MOAR CORES!
It finally happened! After generations of just slightly improving their current Dual-/ Quad-Core Line-Up Intel has finally, thanks to the kick in their ass that was AMDs new Ryzen / Threadripper CPU, decided to evolve their new 8th generation more than just with a few more MHz in clock speed.
The new Coffee-Lake (not shitting you that's really the name of this generation xD) Desktop-CPUs have finally recieved a increase in Cores to match the newly arisen multi-core competition. The new i3 has recieved the Quad-Core treatment while even the i5 and i7 have increased their core count to 6, making them both a hexa-core processor. And to top it all of Intel even released an all new i9 processor with a, not only pricewise, staggeringly high core count of 18!
Sounds great doesn't it? The blue giant has finally heard us power hungry PC users and gave us more cores = more power! Or? Well... as good as it may sound on paper sadly things are a bit more complicated than that.
A good example was the mobile Snapdragon which once was a Dual Core, than a Quad Core and for a short time Samsung and many other companies where getting everyone fired up about the new Octa Core Snapdragon inside a phone. And it worked. I've met so many people around that time that were 100% sure that their new Octa Core smartphone would smoke my obsolete and "soooo far behind" iPhone 6 (even thought they had no idea about its clock speed). And boy were they all shocked when my iPhone still won by quiet a margin. Now I am not saying that my smartphones supposedly inferior Dual Core won against their "Octa Core Beasts" because it was a iPhone from Apple, but what I am trying to point out to you through this example is, that there is just more to real life computing power than just the number of cores inside a technological device. Software optimization, clock speed, etc. all play an integral role into the performance that you will get from your computer.
So no. Although the idea of switching from your i7 7700K to the all new i7 8700K with 6 cores might hype you up just by thinking about it, keep in mind that this would mean paying over 400€ just to get a 5-16 FPS improvement while gaming for example. It just wouldn't be worth it.
On the other hand if you have waited already for three generations, or even longer, for Intel to finally innovate again in their processor department than yes, this surely could be a oppertunity for you. (Just keep in mind that these come with a all new socket again, so a new motherboard would be needed. Plus there is a number of Kabylake-X CPUs as well, but that's a whole other story for another blog entry. ;P)
Whether you have already ordered your new Coffee Lake / Kabylake-X CPU or you will wait for the next generation of CPUs from Intel or are still happy with your current CPU, there is one thing we can all agree on. With Intel, as probably the biggest influencer on the CPU market, finally also upgrading their i-CPU Line-up to more than just 4 Cores the industry will finally be forced to move forward. If other companies want to somehow keep track and be up to date they have to also adapt to the current trend of "Moar cores!". And that will not only affect the hardware, but also the software department. Game, or software developers will finally have to provide better support for multi-core CPUs with more than 4 cores rather than just make the program only use 4 of your 6 cores. So for example we as video creators can finally expect other companies to support multi-core rendering better than just meh or not at all.
So in total, even if we won't buy the newest CPUs from Intel or think that their release was a bit too rushed, we should be happy. Afterall the renewed acension of AMDs glory CPU days in form of Ryzen and Threadripper plus Intels reaction to that in form of Coffee Lake / Kabylake-X (and later in 2018 Cannon-Lake) will finally make the computing industry get out of their snail shell and start to advance and improve at a faster and way more noticable pacethan it did before. And that is good for all of us PC enthusiasts or?