Intel Core i9-10850K: The Poor Man’s Core i9-10900K

The Core i9-10850K (via @TUM_APISAK) has popped up in a benchmark database, implying that Intel isn’t ready to move on from Comet Lake yet. Assuming that the chip isn’t an OEM part, Intel might even be readying a Comet Lake refresh to ward off AMD’s recent Ryzen 3000XT lineup.

As with all unannounced chips, we aren’t sure if it will come to market, or if it will have the same specifications, but the part does look promising. 

You don’t really need to be a genius to see that the Core i9-10850K is practically a Core i9-10900K with a bad disguise. The unannounced processor comes with an identical 10-core, 20-thread configuration as the Core i9-10900K. The Core i9-10850K packs 20MB of L3 cache and 256KB of L2 cache per core. This design aligns perfectly with the specifications for a Comet Lake. There’s no doubt that the Core i9-10850K is a close relative to the Core i9-10900K.

The Core i9-10850_K differentiates itself from the Core i9-10900_K with the lower clock speeds. The 10-core processor reportedly arrives with a 3.6 GHz base clock, which is just 100 MHz lower than the Core i9-10900_K. The different Geekbench 5 submissions showed the Core i9-10850K boosting up to 5.18 GHz so it’s close enough to call it 5.2 GHz.

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