz though, otherwise that would kind of be a bad move on Intel's part and nobody will buy the 9600KF.

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

otherwise that would kind of be a bad move on Intel's part and nobody will buy the 9600KF.

That's more along the lines of what I imagine happening.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, fasauceome said:

That's more along the lines of what I imagine happening.

What I'm saying is that if Intel bins the 9400KF properly so that it can't reach 5Ghz, and then markets the 9600KF as a 5Ghz chip, then it negates the problem a little bit.

 

If Intel did however allow both chips to reach 5Ghz, then the 9600KF would likely still be better anyway, since they most likely wouldn't match performance clock for clock, similar to the Ryzen 5 1600 and 2600.

[mxk]

9400KF? What the hell? I saw the 9400F but why would they sell a different unlocked CPU? That makes no sense. Are they trying to get rid of the worse binned CPUs?

[Princess Luna]

18 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

because who bought a 2700k when the 2600k was basically the same?

Who buys the RTX TITAN when the 2080 Ti is basically the same?

 

Bragging rights my friend.

[porina]

10 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Who buys the RTX TITAN when the 2080 Ti is basically the same?

Titan RTX has more cores than 2080 Ti though, so can't really call them the same.

 

On the OP question, I suspect either guru3D or MSI made a typo. Do we have proof a 9400KF exists? I don't see it on ARK.

9400 https://ark.intel.com/products/134898/Intel-Core-i5-9400-Processor-9M-Cache-up-to-4-10-GHz-

9400F https://ark.intel.com/products/190883/Intel-Core-i5-9400F-Processor-9M-Cache-up-to-4-10-GHz-

9600K https://ark.intel.com/products/134896/Intel-Core-i5-9600K-Processor-9M-Cache-up-to-4-60-GHz-

9600KF https://ark.intel.com/products/190884/Intel-Core-i5-9600KF-Processor-9M-Cache-up-to-4-60-GHz-

 

Looks like Intel only F'd versions of existing CPUs.

[Fasauceome]

28 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

If Intel did however allow both chips to reach 5Ghz, then the 9600KF would likely still be better anyway, since they most likely wouldn't match performance clock for clock, similar to the Ryzen 5 1600 and 2600.

the 1600 and 2600 have different process sizes though, so of course the zen+ vs zen difference exists, but with these it would just be coffee lake vs coffee lake.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, fasauceome said:

the 1600 and 2600 have different process sizes though, so of course the zen+ vs zen difference exists, but with these it would just be coffee lake vs coffee lake.

Sure, but the 2600 is still better clock for clock. That was my point. I'm aware of the architecture difference between Zen 1 and Zen+.

[Fasauceome]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

Sure, but the 2600 is still better clock for clock. That was my point. I'm aware of the architecture difference between Zen 1 and Zen+.

Well that's what I mean, the difference clock for clock wouldn't exist within the 9th gen (unless for whatever reason they're on different process nodes)

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, fasauceome said:

Well that's what I mean, the difference clock for clock wouldn't exist within the 9th gen (unless for whatever reason they're on different process nodes)

There's also binning, the 9600KF would probably be a higher bin than the 9400KF, being a higher end chip.

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

There's also binning, the 9600KF would probably be a higher bin than the 9400KF, being a higher end chip.

Do you think the stock differences would translate to the overclocks or scale? usually there's something like a .2GHz difference between these SKUs and so if these products were to have a .2 difference when overclocked some people would probably still see a more attractive value in the cheaper one.

[Mira Yurizaki]

At first I was excited for the F SKU. But I'm pretty certain they're just processors without the F SKU with neutered display hardware.

[Fasauceome]

27 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

At first I was excited for the F SKU. But I'm pretty certain they're just processors without the F SKU with neutered display hardware.

Wasn't the aim of the F SKU to have cheaper processors because of the inactive iGPU?

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, fasauceome said:

Wasn't the aim of the F SKU to have cheaper processors because of the inactive iGPU?

Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean by design it'll work better. i.e., I don't see these processors having any better potential than the non-F versions.

[Fasauceome]

Just now, Mira Yurizaki said:

Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean by design it'll work better. i.e., I don't see these processors having any better potential than the non-F versions.

People make mention of the iGPU no longer causing thermal output but I have my doubts that it makes much impact.

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

People make mention of the iGPU no longer causing thermal output but I have my doubts that it makes much impact.

It wouldn't cause a significant amount of thermal output anyway if you're running your displays exclusively from the video card.

[mr moose]

This is just the direction CPU evolution is going, as each new node/architecture/feature is added more options become available to more processors.  Essentially we will get to a stage where all CPU's are what we consider today to be higher end K variants because CPU improvements and workload optimization is reducing the gap between top end and entry level.

 

There was once a time when you needed an mid level or higher CPU in order to game, now you can do it easily on an i3/r3. Same with GPU's.

 

[X_X]

16 hours ago, porina said:

On the OP question, I suspect either guru3D or MSI made a typo.

FWIW I'm with you on this one, no i5-9400KF.

 

The differences in 9600KF and 9600K should be obvious, segmentation isn't always about clock speed but can be features or lack of them too.