An Intel Core i9 10850K processor has been spotted online; the Core i9 10850K is very similar to the Core i9 10900K with 10 cores and 20 threads, with perhaps only 100 MHz distinguishing the two CPUs.

Twitter serial leaker TUM_APISAK spotted a new entry in the Geekbench database for the Comet Lake lineup for enthusiasts. According to the report, the Core i9 10850K has a base clock of 3.6 GHz and a maximum frequency of 5.17 GHz, which corresponds to a boost clock of 5.2 GHz.

There is little more that can be read from these results. While the actual benchmark results show relatively comparable performance to the existing i9 10900K, Geekbench is not known for its incredible accuracy and reliability in real side-by-side comparisons. It is the same chip and architecture, but with slightly slower clocks.

Typically, such halfway stepping is limited to mobile-oriented parts like the Intel Core i7 10850H and Core i9 10885H. It is not often that Intel pushes another into the enthusiast desktop stack after launch. This may suggest that this chip is destined to go beyond the boxed parts and end up in machines made by system builders. Only time will tell, but by the looks of it, we won't have to wait too long to find out. [This chip appeared shortly after the arrival of the initial wave of B460 motherboards, including the ASRock B460 Steel Legend and the MSI MAG B460M Mortar WiFi.

Similarly, Geekbench also spotted Intel's next big announcement ahead of schedule: the Intel Tiger Lake chip was spotted in benchmark databases by TUM_APISAK and _rogame on Twitter, suggesting that Intel Xe-based mobile processors are not far behind.

While the results should be taken with a grain of salt, Geekbench suggests that the performance of the Intel Core i7 1165G7 is on par with a discrete Nvidia MX350 GPU. At least in the two previous generations of Lenovo laptops.

Intel has much to watch over the next few weeks. But will its desktop ambitions be eclipsed by AMD's refreshed Ryzen 3000 CPU, or is this mysterious Core i9 Comet Lake perhaps related to Matisse Refresh ...... All will be revealed tomorrow when AMD's latest CPU breaks cover.