Intel Ice Lake is the herald the computing world has been waiting for – finally something we haven’t yet seen from Intel. These new laptop processors are the first 10nm processors Intel has put out in the mainstream – officially beating Cannon Lake to the punch.
Intel Ice Lake chips were first revealed at Computex 2019 and are the first commercially available processors that moved away from the aging 14nm process, which has repeatedly been ‘enhanced’ since the introduction of Broadwell about six years ago.
With AMD’s its 7nm Zen 2 processors hitting the streets, including AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation and Threadripper 3rd Generation, Team Blue’s chips have a lot of catching up to do, even if it is only on the mobile side of things.
Luckily, Intel Ice Lake is finally here, and is already featured in a ton of the best laptops and Ultrabooks on the market – including the new Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and the Surface Pro 7.
And, so we thought it would be a good time to collect all the Ice Lake information in one place, especially because the naming is a bit tricky (whoever thought “Intel Core i7-1065G7” was a good name?). Be sure to keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll keep it updated with any and all 10nm developments.
Cut to the Chase
- What is it? Intel’s next-generation, 10nm CPU lineup
- When is it out? Out now
- What will it cost? Depends on the laptop running it
The Intel Ice Lake is already featured in a ton of the best laptops and Ultrabooks on the market.
(Image credit: Intel)
Intel Ice Lake release date
Intel announced Ice Lake back at CES 2019, which came as a bit of a surprise, especially when Team Blue announced that it would be slated for release before the holiday season hit. Even more surprising is the fact that Intel kept its promise despite the time crunch, rolling out the Intel Ice Lake processors on August 1, 2019.
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (2019) was one of the first laptops to benefit from Intel’s new tech. And, now it seems like every mainstream laptop coming out is packing these processors. In fact, the latest Ice Lake-equipped processors to hit the streets are the new Surface devices revealed by Microsoft at its October Event.
You’ll probably see entry level laptops using the Intel Core i3-1005G1. (Image Credit: Intel)
Intel Ice Lake price
Intel Ice Lake is a mobile platform. While that does mean that laptop manufacturers have to pay Intel for the right to use its laptops, the price of the laptops using the chips will differ depending on the product.
Still, you’ll probably see entry level laptops using the Intel Core i3-1005G1, while only the most powerful flagships get the Intel Core i7-1068G7.
It looks like there’s going to be a significant bump in performance over Whiskey Lake.
(Image credit: Future)
Intel Ice Lake specs
The key feature of Intel Ice Lake is, of course, the new underlying 10nm Sunny Cove architecture. What’s more, these new processors are the first chips to boast next-generation Gen11 graphics.
Intel says that these processors are supposed to deliver a 2x performance increase, thanks to the smaller fabrication processes and the die shrink from 14nm. However, Ice Lake mobile processors are limited to 4-cores.
On top of the chips’ main microarchitecture, Ice Lake CPUs also come with native support for Thunderbolt 3, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and DL Boost.
The new graphics are a considerable improvement from the Gen9 GPU found in Intel’s previous line of CPUs. Those only had 24 EUs, or Execution Units, while these new Ice Lake chips offer up to 64 in the Intel Core i7-1068G7.
One thing we did observe right away is that the boost speeds these processors have are somewhat lower than their Whiskey Lake predecessors. For example, the Intel Core i7-8565U boasts a boost clock of 4.6GHz, next to the 3.9GHz boost of the Intel Core i7-1065G7. This is somewhat disturbing, but because these chips feature higher IPC performance, we should see an increase in speed anyway – something we’re sure to see once we get our hands on an Ice Lake laptop and take one of these chips out for a spin.
Finally, Intel says that Ice Lake is supposed to help devices reach a battery life of over 25 hours. That’s truly impressive, and it’s mostly thanks to Team Blue performing a top-to-bottom analysis of power draw to reduce energy consumption. In addition, using AI to intelligently alter the processor’s performance helps to maximize efficiency.
- Intel Core i7-1068G7 – 4-cores, 8-threads | Intel Iris Plus | 64 EUs| 4.1GHz boost
- Intel Core i7-1065G7 – 4-cores, 8-threads | Intel Iris Plus | 64 EUs|3.9GHz boost
- Intel Core i5-1035G7 – 4-cores, 8-threads | Intel Iris Plus | 64 EUs|3.7GHz boost
- Intel Core i5-1035G4 – 4-cores, 8-threads | Intel Iris Plus | 48 EUs|3.7GHz boost
- Intel Core i5-1035G1 – 4-cores, 8-threads | Intel UHD | 32 EUs | 3.6GHz boost
- Intel Core i3-1005G1 – 2-cores, 4-threads | Intel UHD | 32EUs | 3.4GHz boost
Ice Lake Y-Series processors:
- Intel Core i7-1060G7 – 4-cores, 8-threads |Intel Iris Plus |64 EUs | 3.8GHz boost
- Intel Core i5-1030G7 – 4-cores, 8-threads |Intel Iris Plus |64 EUs | 3.5GHz boost
- Intel Core i5-1030G4 – 4-cores, 8-threads |Intel Iris Plus |48 EUs | 3.5GHz boost
- Intel Core i3-1000G4 – 2-cores, 4-threads |Intel Iris Plus | 48 EUs | 3.2GHz boost
- Intel Core i3-1000G1 – 2-cores, 4-threads | Intel UHD | 32 EUs | 3.2GHz boost
That’s about all we know about Intel Ice lake right now. However, we’ll be sure to update this guide once we get our hands on an Ice Lake-powered laptop so we can see how well it performs. If the early numbers and Ice Lake specs are anything to go by, however, it looks like there’s going to be a significant bump in performance over Whiskey Lake.
- Intel Core i7-1060G7 – 4-cores, 8-threads |Intel Iris Plus |64 EUs | 3.8GHz boost
- Intel Core i5-1030G7 – 4-cores, 8-threads |Intel Iris Plus |64 EUs | 3.5GHz boost
- Intel Core i5-1030G4 – 4-cores, 8-threads |Intel Iris Plus |48 EUs | 3.5GHz boost
- Intel Core i3-1000G4 – 2-cores, 4-threads |Intel Iris Plus | 48 EUs | 3.2GHz boost
- Intel Core i3-1000G1 – 2-cores, 4-threads | Intel UHD | 32 EUs | 3.2GHz boost
- Intel Core i7-1060G7 – 4-cores, 8-threads |Intel Iris Plus |64 EUs | 3.8GHz boost
- Intel Core i5-1030G7 – 4-cores, 8-threads |Intel Iris Plus |64 EUs | 3.5GHz boost
- Intel Core i5-1030G4 – 4-cores, 8-threads |Intel Iris Plus |48 EUs | 3.5GHz boost
- Intel Core i3-1000G4 – 2-cores, 4-threads |Intel Iris Plus | 48 EUs | 3.2GHz boost
- Intel Core i3-1000G1 – 2-cores, 4-threads | Intel UHD | 32 EUs | 3.2GHz boost
