Intel has announced that it is switching the huge box it uses for the Core i9 10900K to a more modest package (via PC Watch). The large plastic and cardboard boxes currently in use will be replaced on February 28, but it may take some time for the new packaging to penetrate, and we will likely see both types for some time.

The reason for this is simple: you can put three times more chips on a pallet than you currently can. Moving lots of mostly empty boxes is not as efficient as Intel hopes it will be. Currently, only 480 extra-large boxes can be loaded on a pallet, but by switching to regular packaging, 1,620 boxes can be loaded on the same pallet. This is 3.375 times the number of boxes.

This can only be good news and hopefully will put an end to some of the ridiculous packages used for high-end chips. While I understand the need to make the halo products in the chip lineup special, I feel that Intel is leaving reason behind.

Intel had to make a similar move with the dodecahedral packaging used in the Core i9 9900K, the top-of-the-line 9th generation chip. While certainly great packaging, it is not an efficient use of resources, and once the CPU is actually taken out of the box (which was not easy), it essentially becomes useless garbage.

AMD is not to blame in this regard; the packaging used for the Threadripper chip is frankly ridiculous. Nobody needs that much plastic and Styrofoam, even for a huge chip.

While we're on the subject, AMD has removed the coolers from the Ryzen 5000 series, which means their boxes are also mostly empty; Intel's chips ship in slightly smaller boxes, but they really contain nothing inside. At least these are cardboard only, which is widely recycled and doesn't seem so wasteful.

A great deal of waste is currently shipped around the world, but this comes at a cost, and that cost is ultimately passed on to the consumer. If we can save a few pennies, I can definitely take a hit on a box.