Intel Rocket Lake-S prices Surface - Core i9-11900K to cost €600

[mGz]

Intel's soon the be announced Rocket-Lake-S series desktop processors have created a lot of excitement in the processor market. Z590 motherboards will be released soon; the procs, however, should see a release in March.


Regardless, early prices that have leaked onto multiple retailers bring an overview of what to expect pricing wise. You need to understand that Intel has not confirmed the data. However, the flagship 8-core CPU, the Core i9-11900K, would sit at the €600 marker (incl VAT). On the Topic of VAT, it differs per EU country; overall, it's roughly 20%.

Above, you can see a table from varying retailers. Interestingly the Core i9-11900KF (F = no IGP) would be around € 575. If it's a fair comparison to make based on 8-cores, then an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is hovering around €460- (current price and available in the EU). I want to stress these are leaked prices at etailers; one can assume the prices have inflated their profit margin a notch.

Source - https://www.guru3d.com/news_story/i...uropean_etailers_i9_11900k_to_cost_€_600.html


RIP Intel? You had one job...

Looks like I'll be holding onto my 8700K for a while longer unless I can find a 5950X. Maybe smarter to wait until DDR5 goes mainstream in Q4 of this year? Sigh...

 

[FreeKnight]

I'd expect DDR5 prices to be brutal for their first year or so. Like DDR4 there's only going to be so much supply and early adopters are going to get savaged.

As far as intel, yeah, even if it's a decent performance boost over a 10000 series, they've got to get off the 14nm process. Even if they're functionally still competitive, it's damaging their image to be stuck on the same process this long. If AMD was still in the bulldozer era they could get away with it, but not with how well Zen has turned out.

 

[Vittra]

I'm in various Discords at this point and have been watching Reddit BAPCSalesCanada, and I've seen the shift occurring - people are growing impatient waiting for Zen3 stock (especially when they miss a drop by mere minutes or rushed to a Canada Computers only to be told it's already sold - they stopped online reservations), and are picking up Intel cpus as they go on sale - 10400F, 10700F, etc. Videos like the recent 10400F from Hardware Unboxed really underline how little both AMD and Intel have to offer in their higher end SKUs for gaming specific purposes - unless you're an outlier like me that cares about FPS over everything - value literally thrown straight into the bin and set on fire. As soon as you use your computer for anything more, the 5900X and 5950X are incredible but still tough to find.

I don't expect CPU pricing to be competitive from Intel - they know they have a manufacturing scale advantage over AMD and will leverage that to gain sales while AMD struggles to balance their TSMC 7nm allocation split between Zen3/RDNA2/Xbox Series S&X/PS5.

Z590 pricing may very well prove the detriment to many though - what you will see below is approximately a $100 CAD price increase over Z490, which was also around a $60-100 CAD price increase over Z390.

Z590 provides the following benefits - guarantee a 1x PCI-E 4.0 x16 slot (CPU), 1x PCI-E 4.0 M.2 slot (CPU), USB 3.2 Gen2x2 chipset native implementation, Thunderbolt 4 onboard (Maple Ridge), and the DMI link between CPU and Motherboard is now PCI-E 3.0 x8 (up from x4).

Good changes to be sure - but X570 has a PCIE 4.0 x4 "DMI" link, and Thunderbolt/USB can be addressed with add-in cards if really needed, minus ITX setups (the Z590i Gigabyte Aorus Ultra and Vision are impressive in this regard).

B460 will allow memory overclocking this generation, but if it's equally expensive, it's not going to matter.

Edit - I should mention their other advantage does remain the iGPU - the XE looks to be impressive for a CPU only ITX configuration - if AMD doesn't bring desktop Zen 3APU's to market outside of OEM, this may be the route I go to build in my Lone Industries L5.

 

[crazyea]

I'm a slave to the upgrade bug, so even if I don't need it, I'll probably still do it anyway.

 

[Lysrin]

HWC video idea on this topic, but I could see the 11900K only having 8 cores being a marketing problem for them.

Although 8 cores is more than enough for dare I say the majority of folks, for that inexperienced buyer standing in Staples with a marginally knowledgeable employee telling the "more cores is better" may very well buy the AMD option based on that alone. And that often wouldn't be the wrong choice either given AMDs performance. If expensive that doesn't help Intels position.

 

[Vittra]

I disagree. you're conflating the laptop market with the desktop one. There, the core threat is real, and perceivable. Intel knows this and that's why they have the multiple tiger lake skus. The Staples employee would be right to suggest an AMD - a Zen2/Zen3 8 core processor is far more capable than a 4 core Intel - but I wouldn't be surprised if old knowledge still spurs "Intel" as the recommendation in those circumstances.

On desktop, most options from either side are going to max out at 8 core anyway when we talk about the types of SKUs that a retail box store like Staples would carry. If non-x 5900/5950 show up they will still likely be in the more "customized"/game-focused builds you see - something along the lines of products Newegg or Canada Computers sells - there they will absolutely lose sales to AMD.

 

[Bond007]

To me these CPUs are a side step and nothing else. Get fewer but slightly faster cores consuming the same power, on the same socket, with the same manufacturing node. They appear to have wrung every bit out of 14+++++++++nm that they can.

Personally I have zero “intention” of upgrading to it or likely recommending it. With that said, availability and pricing are (IMO) the only things that can make these attractive. Money talks.

 

[JD]

but I wouldn't be surprised if old knowledge still spurs "Intel" as the recommendation in those circumstances.

Does AMD have something like Intel's Retail Edge? If not, then your Best Buy/Staples/CC/MemEx/etc employee is likely going to recommend Intel to their customers. I think there are "benefits" from your store selling/promoting Intel products and you're doing "brainwashing" courses which tell you how Intel is always better than AMD...

And yes, I'd agree, people are either sticking to, or going back to Intel as chips are readily available and at acceptable prices. Assuming this EU price is accurate, usually it's pretty close to the CAD price too. So I'm guessing around the same $630CAD mark that the 5800X goes for.

 

[Vittra]

Very true, I considered touching on that but my post was already long enough as is. AMD doesn't have anything similar that I'm aware of.

 

[rjbarker]

I want to see OC'ing results and thermals......theyre talking 2 cores boosting to 5.3.....can all 8 cores get to 5.3 or 5.4 perhaps under water.....my 9900k can do 5.1 all cores.....always entertaining AMD Zen though, very appealing when looking at CPU benchmarks....but I like OC'ing...and i dont need for 132 cores 264 threads for gaming...I want decent core count and speed..always been the appeal....still looks like thats a struggle with Zen..
..backporting I guess is the answer dropping from 10c to 8c. Wait and see some benchmarks, the 10900k didnt really look like much if any of an upgrade from 9900K.
Glad to native PCI-E 4.0