The pricing strategy of Intel has raised concerns due to its impact on market competitiveness and affordability.
The pricing strategy of Intel has raised concerns due to its impact on market competitiveness and affordability.
Hi! So I'm looking for a new CPU and I actually did wait for Intel's 10th gen, but the pricing is quite disappointing. Right now I'm rocking i5-6600k @ 4.5Ghz 1.34V since 2015. I wanted a good futureproof midrange CPU, so obviously I was looking at 10600k with those high frequencies, 6 cores and 12 threads... The thing is that something went wrong with pricing? In Norway the official price is 3399 NOK ($340), and the absolutely cheapest Z490 board is 1949 NOK ($195). Since Intel doesn't include cooler, then I need to get it myself, I was thinking about Cooler Master 212 since it got pretty decent value, and costs 449 NOK ($45). Alright, let's sum it up, well... it's $580... right. In comparison, the 3700x costs 3749 NOK ($375) and quite decent ASUS mobo costs 1549 NOK ($155), and you get above average cooler included. That's $530 for 3700x, but wait, isn't 3700x supposed to compete with 10700k? Why is it even cheaper than 10600k? So you can pay $530, save 50 bucks, get 2 more cores and 4 more threads? What's going on?
The CM 212 isn't built for high-temperature chips. Avoid purchasing it expecting strong performance. Prices reflect bulk sales—10900k replaces the 9900k price, 10700k is essentially a 9900k at about $400. The 10600k matches the 8700k around $300–340. After a year on the market, its price dropped to near $230, making it a solid value for its capabilities. The 10700k should handle games better, and the 10600k likely will too.
You'd likely face a performance drop if you upgraded to the 10th generation. The RTX 2070 at 1440p with an Intel 10600K might still struggle against a 3700x or 3600x, possibly hitting a GPU bottleneck.
Intel faces some challenges currently, maintaining a lead in single-core performance isn't a massive gap. Many choose to invest a few hundred dollars for modest gains, which is why Ryzen stands out as a strong option offering good value. Edit: It's unclear why Intel sets such high prices for their CPUs despite producing the same 14nm chips for years; one might expect more competitive pricing against AMD.
At 1440p it's a huge loss of heat and cash for the i5. Opt for a 3700X and you'll get better performance. Gameplay stays the same, but efficiency improves.