Intel has already released X-series chips including the flagship i9-10980XE with 18 cores. However, as the company specifically told Engadget, those are 9th-, not 10th-generation CPUs. So, we're still waiting for Intel's 10th-gen desktop lineup to replace its current i9-9900k (and below) performance chips.

These chips are pretty crucial for Intel in its fight against AMD's third-gen Ryzen 9 family, including the $499 flagship 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 3900X. Unfortunately, the Comet Lake family will still be using Intel's 14-nanometer process, while AMD is all the way down to 7-nanometers with its latest models.

We expect to see a full lineup of chips from the 10-core i9-10900K (replacing the i9-9900k) to the 8-core i7-10700K, all the way down to Core i5 and i3 chips with six and four cores, respectively. To stay competitive, Intel will reportedly be dropping the prices and plans to bring hyperthreading to the entire lineup (currently, only the i9 series chips are multithreaded). As such, the i7-10700K (and lower) chips should have eight cores and 16 threads, while the i5-10600 will have six cores and 12 threads. Even the four-core i3 chips will reportedly be multithreaded.

These CPUs should be competitive with Ryzen 9 chips both in terms of performance and price. However, they're likely to be much more power-hungry, devouring up to 300 watts at maximum load, according to Wccftech. The other problem from Intel's point of view is that AMD will soon be releasing its fourth-generation Ryzen chips as early as Q3 2020.