Intel's flagship Rocket Lake-S Desktop CPU, the Core i9-11900K, has been spotted within the Ashes of The Singularity benchmark. The leaked entry was once again spotted by TUM_APISAK who had earlier unveiled the first Geekbench scores of the 8 core CPU based on the Cypress Cove processor architecture.
Intel Core i9-11900K Rocket Lake-S Desktop Flagship CPU Spotted, Early ES Chip With 8 Cores & 3.5 GHz Base Clock Around 10% Slower Than Ryzen 9 5950X
The Intel Core i9-11900K CPU will be featuring 8 cores and 16 threads. The entry appeared today so this means that Intel's partners are already testing the CPU out in gaming benchmarks and several other test suites. The CPU seems to feature a 3.50 GHz base clock which is higher than the variant we got to see yesterday. Both chips feature 8 cores, 16 threads, 16 MB of L3 cache, and 4 MB of L2 cache. The primary difference is in the clock speeds.
We can't say for sure if these are early ES variants of the same chip or different chips altogether since the Core i9 and Core i7 SKUs are expected to be practically identical with the main difference being the clock speeds. The earlier 3.4 GHz SKU could be a Core i7-11700K model while the Core i9 model features a higher base clock of 3.5 GHz. The boost clock for the previous model was set to 5 GHz so we can expect the 3.5 GHz to support a higher boost clock.
But since these are early ES chips, we can't say for sure if these are the final clock speeds for the chip. Intel's Core i7-10700K also featured a base clock of 3.5 GHz and boosted up to 5.1 GHz while the Core i9-10900K featured a 3.3 GHz base clock but boosted up to 5.3 GHz. The Core i9-10900K featured a higher number of cores and threads than the Rocket Lake lineup which will be restricted to just 8 cores and 16 threads for the top SKU. Another important thing to note is that we do not know if the turbo boost technology in the benchmark was functioning as intended within the game.
Regardless, the Intel Core i9-11900K Rocket Lake flagship CPU scored 62.7 FPS at 1440p and 64.7 FPS at 1080p. Both tests were run on the Crazy preset which is the highest quality preset you can set in Ashes of The Singularity benchmark. Twitter user @___iMagic shared results of his Ryzen 9 5950X too which scored 71.9 FPS at 1080p with the Crazy preset. This shows that the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is around 10% faster than the Core i9-11900K in this particular benchmark.
5950X faster still pic.twitter.com/k7zYfyBr1O
— not fred (@___NF___O_O) December 4, 2020
The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X does feature a higher number of cores and threads (16/32 vs 8/16) and also comes at a price of $799 US which is way above what Intel would be charging for its 8 core chip. At the same time, the Ryzen 9 5900X and the Ryzen 7 5800X could also manage similar CPU performance results within the same benchmark. It looks like we might see the score improve with qualification chips that land by the end of this year as Intel preps Rocket Lake 11th Gen CPUs for launch in Q1 2021.
Here's Everything We Know About The 11th Generation Desktop CPUs
Intel's Rocket Lake-S desktop CPU platform is expected to feature support on LGA 1200 socket which will make its debut with Comet Lake-S CPUs although on 400-series motherboards. The Intel Rocket Lake-S processors will be launching alongside the 500-series motherboards but it has since been confirmed that LGA 1200 motherboards will offer support for Rocket Lake-S CPUs, especially given the fact that PCIe Gen 4.0 is a prominent feature of Z490 motherboards which would only be enabled with the use of Rocket Lake-S desktop CPUs.
Main features of Intel's Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs include:
- Increased Performance with new Cypress Cove core architecture
- Up to 8 cores and 16 threads (Double Digit IPC Gains Over Skylake)
- New Xe graphics architecture (Up To 50% higher Performance Than Gen9)
- Increased DDR4 3200 MHz Memory Support
- CPU PCIe 4.0 Lanes (Available on Z490 & Z590 Motherboards)
- Enhanced Display (Integrated HDMI 2.0b, DP1.4a, HBR3)
- Added x4 CPU PCIe Lanes = 20 Total CPU PCIe 4.0 Lanes
- Enhanced Media (12 bit AV1/HVEC, E2E compression)
- CPU Attached Storage or Intel Optane Memory
- New Overclocking Features and Capabilities
- USB Audio offload
- Integrated CNVi & Wireless-AX
- Integrated USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20G)
- 2.5Gb Ethernet Discrete LAN
- Discrete Intel Thunderbolt 4 (USB4 Compliant)
The architecture for Rocket Lake CPUs is said to be Cypress Cove which is reportedly a hybrid between the Sunny Cove and Willow Cove design but will feature Xe Gen 12 GPU architecture. We have also been told that the Z590 motherboard series with Thunderbolt 4.0 support will be announced later this year so expect more information on Rocket Lake CPUs in the coming months.
Intel Mainstream CPU Generations Comparison:
| Intel CPU Family | Processor Process | Processor Architecture | Graphics Architecture | Processors Cores/Threads (Max) | Platform | Memory Support | PCIe Support | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Lake (12th Gen) | Intel 7 | Golden Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 16/24 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2021 |
| Raptor Lake (13th Gen) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2022 |
| Raptor Lake Refresh (14th Gen) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2023 |
| Meteor Lake | Intel 4 | Redwood Cove (P-Core) Crestmont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 22/28 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Arrow Lake | TSMC N3B | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 24/24 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Arrow Lake Refresh | TSMC N3B | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 24/24 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2026 |
| Lunar Lake | TSMC N3B | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe2 (Battlemage) | 8/8 | Mobile Only | LPDDR5X | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Panther Lake | Intel 18A | Cougar Cove (P-Core) Darkmont (E-Core) | Xe3 (Battlemage) | 16/16 | Mobile Only | LPDDR5/LPDDR5X | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2025 |
| Nova Lake | Intel 18A | Coyote Cove (P-Core) Arctic Wolf (E-Core) | Xe3 (Battlemage) Xe3P (Celestial) | 52/52 | LGA 1954 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2026 |
| Razor Lake | Intel 18A? | Griffin Cove (P-Core) Golden Eagle (E-Core) | TBA | TBA | LGA 1954 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2027 |
| Titan Lake | TBA | Copper Shark (Unified) Golden Eagle (E-Core) | TBA | TBA | Mobile Only | LPDDR6? | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2028 |
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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