Intel’s recently announced Core i3 Comet Lake refresh CPUs have already made it to Malaysia, according to a Reddit post. A user shared images of what appear to be two Core i3-10105F CPUs in newly designed product packaging that had apparently arrived at a Malaysian retailer. These chips are presumably being stocked up in preparation for release next month alongside 11th Gen Rocket Lake.
The new refreshed Core i3 lineup will live alongside Intel’s upcoming Rocket Lake Core i5, i7, and i9 based chips looking to upset today’s best gaming CPUs. It’s been reported that Intel won’t include i3 chips in its Rocket Lake lineup, instead refreshing the 10th Gen Comet Lake-S microarchitecture for the Core i3.
The Core i3-10105F shared by the Malaysian store is equipped with four CPU cores, eight threads and a 3.7 GHz boost frequency. We have yet to see its boost frequency and what model of integrated graphics it will offer. However, we’re expecting Intel HD 630 or 610 graphics.
Frankly, this isn’t much of a performance jump compared to the chip’s predecessor, the Core i3-10100F, which comes with a 3.6 GHz base clock. Hopefully, the i3-10105F will get a much higher boost clock to compete against the i3-10100F’s 4.3 GHz.
The launch date for Rocket Lake is March 2021, and we can expect Intel’s Comet Lake refresh to follow that same timeline, especially with evidence of Malaysian stores already stocking up on the new Core i3 models.