[Hardware] Intel Core i9-10900KS Special Edition CPU Spotted

[SliCeR]

Intel just spilled the beans on an Intel Core i9-10900KS CPU that could be coming soon. An Intel Software Advantage Program qualifying list shows the SKU, leaving us wondering what it may offer over the standard Intel Core i9-10900K. The document also states that buying the Core i9-10900KS or one of the (many) other qualifying CPUs will net you a free copy of Crysis Remastered. However, the 10900KS isn't out yet. In fact, this is the first time we've heard of the CPU. This is not Intel's first rodeo with special edition SKUs. Processors such as the Core i7-8086K and Core i9-9900KS were both limited/special edition products that offered the highest binned Intel silicon you could buy, as well as  the highest stock core frequencies possible at the time. For instance, the Core i9-9900KS features a beefy all-core turbo of 5 GHz flat on all 8 CPU cores, even under AVX workloads. The vanilla i9-9900K could boost to 5 GHz but only on a few cores. As you loaded up more cores, the boost frequency would gradually drop, until you hit the CPUs all-core turbo of 4.7 GHz, (unless you enabled multi-core enhancement which would auto-overclock all cores to 5 GHz flat). The 10900KS could end up being a similar offering, though it seems difficult to fathom a 5.0 or 5.1GHz all-core-turbo frequency on 10 14nm cores without encountering serious power and heat issues. Also possibility is a higher all-core turbo clock, with Intel continuing to use a turbo core hierarchy, where some cores boost higher than others. Again though, this is purely speculation. This is the first we've heard of the 10900KS so we have no idea when it will come out or what it will offer in attempts to compete with the best gaming CPUs. But with Intel's past two generations of Core microarchitectures featuring a "Special Edition" SKU, it seems reasonable that Intel would continue the tradition with Comet Lake-S.