Intel’s 7th Generation Kaby Lake processors are yet to arrive at the peak of their popularity, and perhaps usage, but Intel has already begun to announce the first of its 8th Generation processors. Apparently, there are a total of four processors that the company has announced and these are considered to be the revised or improvised versions of the Kaby Lake processors. However, the said improvement is remarkable enough for the processors to be put into the new generation of Intel laptop processors.
Intel says that the new processors, two i5 and two i7 processors, are up to 40 percent faster than the current Kaby Lake processors – this is huge (earlier they were touted to be 30 percent faster). The maximum frequency for the i5 processor is 3.6 GHz while the same for the i7 is as high as 4.2 GHz.
Now that the 4k content is not a rarity anymore and with the rising popularity of VR, 3D and other such innovative formats, the need for processors to be more power efficient is higher than ever. This is the primary reason why Intel is on an upgrading spree of its laptop processors. Any high-end laptop (and even tablets like the Microsoft Surface Pro and iPad Pro) is engineered to work with 4k videos with relative ease.
This marked increase in performance is the result of Intel’s U-series processors being redesigned with new four-core architecture delivering more than ever Turbo Boost performance. These 8th generation processors offer 4-core/8-thread architecture. However, the integrated HD 620 graphics (that was present in the 7th Generation Kaby Lake processors) remain same, but they are now renamed UHD 620 Graphics.
Note that since these new processors are based on the current Kaby Lake processors, they are built on the 14nm+ process. Intel has confirmed that the 8th Generation processor family will grow further with future processors being built on 14nm++ as well as 10nm process.