Buckle up because laptop makers are about to press the pedal to metal with next-generation CPUs and faster mobile GPUs. We know this for sure because AMD has already outed its Ryzen 4000 series CPUs for laptops. As for Intel, rumor has it the company will formally introduce its 10th generation "Comet Lake-H" Core processors on April 2, which will reportedly be nestled alongside a new spate of Nvidia Super GPUs in mobile form.
Several Comet Lake CPUs already exist, albeit in low power form at the moment. These include half a dozen Comet Lake-U processors spanning the Celeron 5205U on up to the Core i7-10510U, and a handful of even lower power Comet Lake-Y chips for ultrathin and light laptops.
Intel will eventually get around to launching Comet Lake-S CPUs for the desktop, as well as Comet Lake-H processors for higher end laptops. Neither product line has been released yet, but have shown up in a multitude of leaks of varying reliability.
The entire spate of Comet Lake is another iteration of Intel's 14-nanometer node. While that is a bit disappointing, the best CPU for gaming is still a 14nm part, the Core i9-9900K. It's not the best overall processor, though, and of course several of AMD's Ryzen chips offer a better value proposition. But that's a topic for another day.
As applies to the latest rumor, Chinese-language website ITHOME (via Videocardz) pegged April 2 as the day both Intel and Nvidia will unveil their next-generation mobile products, Comet Lake-H and Super model Turing GPUs, respectively.
We'll have to wait for concrete specifications (regardless of whether these products launch next week or sometime later), but as far as past leaks go, the fastest Comet Lake-H processor will be the Core i9-10980HK. It is said to be an 8-core/16-thread CPU with a 2.4GHz base clock and 5.3GHz boost clock, with a 45W TDP. This would effectively replace the Core i9-9980HK (Coffee Lake), which sports similar specs but has a lower 5GHz boost clock.
Intel is also expected to launch several other models, including a couple of more 8-core/16-thread chips, a few 6-core/12-thread CPUs, and at least a couple of 4-core/8-thread models, all at 45W (and different price points, obviously).
Just as interesting, Nvidia is expected to port its GeForce RTX Super family over to mobile. Our own hardware chief Dave James dug up an internal slide when he was with PCGamesN, which showed the GeForce RTX 2070 Super in mobile form being around 50 percent faster than the non-Super model. How delicious.
Interestingly, the slide also highlights a GeForce RTX 2080 Super GPU for laptops, but neglects to mention a GeForce RTX 2060 Super. Maybe that part will be introduced sometime later.
The last bit of interesting info is the fine print—the slide showed that testing was performed on a laptop with a Comet Lake-H CPU. None of this should be taken as concrete confirmation of things to come, but generally where there is smoke you'll find fire. And there is a lot of smoke.
