Sweclockers - Intel "Coffee Lake" lacks year-round availability close to AMD's next generation

[FIVR]

It looks like Intel may be shooting itself in the foot in scrambling to counter Ryzen sales and launching coffee lake long before they have any ability to meet demand. By releasing Coffee Lake, they also will be severely cutting down sales of their best-selling processor, the Kaby Lake 7700k. According to many nordic retailers, stocks will be extremely low until mid-december.

https://www.sweclockers.com/nyhet/2...t-ut-tillgang-nara-inpa-amds-nasta-generation


From Google translate:

The one who waits for Intel Coffee Lake may have to wait longer than October 5th. According to data for SweClockers, there is a shortage of new processors until after the turn of the year.

On October 5, Intel's Processor Family, Coffee Lake, is launching, for the first time in years, the number of cores from the input segment and upward. The Core i3 series runs up to four kernels, Core i5 to six kernels, and Core i7 gets six cores with Hyperthreading for no less than twelve threads.


The launch was originally scheduled to take place in early 2018, but should have been moved in a quarter due to AMD's launch of the Ryzen Processor family .Now, sources of SweClockers speak that the modified plans have an impact on availability and that Coffee Lake appears to be a shortage of the year.

In conversation with Swedish dealers, it appears that the availability of Intel Coffee Lake is low on launch day and that they only get a "handful of". In addition, one of SweClocker's contacts speaks that no Nordic distributor received the unlocked Core i7-8700K, Core i5-8600K, and Core i3-8350K without launching sales with the locked sibling models Core i7-8700, Core i5-8400 and Core i3- 8100th

As announced to sales channels so far, it is almost complete lack of Intels Coffee Lake family throughout October and November. The situation is not expected to improve until the middle of December, but no one dares to provide any guarantees of good access until after the turn of the year.

It feels like Intel is shooting itself in the foot with the launch of Coffee Lake. Coffee Lake will kill the sale of Kaby Lake, nobody will want to buy Kaby Lake. It's like Intel's only "releasing" Coffee Lake to try to curb the sale of Ryzen.

One of the SweClockers talked with speculating that Intel was just moving on to launch AMD's sales of Ryzen. The person also believes Intel's features may have the opposite effect, since "no one will want to buy Kaby Lake" and instead, a system of AMD Ryzen will build when Coffee Lake is not available.

At the same time as uncharted is the lack of processors, the same should not apply to motherboards with LGA 1151 socket and Z370 control circuitry, which should provide good access to both the number of models and volumes.

Accessibility close to Ryzen 2
What makes the data of good access first January 2018 extra interesting is that AMD's next processorship " Pinnacle Ridge " then stands for the door. According to previous reports, the sequel to today's Ryzen processors is released in February, that is, only a month later.


New to Pinnacle Ridge is getting higher performance, something that is believed to be achieved through a new 12-nanometer technology that enables higher clock frequencies. This would reduce performance losses, especially when it comes to single-wire performance, where Coffee Lake is expected to have a relatively large overtaken against today's Ryzen models.

 

[NTMBK]

Don't we see this sort of rumor every year?

 

[frozentundra123456]

It looks like Intel may be shooting itself in the foot in scrambling to counter Ryzen sales and launching coffee lake long before they have any ability to meet demand. By releasing Coffee Lake, they also will be severely cutting down sales of their best-selling processor, the Kaby Lake 7700k. According to many nordic retailers, stocks will be extremely low until mid-december.

https://www.sweclockers.com/nyhet/2...t-ut-tillgang-nara-inpa-amds-nasta-generation


From Google translate:

Confusing, thread title. If in fact availability is good by mid December, that is only about two months, which I dont think is that bad, or a surprise to anyone.

 

[FIVR]

Confusing, thread title. If in fact availability is good by mid December, that is only about two months, which I dont think is that bad, or a surprise to anyone.

The thread title is just the article title translated into english plus the attribution.


It is bad because they are cutting into their own sales of the 7700k. Right now, the 7700k outsells all other intel processors by a 2-1 margin or more. By releasing the 8700k, 7700k sales will tank immediately. If they do not have the ability to meet demand until mid-december, they would be better served by waiting to launch until then (and keeping 7700k sales high) for the rest of 2017. Instead, because this whole release is meant to counter Ryzen sales, they decided to paper launch... which certainly will cut into Ryzen 7 sales much sooner than they would if they waited until mid december. It is a strategic mistake on the part of intel to do this because it will immediately hurt their revenue and possibly leave them with large stocks of unsold 7700k processors.

 

[VirtualLarry]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...19117824&cm_re=i5_8400-_-19-117-824-_-Product
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...19117822&cm_re=8100_i3-_-19-117-822-_-Product

 

[Not So Mild]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...19117824&cm_re=i5_8400-_-19-117-824-_-Product
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...19117822&cm_re=8100_i3-_-19-117-822-_-Product

It's happening.

 

[Shmee]

Pretty good price for a 6 core CPU, similar to the ryzen 1600.

 

[Ajay]

I guess we’ll have to see. I wonder if supplies will be limited in small EU countries, etc.

 

[FIVR]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...19117824&cm_re=i5_8400-_-19-117-824-_-Product
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...19117822&cm_re=8100_i3-_-19-117-822-_-Product

Interestingly enough, the article addresses the availability of the unlocked vs locked models specifically:

In conversation with Swedish dealers, it appears that the availability of Intel Coffee Lake is low on launch day and that they only get a "handful of". In addition, one of SweClocker's contacts speaks that no Nordic distributor received the unlocked Core i7-8700K, Core i5-8600K, and Core i3-8350K without launching sales with the locked sibling models Core i7-8700, Core i5-8400 and Core i3- 8100th

To me, it appears that top bins (8700k, 8600k, 8350k) will be hard to find because intel has not had time to manufacture enough dies and thus most of the availability will be 8400/8100. The newegg availability you point to is more evidence that the article is accurate.

 

[LTC8K6]

Does the 7700K work in the new boards?

 

[LTC8K6]

Does the 7700K work in the new boards?

Doesn't look like it.

 

[Arachnotronic]

To me, it appears that top bins (8700k, 8600k, 8350k) will be hard to find because intel has not had time to manufacture enough dies and thus most of the availability will be 8400/8100. The newegg availability you point to is more evidence that the article is accurate.

I think the article is accurate. With 7700K, Intel had to validate each core at 4.5GHz. Intel now needs to validate each core of CFL at 4.7GHz and there are 50% more cores.

I doubt this is going to be an easy chip to build.

 

[raghu78]

I think the article is accurate. With 7700K, Intel had to validate each core at 4.5GHz. Intel now needs to validate each core of CFL at 4.7GHz and there are 50% more cores.

I doubt this is going to be an easy chip to build.

If the reports of CFL top SKUs in shortage ends up true Intel might be doing more damage to itself than AMD as 7700k is their best selling SKU . If Intel cannot supply sufficient quantity of 8700k and 8600k then it will hurt their 7700k sales as consumers are going to wait for 8600k/8700k rather than buy 7700k at current prices.

 

[Arachnotronic]

If the reports of CFL top SKUs in shortage ends up true Intel might be doing more damage to itself than AMD as 7700k is their best selling SKU . If Intel cannot supply sufficient quantity of 8700k and 8600k then it will hurt their 7700k sales as consumers are going to wait for 8600k/8700k rather than buy 7700k at current prices.

Not my problem. As long as I get my 8700K, I'm good.

 

[LTC8K6]

If the reports of CFL top SKUs in shortage ends up true Intel might be doing more damage to itself than AMD as 7700k is their best selling SKU . If Intel cannot supply sufficient quantity of 8700k and 8600k then it will hurt their 7700k sales as consumers are going to wait for 8600k/8700k rather than buy 7700k at current prices.

I would have held off on a 7700K the moment I heard about the 8700K and had a reasonable idea of it's release date.
So, I don't think that's as much of a factor now. People started holding off on the 7700K a long time ago, imo.

 

[Jan Olšan]

As I already posted here: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/coffeelake-thread-benchmarks-reviews-input-everything.2519949/page-17#post-39103216, there is also a report from Hermitage Akihabara/gdm.or.jp that says that in Japan they have problems sourcing enough volume and the launch is postponed to 23rd november there.

SweClockers is a good source as is the japanese website (in my 5years+ experience reporting on hardware news), I think this might be legit. And I don't think this is "like every year" or "like every launch", if this holds true and the launch was pushed forward on paper with mass production not up to scratch, the impact will be kinda harsh.

 

[DooKey]

As I already posted here: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/coffeelake-thread-benchmarks-reviews-input-everything.2519949/page-17#post-39103216, there is also a report from Hermitage Akihabara/gdm.or.jp that says that in Japan they have problems sourcing enough volume and the launch is postponed to 23rd november there.

SweClockers is a good source as is the japanese website (in my 5years+ experience reporting on hardware news), I think this might be legit. And I don't think this is "like every year" or "like every launch", if this holds true and the launch was pushed forward on paper with mass production not up to scratch, the impact will be kinda harsh.

The positive to this is if the early benchmarks pan out then the 8 series is going to sell very well over time. It will be nice to see retail SKU's in the wild and formally tested. I'm sure Intel has built all of this into their business plan.

 

[KompuKare]

That i5-8400 price is actually quite good for Intel at $190 including a cooler. Versus a Ryzen 5 1600 only the price of Z370 motherboards is a worse.

Since Intel 'insisted' on changing their sockets and chipsets again not having cheaper boards (H350 or whatever) for their non-K CPUs might hurt them a bit if people baulk at buying a locked CPU and being forced to buy an expensive overclocking Z370 motherboard.

 

[coercitiv]

if this holds true and the launch was pushed forward on paper with mass production not up to scratch, the impact will be kinda harsh.

That's why when discussing possible price adjustments in the Ryzen line I warned AMD may simply wait and see how Intel's supply holds up. If they can't meet demand prices will skyrocket or shelves will be empty, in which case Ryzen will still sell (almost as) well at current prices.

 

[moinmoin]

I would have held off on a 7700K the moment I heard about the 8700K and had a reasonable idea of it's release date.
So, I don't think that's as much of a factor now. People started holding off on the 7700K a long time ago, imo.

Septembers sales from mindfactory at least certainly showed a strong drop for 7700K. Intel's biggest issue at least in that dyi pc builders market is that 7700K appears to be nearly half of their total revenue there.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Septembers sales from mindfactory at least certainly showed a strong drop for 7700K. Intel's biggest issue at least in that dyi pc builders market is that 7700K appears to be nearly half of their total revenue there.

It's really was only SKU worth buying in Intel's entire mainstream lineup pre-CFL, and while it has very good single threaded performance, they are up against six and eight core products with good enough per core perf and far more cores for the same money.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It's really was only SKU worth buying in Intel's entire mainstream lineup pre-CFL, and while it has very good single threaded performance, they are up against six and eight core products with good enough per core perf and far more cores for the same money.

Yawn. Wake me up, when you can buy surplus 7700K CPUs on ebay for $100 or even $150. I'll get one for my friend to upgrade his G4560 on a Z170 board that I sold him.

 

[LTC8K6]

That i5-8400 price is actually quite good for Intel at $190 including a cooler. Versus a Ryzen 5 1600 only the price of Z370 motherboards is a worse.

Since Intel 'insisted' on changing their sockets and chipsets again not having cheaper boards (H350 or whatever) for their non-K CPUs might hurt them a bit if people baulk at buying a locked CPU and being forced to buy an expensive overclocking Z370 motherboard.

Intel insisted because a new socket was required for the 6 core chip.

 

[RichUK]

Rumors are there'll be very limited availability at launch.

 

[TahoeDust]

I love a good limited availability launch. It raises the stakes and ups the excitement!