Intel Introduces 11th Generation Processor Line

A full-fledged announcement of 11th generation Intel Core processors for personal computers took place. It is noted that the new generation is executed on a completely new microarchitecture Cypress Cove, which is intended to replace Skylake, which has been prevalent over the past five years.

The new processors are connected using the LGA1200 socket, which was previously used in the 10th generation. At the same time, not all old motherboards will support Cypress Cove.

The line of processors will include 19 positions. All of them are equipped with integrated UHD Graphics 750 graphics, except for the most budget options - all varieties of six-core Core i5-11400 with a frequency of 2.6-4.4 GHz will be equipped with a UHD Graphics 730 GPU.

Leading this list is the new flagship Intel Core i9-11900K chip with eight cores, 16 threads, increased clock speed to 5.3 GHz, support for DDR4 RAM at 3200 MHz, a total of 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes and backward compatibility with Intel chipsets Series 400.

Intel fans may notice that the new chip on paper is actually a downgrade from last year's top-end Core i9-10900K model, which offered 10 cores and 20 threads (and a similar boost clock of 5.3 GHz).

This is because Intel is debuting for the first time in a new desktop core architecture with its 11th generation Rocket Lake-S chips called Cypress Cove.

But Cypress Cove's design isn't really an entirely new microarchitecture - it's actually Intel's Willow Cove chip designs and technologies that the company uses on its 11th-generation 10nm Tiger Lake chips, which Intel is bringing back into its 14nm manufacturing process.

Intel testing showed that the performance gain on the new CPUs compared to the previous generation in four games (Total War: Three Kingdoms, Gears 5, Grid 5 and Microsoft Flight Simulator) was 8-14% at Full HD resolution.

In addition, there are several new overclocking options with new chips for users looking to squeeze out even more power. In particular, the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility software is being updated with a new user interface and some updated features alongside the 11th Gen chips.