The thing that gets me is with reviewers, etc, in games no one is going to buy a high end GPU such as a 1080TI and put it to work running lower resolutions and detail levels. Gamers are also more likely to tweak their RAM timings on the AMD board. I don't even think they sat down to design things like that. Given the high frames in that region anyway, the entire topic is overdone in the media and in reviews. Going forward that gap will not open, software is catching up ect, and a lot of developer work was done between developers and AMD.
Benchmarks are great but they still need to be interpreted.
To get the best out of the 8700k (but someone may just as well use an 8600k or other from intel) they would need to get a good cooling solution. In certain places this could cost over 100 local dollars; because not everyone is near/close by (I.e local to the good price range) the distribution for a cheap/quality cooler from say newegg: so they will invariably pay slightly more through their channels. Thats why the cooler on top of that is another unit of hundreds for them, taking a high 400 dollar local currency processor to a high 500 or even a low-mid 600 dollar one.
I don't think Intel will get high clocks on the 8 core as some may think. Its not simply an 8700k with 2 extra cores, it will be slightly redesigned or it would be far too toasty and inefficient, and the 8700k already uses a fairly high power draw especially when over clocking, it could also require a new socket. Whether Intel needed to come up with new user-facing solutions is anyone's guess, but the 8 core I am pretty sure will be somewhat different in its use than the 6 core.
The 14nm node is a good one and its been upgraded umpteen times so its like 14+++++++, and their node is good for high clocks, but an 8 core will be a bit different. There's a few other niggles different than an 8700k too, so its not like slapping in two more cores and calling it a day; things need to be adjusted. The trouble is when cutting out the silicon it just reaches a point of when you add too many cores to these lines of processors for something that was not designed finance-wise to do so, its introducing overheads that dont stack up. I.e you make something for X amount and intend to sell it for X amount to make money, but now you are adding in extra cores which decreases money in your pocket again. Its good for the consumer though, and of course the 8 core Intel is a stop gap until they - well they seemed to have gotten Keller - until they can design something as modular as AMD, perhaps with what Keller puts in place.
The power draw and all that is one of the main reasons the CFL 6 core was limited to 6 cores, too. As it is CFL is a mish-mash of different 'borrowed' engineering as this era has been transformative and transitional. Even so, such an 8 core mainstream chip is expected later this year. Its at the point now where since its all been brought forward, their prior products will take a hit in the kaby lake realm.
Next year AMD go to a high clocking node too, but their chip design is very modular. The difference is AMD is ready to roll on higher clocked high core count chips, with an efficient node and manufacturing process, and this just limits what Intel can respond with for now. Also with AMD EPIC ramping up in servers, its complimentary to the whole product stack. Typically the best silicon goes into higher tier products, like Threadripper and HDEP chips. Its a credit to the node maturity that an 8700k is possible at all given some chips are hitting high clocks.
So the AMD production is very vertical in its integration, its really nice for them. And the Intel for one reason or another has a wider remit (and because they're large and do many things); so the way they would go about this current generation of mainstream CPU's is different.
I mention that because from all this in telling it, I want to make it clear to not expect some 5.3 Ghz overclocking 8 core chip from intel sending C15 results through the roof. Not only do I think its not doable at all right now, even if they did, they would not be charging you anywhere near a Ryzen for it since they couldn't possibly do that and remain happy.
well it didn't go off the radar, but people are choosing to either ignore it or wait for the next designs from Intel that stomp it out at the hardware level.
Ice lake I think is designed to pretty much fully mitigate it innately.
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But to state: I think the 8 core intel will be a nice bump. Its true any chip atm will be a good chip for the buyer. And intel chips are great too, though I focussed on AMD here.
We've got to look at the 8 core intel as being a reallocation of resources for a cpu. If it reaches 4.5, be happy. To previously get the advantage they had to clock to 4.8 ish.