Intel's unreleased i7-11700K is being sold and shipped in Germany

[mongeese]

WTF?! German retailer Mindfactory listed the unreleased and unannounced Intel Core i7-11700K for over a day, until they were sold out. Now, enthusiasts on German forums are posting photos and screenshots of the next-gen processors.

Intel’s eleventh-generation desktop processors, codenamed Rocket Lake, were announced in general terms at CES 2021, but only the flagship i9-11900K was formally named.

The Core i7-11700K is no stranger to us though: it was the victim of an illicit benchmarking attempt, and its naughty photos have been plastered all over the internet. And now it’s been listed for sale. Or it was listed, rather, because Mindfactory has ended sales with over 120 units sold.

The listing was previously for €469 ($565) including a 19% VAT. It’s unclear if they ran out, which their website would seem to suggest, or if Intel put a stop to it. Either way, it’s too late now.

Enthusiasts turned into hardware beta testers have been documenting their experiences with the new processors on popular German forums Hardwareluxx, ComputerBase, and Extreme PC Games & Hardware (via VideoCardz). It looks like several dozen received an 11700K. Some of them have struggled to get the processors running on their Z490 boards, which are a few updates away from full support, and there have even been problems with Z590 boards. (Good luck calling Intel’s support team about that!) But after a little perseverance, the processors booted up.

The codes on the boxes and processors seem to indicate that these are release samples allocated to Europe, but not all the codes are properly understood yet.

What was found was what was expected. The 11700K is an octa-core part with a 3.6 GHz base clock, and a boost clock of 5 GHz. A few beta testers overclocked it to 5 GHz on all cores without much hassle, and one pushed it to 5.2 GHz.

At those speeds, it performed very well in some rudimentary benchmark runs -- but at the margins we’re talking about now, it’s pointless to discuss numbers until reviewers can do an apples-to-apples comparison.

Speaking of, it’s rumored that Intel could announce Rocket Lake on March 16. We’ll be putting them to the test and putting the speculation to rest as soon as we can get the chips in our labs.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88766-intel-unreleased-i7-11700k-sold-shipped-germany.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Intel is advancing through CPU generations so fast, that by the time I actually need to upgrade, they may be at 15700k

 

[Morphine Child]

That makes it 40€ more expensive than 5800X on the same store... which means it will be even more expensive if demand is high and supply limited...

 

[Reehahs]

Intel is advancing through CPU generations so fast, that by the time I actually need to upgrade, they may be at 15700k

The only thing I see them advancing is the naming scheme.

 

[scavengerspc]

So much going on lately I didn't even realize until now that Intel's tick-tock system has advanced to every 3 weeks.

 

[Adi6293]

Intel is advancing through CPU generations so fast, that by the time I actually need to upgrade, they may be at 15700k

If they don't start advancing their IPC you might need to wait till 20900K before it's worth upgrading lmao

 

[HardReset]

If they don't start advancing their IPC you might need to wait till 20900K before it's worth upgrading lmao

There is IPC advancement in this model

 

[Lionvibez]

If they don't start advancing their IPC you might need to wait till 20900K before it's worth upgrading lmao

Both Rocket Lake S and Alderlake S will have IPC improvements.

 

[brucek]

I understand how retailers sometimes mistakenly ship a day early or similar, but how do a bunch of engineering samples get full retail boxing and sent to a retailer if they weren't intended for sale in the first place? I guess every company is different but in the ones I've worked at, this could not have happened until very near release date because the packaging, samples, etc. wouldn't exist in sufficient quantities in the hands of people who interface directly with the Mindfactorys of the world until then.

 

[Adi6293]

There is IPC advancement in this model

I suppose there is but still not good enough

 

[Makste]

I wouldn't consider this an error though. This was a test run.

 

[texasrattler]

The only thing I see them advancing is the naming scheme.

When you dont have any competition thats all they needed to change.

 

[Lounds]

It'll be interesting seeing the reviews of these chips Vs the Ryzen 5000 line up. Either way AMD over priced the Zen 3 products so they could cut the price when intel launches 11th gen.

 

[Dimitriid]

There's a distinct appeal since pretty much the only Ryzen 5000 chip not worth considering is the 8 core and only because the price difference between it and the 12 core is too small to bother. However right now, the 12 core is very difficult to find whereas the 8 core is relatively easy to grab (It's not but by comparison)

So all intel has to do is match the 5800x in price and performance or undercut it a tiny little bit and that way it would be an easy to recommend chip: an 8 core chip that makes more sense if you can't quite jump up to the 5900x

But can intel deliver this? Can they learn from AMD and *not* make this chip inherently inferior to an inevitable 12 core tier? Because they probably want an i9 that is 12 core to compete with the 5900x but if they differentiate their 8 core better than AMD did with better pricing then it's a weird but viable choice for me.

 

[Dyper]

I liked i7 4790k’s, always thought if they doubled the cache they wouldn’t need 5000/6000/7000/8000/9000/10k/11k.
I’m liking Tiger Lake desktop, also B550 w/ a 5000 APU.
May the best chip win.

 

[mrvco]

Released prematurely or not, Intel must be over the moon that people are actually buying their CPUs.

 

[Guillermo Belli]

I wonder what's the power consumption @5GHz on an cores...

 

[Adi6293]

I wonder what's the power consumption @5GHz on an cores...

250 watts

 

[Irata]

250 watts

Doubtful as 5 GHz all core is noticeably above Intel‘s official specs for the 10700k (4.6 Ghz all core).

 

[HardReset]

But can intel deliver this? Can they learn from AMD and *not* make this chip inherently inferior to an inevitable 12 core tier? Because they probably want an i9 that is 12 core to compete with the 5900x but if they differentiate their 8 core better than AMD did with better pricing then it's a weird but viable choice for me.

There won't be 12-core i9 on 11.th generation. Just because core is so large they cannot put 12 cores into CPU package.

Unless they do something like AMD did, 6+6 cores.

 

[MasterMace]

Anyone else notice the curious reported specs between the 11700k and 11900k?

11700k 8c/16t 3.60ghz base

11900k 8c/16t 3.50ghz base

Naturally the Boost clock is higher on the 11900k, but I found it very curious that the base was allegedly slower on the 11900k than the 11700k but the cpu was more expensive still.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Ok so, any and all complaints about AMD's Ryzen 5000 pricing scheme (and I was one of the people complaining) can cease because Intel has implemented its usual "I shot myself in the foot" pricing strategy. There's no way that the i7-11700K (14nm, 125W 3.6GHz-5.0GHz) is worth more than the R7-5800X (7nm, 105W 3.8GHz-4.7GHz) but Intel is charging and extra €40 for it? Yeah, we'll get right on that!

Always expect Intel to do something slimy and/or stupid from having some funky-looking box to... well, this.

 

[Avro Arrow]

That makes it 40€ more expensive than 5800X on the same store... which means it will be even more expensive if demand is high and supply limited...

Yeah, never mind the fact that there's no way in hell that it's worth €40 more than the R7-5800X. But hey, Intel's gonna be Intel, eh?

The only thing I see them advancing is the naming scheme.

Yeah from somewhat logical and coherent to "WTF does that mean?" territory.

So much going on lately I didn't even realize until now that Intel's tick-tock system has advanced to every 3 weeks.

I don't think that Intel realised it either.

If they don't start advancing their IPC you might need to wait till 20900K before it's worth upgrading lmao

It would also have to be worth actually upgrading to Intel instead of AMD. I really don't know if that's going to happen. From the looks of things, Intel still doesn't understand the difference between "nicely-priced" and "total ripoff". We'll just have to wait and see if the tech press tears a strip off of Intel for their pricing like they did with AMD.

There is IPC advancement in this model

Technically, the same thing was true when comparing Maxwell to Broadwell, still crappy though.

I wouldn't consider this an error though. This was a test run.

Agreed. There's no way that this was done by accident. Mindfactory shouldn't even have had stock in a CPU that hadn't yet been announced, let alone released unless it was planned.

It'll be interesting seeing the reviews of these chips Vs the Ryzen 5000 line up. Either way AMD over priced the Zen 3 products so they could cut the price when intel launches 11th gen.

This i7-11700K is priced €41 higher than its R7-5800X counterpart which makes it even more overpriced than the Ryzen 5000 series (you didn't notice that?). The tech press should have a field day on Intel's pricing just like they did with AMD's. I dumped on AMD for their pricing but, as usual, Intel refuses to allow anyone to be more evil than they are so I'm dumping on them for their pricing all over again!

When you dont have any competition thats all they needed to change.

From what I've seen, that's when Intel is at their best.

There's a distinct appeal since pretty much the only Ryzen 5000 chip not worth considering is the 8 core and only because the price difference between it and the 12 core is too small to bother. However right now, the 12 core is very difficult to find whereas the 8 core is relatively easy to grab (It's not but by comparison)

Nobody's going to pay an extra $100USD for a dodecacore CPU when an octocore is more than enough for them. It might be worth it to you but for most people that extra $100 would be better invested in their video card or SSD.

So all intel has to do is match the 5800x in price and performance or undercut it a tiny little bit and that way it would be an easy to recommend chip: an 8 core chip that makes more sense if you can't quite jump up to the 5900x

So... I'm guessing that you missed the part where the i7-11700K costs €469 and the R7-5800X costs only €428. If your own definition of the 5800X is that of being "not worth it", then paying an extra €41 for the 11700K is REALLY not worth it. Wouldn't you agree?

But can intel deliver this? Can they learn from AMD and *not* make this chip inherently inferior to an inevitable 12 core tier? Because they probably want an i9 that is 12 core to compete with the 5900x but if they differentiate their 8 core better than AMD did with better pricing then it's a weird but viable choice for me.

They've already failed at that because aside from being €41 more expensive than the R7-5800X, the base clock is slower, the boost clock isn't high enough to overcome AMD's IPC advantage (needs more than just 300MHz to do that), it's still on the 14nm process node and it draws an extra 20W minimum over the 5800X. This CPU only sold out because that's all there is. From a tech or price/performance standpoint, the i7-11700K is an utter failure.

 

[Makste]

They've already failed at that because aside from being €41 more expensive than the R7-5800X, the base clock is slower, the boost clock isn't high enough to overcome AMD's IPC advantage (needs more than just 300MHz to do that), it's still on the 14nm process node and it draws an extra 20W minimum over the 5800X. This CPU only sold out because that's all there is. From a tech or price/performance standpoint, the i7-11700K is an utter failure.

This last part. Third party reviews are going to be interesting to scrutinise for this detail. I want to see how this turns out on the final product.

 

[rmcrys]

Anyone else notice the curious reported specs between the 11700k and 11900k?

11700k 8c/16t 3.60ghz base

11900k 8c/16t 3.50ghz base

Naturally the Boost clock is higher on the 11900k, but I found it very curious that the base was allegedly slower on the 11900k than the 11700k but the cpu was more expensive still.

Typical Intel: the chip is about the same but among other things, they put a lower base clock to have more headroom for turbo so it goes higher.