With the advent of processors of the Coffee Lake and Coffee Lake Refresh generations, Intel, following the lead of a competitor, systematically increased the number of computing cores in its proposals. The result of this process was that a new eight-core family of Core i1151 chips was formed as part of the LGA2v9 mass platform, and the Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 families significantly increased their arsenal of computing cores. At the same time, the Core i5 series was the least fortunate: such processors, which were quad-core in the past, eventually became only six-core. But today's Core i7s have eight and Core i3s have four cores, making them twice as attractive as their predecessors offered just two years ago.
We already talked in detail about how successful the evolution of older Intel consumer processors was when we tested the new eight-core processors. и , as well as the new six-core . However, we have not yet talked about the representative of the Core i3 family, belonging to the Coffee Lake Refresh generation. Many of you will probably think that this is how it should be, because at first glance, nothing significant happened when moving from the Coffee Lake design to the Coffee Lake Refresh with the Core i3 series: processors with numbers from the tenth thousand offer exactly the same four cores without support for Hyper- Threading like their predecessors. And it seems that there will be no significant difference in performance and consumer qualities between them. But not everything is so clear.
The fact is that the updated Core i3 series, unlike, for example, the Core i5, has become clearly better. And the point here is not at all in the growth of clock frequencies, which, judging by the nominal values, have not increased at all. The main thing that happened to the new generation Core i3 is that they have support for Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, which until now has remained the prerogative of the Core i5, i7 and i9 series processors only. As a result, the real operating frequencies of the fresh Core i3 have increased significantly, making the first representative of the updated series in the face of the Core i3-9350KF a noticeably faster offer compared to the older quad-core of the Coffee Lake generation, .
| Kaby Lake (2017) | Coffee Lake (2018) | Coffee Lake Refresh (2019) |
||
| Core i9 | Number of cores | 8 | ||
| L3 cache, MB | 16 | |||
| Hyper-Threading | + | |||
| Turbo Boost 2.0 | + | |||
| Core i7 | Number of cores | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| L3 cache, MB | 8 | 12 | 12 | |
| Hyper-Threading | + | + | — | |
| Turbo Boost 2.0 | + | + | + | |
| Core i5 | Number of cores | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| L3 cache, MB | 6 | 9 | 9 | |
| Hyper-Threading | — | — | — | |
| Turbo Boost 2.0 | + | + | + | |
| Core i3 | Number of cores | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| L3 cache, MB | 3-4 | 6-8 | 6-8 | |
| Hyper-Threading | + | — | — | |
| Turbo Boost 2.0 | — | — | + |
Thus, today's Core i3 processors have become full-fledged heirs to the representatives of the Core i5 series of the Kaby Lake generation: they have exactly the same set of basic features, and clock speeds are at least as good. And this means that the Core i3-9350KF with a price of $ 173 allows you to get even better performance than it provided , which cost (and, by the way, continues to cost, according to the official price list) $242.
However, according to the popular opinion, in the formation of which AMD fans took an active part in the first place, four cores are now suitable only for office computers, and modern games supposedly require more advanced multithreading support from the central processor. It's easy to guess where this judgment came from: AMD processors with a price in the range of $150 to $200 today can really offer not only six, but even eight computing cores with SMT support. But this does not at all make the quad-core Core i3-9350KF completely worthless and a priori not worthy of attention.
In order to reasonably decide whether a quad-core processor has the right to exist surrounded by heavyweight rivals, we conducted special testing. In this review, we will answer the questions that buyers have when meeting with modern Core i3. That is, let's check whether the Core i3-9350KF can adequately perform in current gaming applications and how its performance looks against the background of the performance of AMD processors, which can be bought in the same price category.
Core i3-9350KF in detail
When getting acquainted with the Core i3-9350KF, every now and then there is a feeling that somewhere we have already seen all this. It is not surprising. More recently, processors of approximately the same characteristics were offered in the Core i5 series, and the new Core i3-9350KF really looks like some kind of Core i5-6600K or Core i5-7600K. Since Intel switched to the 14nm process technology in the desktop segment, processors have not undergone any microarchitectural improvements, and therefore there is identical equality between Skylake and today's Coffee Lake Refresh in terms of IPC (the number of instructions executed per clock). At the same time, the Core i3-9350KF, as well as its long-standing predecessors of the Core i5 series, has four processing cores, does not support Hyper-Threading technology, but does have Turbo Boost 2.0 auto-overclocking technology.
But at the same time, the Core i3-9350KF is even better than the previous Core i5. Firstly, the amount of cache memory in the third level in this processor is 8 MB, that is, 2 MB is allocated for each core, while in Core i5 processors of generations before Coffee Lake, only 1,5 MB of L3 cache was relied on each core. . Secondly, the Core i3-9350KF, which is released on the third version of the 14nm process technology, was able to grow to significantly higher clock speeds. So, its nominal frequencies are defined in the range of 4,0-4,6 GHz, and for the Core i5-7600K, the maximum frequency in turbo mode was only 4,2 GHz.
At the same time, in reality, even with a full load on all cores, the Core i3-9350KF is able to keep its frequency at around 4,4 GHz.
The load on one core allows you to bring the frequency to the promised 4,6 GHz specification.
The intermediate frequency - 4,5 GHz - can be seen if the load falls on 2 or 3 cores.
It should be understood that the processor keeps the formally indicated frequencies if its power consumption does not go beyond 91 W - the limit determined by the TDP characteristic. However, in fact, motherboard manufacturers have not paid attention to such a trifle as a thermal package for a long time. The Multi-Core Enhancements feature, which overrides power consumption control, is enabled by default on modern boards. However, in fairness, it should be noted that specifically for the Core i3-9350KF, even at maximum workload using AVX2 instructions (in the Prime95 29.6 application), power consumption is about 80 watts. In other words, the Core i3-9350KF fits into the declared thermal package without any restrictions on operating frequencies.
In the 3-series Core processor family, the Core i9350-3KF is so far the only product that belongs to the Core i3 class. Although other models were also formally announced, including the Core i9350-3K, Core i9320-3, Core i9300-3, Core i9100-3 and Core i9100-XNUMXF, on sale, as, indeed, in the official price list they haven't appeared yet.
It is easy to understand why this is so: the letter F at the end of the name of the processor in question suggests an explanation. It means that this CPU is devoid of an integrated graphics core, which allows Intel to use defective crystals for its production, which could not get into serial Core i3 before. Indeed, the core stepping of the Core i3-9350KF is B0, which means that these processors are based on the same silicon crystal that was used in the Core i3 eight thousandth series. In other words, the Core i3-9350KF is the twin brother of the Core i3-8350K without UHD Graphics 630 integrated graphics, but enhanced with Turbo Boost 2.0 technology. Moreover, these processors do not even differ in nominal frequencies, so the entire gain of the novelty is provided exclusively by the turbo mode, which, however, in this case is quite aggressive and can speed up the CPU by 10-15%.
For clarity, here is a table that compares the characteristics of the Core i3-9350KF and similar processors of previous generations that we actively mentioned - Core i3-8350K and Core i5-7600:
| Core i3-9350KF | Core i3-8350K | Core i5-7600K | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code Name | Coffee Lake Refresh | Coffee Lake | Kaby Lake |
| Production technology | 14++ nm | 14++ nm | 14+ nm |
| Socket | LGA1151v2 | LGA1151v2 | LGA1151v1 |
| Kernels / Threads | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 |
| Base frequency, GHz | 4,0 | 4,0 | 3,8 |
| Maximum frequency in turbo mode, GHz | 4,6 | — | 4,2 |
| L3 cache, MB | 8 | 8 | 6 |
| TDP, W | 91 | 91 | 91 |
| Memory support | DDR4-2400 | DDR4-2400 | DDR4-2400 |
| PCI Express 3.0 lanes | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Graphics core | No | UHD Graphics 630 | HD Graphics 630 |
| Price (official) | $173 | $168 | $242 |
It remains to add to the above that the Core i3-9350KF, like the Core i3-8350K, is one of Intel's overclocking offerings. Its multiplier is not fixed, which allows you to freely change it on motherboards based on Z370 and Z390 chipsets.
Overclocking
There is no reason to expect any significant overclocking from the Core i3-9350KF. Do not forget: these CPUs are based on semiconductor crystals of the old B0 stepping, and far from perfect ones, but on the contrary - rejection with non-working graphics. In other words, the Core i3-9350KF is a waste from the production of the Core i3-8350K, and, based on this logic, the novelty in question is unlikely to overclock better than the quad-core overclocker processors that have been on the market so far.
Practical testing largely confirmed this assumption. With the supply voltage set to 1,25 V, the Core i3-9350KF was able to run stably at 4,8 GHz. Increasing this voltage to 1,275 V did not improve the situation with the maximum frequency, and at 1,3 V we already had to deal with CPU overheating under a high AVX2 load.
By the way, the fact that the Core i3-9350KF architecturally belongs to the Coffee Lake generation, and not Coffee Lake Refresh, also played a negative role here. Newer processors have learned to push the temperature at which throttling turns on to 115 degrees. But with the Core i3-9350KF, this is impossible: it can only be heated up to 100 degrees. In addition, you will have to forget about solder - between the heat-distributing cover and the crystal in the Core i3-9350KF there is a polymer thermal interface, that is, thermal paste.
Thus, judging by our instance of the CPU, the older overclocker quad-core without the use of special cooling methods can be overclocked by about 10% relative to the nominal mode. And such a relatively low increase in the operating frequency is unlikely to make it possible to fundamentally improve performance. In other words, as in the case of other XNUMX-series Core processors, overclocking continues to gradually become obsolete here as well. With the release of new generations of CPUs, overclocking limits are almost never pushed back, but the nominal frequencies increase quite noticeably every year, each time narrowing the field for overclockers more and more.
Source: 3dnews.ru