Intel announces nearly a dozen 10th-gen 'Ice Lake' processors and invites the press to...

Shawn Knight

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What just happened? Intel has introduced nearly a dozen new 10th-gen Intel Core processors designed specifically for laptops and 2-in-1s. Based on Intel’s 10nm process technology, the eleven newcomers code-named Ice Lake feature an all-new graphics architecture with up to 1 teraflop of GPU engine compute as well as Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.

They include Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 variants with core / thread counts of 2/4 and 4/8. TDP scales from 9W on lower-end models up to 28W for the top-end Core i7-1068G7. All models feature Gen11 integrated graphics, most with Intel’s Iris Plus.

Intel’s new Ice Lake chips are scheduled to crop up in new laptops and 2 in 1s from PC manufacturers this holiday season but we don’t have to wait until then to get an idea of how they perform.

Intel recently invited select members of the press to try out Ice Lake using Software Development Systems – laptops that typically go out to Intel’s software partners for testing. These reference design systems aren’t anything to look at but they do provide a platform for benchmarking Ice Lake and that’s really all that matters today. They’re essentially just functional demos.

Image and graphs below courtesy AnandTech

AnandTech was among the publications on hand and spent roughly eight hours with test systems running Intel’s Core i7-1065G7 in 15W and 25W modes. Editors conducted a battery of highly technical tests as well as synthetic / legacy benchmarks for historical comparison’s sake on Intel's reference system as well as a Huawei Matebook 13 2019 with a Whiskey Lake i7-8565U with 8GB of DDR4-3200 and a Matebook X Pro 2018 running a Kaby Lake-R Core i7-8500U.

We’ve included results from some of the more popular tests here although you should definitely check out AnandTech’s full write-up for the nitty gritty, in-depth details.

There's not a ton of performance gained when going from Whiskey Lake to Ice Lake in CineBnech R20's multi-threaded test.

Oddly enough, performance in Final Fantasy XV declined slightly when moving from 15W to 25W. The speed bump compared to the Whiskey Lake integrated graphics further highlights that this is a GPU-bound test.

World of Tanks, on the other hand, is far more receptive to the extra frequency afforded by the additional TDP.

As others like PCMag also highlight, it's very early days for Ice Lake. The fact that Intel even allowed members of the press to preview its new chip is a deviation from the norm but one that is welcome.

The general consensus seems to be that Intel's latest offering provides a solid - although not groundbreaking - boost in CPU-minded performance. If you're also in need of integrated graphics, well, that's where things become even more interesting. But we'll have to wait until later this year to get a firm grasp on exactly what Ice Lake is capable of as more hands-on time with chips is needed.

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BS useless test. Compare Iris Plus to Iris Plus.

Core i7-1065G7 vs. Core i7-8559U

That's an actual test of generational improvements. If only Intel sold a convenient system containing the Core i7-8559U to test with. And if only they called it a 'MUC.' Or something similar…
 
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A lot of people are hating on Anandtech in the article comments but that's not warranted as Ian got to do his own benchmarks. However, I can't assume that system is representative of real world performance as it's certain to be optimized (memory timings, etc.) as much as possible. Instead take it as one of the options for performance from Ice Lake 3-6 months from now. IMO, one big positive is the support for much higher speed memory in this gen of laptop parts as that makes a big difference when using an IGP.
 
I just have one question, Isn't an "Ice Lake", rightfully called a "glacier"? :confused:
 
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Only 4cores/8threads 4.1GHz? It's not acceptable without 6cores/12threads at least two cores boost upto 4.5GHz in 2019 now.
 
Only 4cores/8threads 4.1GHz? It's not acceptable without 6cores/12threads at least two cores boost upto 4.5GHz in 2019 now.
Boldly stated!. But but aren't you being a little harsh on what are intended as low power or mobile CPUs?

And well, a laptop is still a laptop, even in 2019.
They most likely can't reach the very high clocks that they can on the re-re-refinned 14nm node. I remember AMD saying that they expected the clocks to regress on the 7nm node (if not for some last second "magic" - and even so the clocks are not exactly great for Zen2).

As for releasing more than 4 cores they can undoubtably do it, but the profit margins are not good enough yet (low yields for big chips). The chips will be more expensive than the current lineup and will require at least 4.2GHz to match the current gen 5GHz in terms of performance (if we are to believe their 18% improvement to IPC claims).

The MT results are kind of telling of what we can expect from 10nm right now. The 14nm 15W i7-8565U can reach 4.1 GHz all core clocks and the 28W i7-1068G7 can only do 3.6GHz all core with 4.1GHz being the boost clock.

Nobody wants to see Intel release another CPU generation that can only improve performance by 5%, even if the IGP is now much better.

From Anandtech about a slide from Intel on performance:
"Right at the very end, we see Whiskey Lake performing +42% above Broadwell, and Ice Lake performing +47% above Broadwell. A quick calculation of 1.47/1.42 means that even Intel is only predicting an absolute gain of ~3.5% for Ice Lake over current generation systems."
 
Wait a minute, weren't some of the 8th/9th gen intel CPUs 6cores with 12 threads? Isn't this regressing?

Core count doesn’t define a CPU. There are 8 core atoms out there that get their *** handed to them by a dual core pentium across the board.

Most basic applications will benefit more from an IPC/clock speed increase than an extra pair of cores. Applications that require lots of cores typically wouldn’t be running on a small power efficient laptop. At least not yet.

What I’m curious with on these chips isn’t the performance, previous gen quads are more than enough for me. But it’s battery life and graphics performance, if there are decent improvements here then these chips will be a success.
 
Ha, Ha; Ice Lake CPUs are icy! not hot at all. It seems they are 14nm ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ disguised as 10nm parts!
 
Wait a minute, weren't some of the 8th/9th gen intel CPUs 6cores with 12 threads? Isn't this regressing?

Intel had even 8-core mobile parts as part of their 9 series. Those however were H or HK units - high performance. None of their U/Y series CPUs had more than 4 cores (Pentiums/Celerons/Atoms don't count). These 10th gen CPUs are all U/Y series chips so it's not a regress. A retread maybe :)
 
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