Intel intros 'Ice Lake' 10th-generation Core processors, possibly for MacBook rebirth

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited June 2020
Intel on Thursday unveiled its first batch of 10th-generation Core processors, dubbed "Ice Lake," offering a glimpse at the options Apple will have in future MacBooks.

Intel Ice Lake


The 10-nanometer laptop chips are designed for better board integration, and in fact include native support for technologies like Wi-Fi 6 and Thunderbolt 3. That should allow them to keep up with Apple's demands for growing performance in compact systems like the MacBook Air.

The initial batch includes 11 chips in total, split between U- and lower-end Y-series processors. At the bottom of the list is the Y-series Core i3 1000G1, a 1.1-gigahertz dual-core chip with UHD Graphics, a 4-megabyte cache, and Turbo speeds up to 3.2 gigahertz.

At the peak is the U-series Core i7-1068G7, a quad-core unit with an 8-megabyte cache and 2.3-gigahertz base speed, able to ramp up to 3.6 gigahertz across all cores. Single-core boosts can reach 4.1 gigahertz.

Intel Ice Lake chart


Intel's new incarnation of Iris Plus is said to offer "double the graphics performance," good enough for 1080p gaming and 4K video editing. The GPU is also Intel's first to support VESA Adaptive Sync, and purportedly the first integrated option anywhere with variable rate shading.

The company is switching to a new naming scheme as well, seen below.

Intel Ice Lake naming scheme


Apple has already updated the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air this year, but is rumored to be preparing a 16-inch Pro for launch in October. That computer may effectively replace the 17-inch Pro, which was discontinued in 2012.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    Until ARM Macbook Air/Pro, Apple needs to pick up 10nm CPUs for Fall 2019 refresh of Macbook Pro/Air. Adds WiFi6, native Thunderbolt3, higher performance and lower power consumption with extended battery life.
    edited August 2019 doozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 23
    DuhSesameDuhSesame Posts: 1,278member
    AMD just released their 12- and 16-core processors on their “mainstream” platforms, I heard they’re throwing 64 cores for HEDTs.  Unfortunately they aren’t good at the mobile technology, thus only offering quad-core for laptops.

    It’s awkward for laptops, while AMD have no adequate mobile technologies, Intel is falling behind in core counts.  You’re stuck either way.  Thus, I think moving to ARM is the best hope for the Mac notebooks, skip the last x86 Macs, especially laptops, if you can.

    Also, Intel is measuring TDP at their base frequencies, which means 9 Watts maximum for core m’s - at 1.0GHz, probably not including AVX.
    edited August 2019 FileMakerFeller
  • Reply 3 of 23
    AppleExposedAppleExposed Posts: 1,805unconfirmed, member
    wood1208 said:
    Until ARM Macbook Air/Pro, Apple needs to pick up 10nm CPUs for Fall 2019 refresh of Macbook Pro/Air. Adds WiFi6, native Thunderbolt3, higher performance and lower power consumption with extended battery life.

    Maybe Apples Intel patents will have us see a superior 5G+Wifi modem also.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 23
    Apple will probably do a MacBook Air and Pro refresh with these, but MacBook rebirth will be the first ARM / Axx Mac
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 23
    zimmiezimmie Posts: 651member
    For comparison's sake:

    The current MacBook Air uses an i5-8210Y rated at 7W nominal TDP.
    The new 2TB3 13" MacBook Pro uses an i5-8257U or i7-8557U rated at 15W nominal TDP.
    The 4TB3 13" MacBook Pro uses an i5-8279U or i7-8569U rated at 28W nominal TDP.

    So the Y series Ice Lake would need slightly better cooling than the MacBook Air currently has, but not like twice as much cooling capacity.

    The U-series Ice Lake should be drop-in replacements for the U-series in the MacBook Pro.
    FileMakerFellerwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 23
    DuhSesameDuhSesame Posts: 1,278member
    zimmie said:
    For comparison's sake:

    The current MacBook Air uses an i5-8210Y rated at 7W nominal TDP.
    The new 2TB3 13" MacBook Pro uses an i5-8257U or i7-8557U rated at 15W nominal TDP.
    The 4TB3 13" MacBook Pro uses an i5-8279U or i7-8569U rated at 28W nominal TDP.

    So the Y series Ice Lake would need slightly better cooling than the MacBook Air currently has, but not like twice as much cooling capacity.

    The U-series Ice Lake should be drop-in replacements for the U-series in the MacBook Pro.
    If you want to get the advertised >3GHz on their core m’s, you probably will.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 23
    DuhSesameDuhSesame Posts: 1,278member
    Just realized how confusing their new naming schemes were.

    That’s okay, all of them will end up throttling like it’s the same chip.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 23
    AppleExposedAppleExposed Posts: 1,805unconfirmed, member
    mattheb said:
    Apple will probably do a MacBook Air and Pro refresh with these, but MacBook rebirth will be the first ARM / Axx Mac

    If they can pull that off. Intel is really struggling to keep up with Apples demands in Macs. Bet you that. Intel are the bottleneck.

    Would love to see Intels CEOs "Apple was not an important customer" speech after Apple drops them. lol
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 23
    12” MacBook Mini?

    Look, no fan!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 23
    T_R_ST_R_S Posts: 14member
    lower power = lower clock speeds
  • Reply 11 of 23
    mcdavemcdave Posts: 1,927member
    Surely they could drop the base clock to 233MHz and pretend it’s a 1W TDP component?
    FileMakerFeller
  • Reply 12 of 23
    rezwitsrezwits Posts: 878member
    DuhSesame said:
    AMD just released their 12- and 16-core processors on their “mainstream” platforms, I heard they’re throwing 64 cores for HEDTs.  Unfortunately they aren’t good at the mobile technology, thus only offering quad-core for laptops.

    It’s awkward for laptops, while AMD have no adequate mobile technologies, Intel is falling behind in core counts.  You’re stuck either way.  Thus, I think moving to ARM is the best hope for the Mac notebooks, skip the last x86 Macs, especially laptops, if you can.

    Also, Intel is measuring TDP at their base frequencies, which means 9 Watts maximum for core m’s - at 1.0GHz, probably not including AVX.
    Forget that!  I gobbled up some of the last Intel Macs (before the transition to ARM) !!!  I want some of the last models that are gonna still be able to fully 100% run Intel x64 software, and then cruise for 5 years till ARM Macs and ARM macOS is good to go in 3-5 years, aka 2022-2024... (and even if they go DUAL CPU using ARM + Intel, then FINE great!). I gotta have some Intel Macs tho (the last or almost last of the brood), too much software... (oh and that DON'T require Catalina!!, aka 64-bit only no Mojave, so a yeah... IDK man) heh
    edited August 2019 FileMakerFellerwatto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 23
    At the peak is the U-series Core i7-1068G7, a quad-core unit with an 8-megabyte cache and 2.3-gigahertz base speed, able to ramp up to 3.6 gigahertz across all cores. Single-core boosts can reach 4.1 gigahertz.
    My inner "Tim the tool man" is grunting.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 23
    sandorsandor Posts: 655member
    mattheb said:
    Apple will probably do a MacBook Air and Pro refresh with these, but MacBook rebirth will be the first ARM / Axx Mac

    If they can pull that off. Intel is really struggling to keep up with Apples demands in Macs. Bet you that. Intel are the bottleneck.

    Would love to see Intels CEOs "Apple was not an important customer" speech after Apple drops them. lol

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/263393/global-pc-shipments-since-1st-quarter-2009-by-vendor/

    Apple is still a distant, distant 3rd in sales volume.
    muthuk_vanalingambigtds
  • Reply 15 of 23
    But current hi end MBP use 6 core chip. Is possible that Apple will use different generations in same line?
    meterestnz
  • Reply 16 of 23

    The company is switching to a new naming scheme as well, seen below.

    Intel Ice Lake naming scheme

    Intel really missed a marketing opportunity with their Level of Graphics. They could have led with, "hey, you're finally getting Mac G5 laptops!"
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 23
    zimmiezimmie Posts: 651member
    DuhSesame said:
    zimmie said:
    For comparison's sake:

    The current MacBook Air uses an i5-8210Y rated at 7W nominal TDP.
    The new 2TB3 13" MacBook Pro uses an i5-8257U or i7-8557U rated at 15W nominal TDP.
    The 4TB3 13" MacBook Pro uses an i5-8279U or i7-8569U rated at 28W nominal TDP.

    So the Y series Ice Lake would need slightly better cooling than the MacBook Air currently has, but not like twice as much cooling capacity.

    The U-series Ice Lake should be drop-in replacements for the U-series in the MacBook Pro.
    If you want to get the advertised >3GHz on their core m’s, you probably will.
    They don't specify, but yeah, the max turbo speeds they list are probably with the "ConfigUP TDP".
  • Reply 18 of 23
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    frantisek said:
    But current hi end MBP use 6 core chip. Is possible that Apple will use different generations in same line?
    These chips here don't look aimed at the MacBook Pro, and certainly not the higher end. Perhaps some in the same family yet to be announced, but not these.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 23
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    DuhSesame said:
    AMD just released their 12- and 16-core processors on their “mainstream” platforms, I heard they’re throwing 64 cores for HEDTs.  Unfortunately they aren’t good at the mobile technology, thus only offering quad-core for laptops.

    It’s awkward for laptops, while AMD have no adequate mobile technologies, Intel is falling behind in core counts.  You’re stuck either way.  Thus, I think moving to ARM is the best hope for the Mac notebooks, skip the last x86 Macs, especially laptops, if you can.

    Also, Intel is measuring TDP at their base frequencies, which means 9 Watts maximum for core m’s - at 1.0GHz, probably not including AVX.
    These new processors are rather pathetic and for the vary reason you point out!   Intel has failed badly in reducing power so they reduce frequency of operation to lower the power numbers.   1.1 GHZ is pathetic especially if your work loads involve sustained computation.   No amount of boost means much if systems using the chip throttle immediately.  

    As for AMD and the Zen based processors I think you might be under the wrong impression.  AMD for whatever reason does focus on the desktop / server market first probably because of traditional strengths there.  However the Zen based laptop chips are actually a huge step forward and are more honestly specced for thermals.  I’ve been running an AMD based laptop with Fedora as an operating system and actually have been rather impressed.   Are far cheaper machine actually runs better than the 2017 13” MBP I had.   It isn’t perfect but that has more to do with Linux than anything else.   

    So im not sure what the schedule is for Zen2 based laptop chips, maybe the end of the year?   However I’d expect them to be the ideal choice for most laptop needs out side of the Apple niche.  Considering the thermals and performance of current Zen 2 based hardware I see a good chance some very competitive laptops will arrive.    That would be some place between a quarter and half year after Intel shipsin volume.  Frankly in this day and age that delay is meaningless.  
  • Reply 20 of 23
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    mattheb said:
    Apple will probably do a MacBook Air and Pro refresh with these, but MacBook rebirth will be the first ARM / Axx Mac
    This especially when you consider that Apple will be able to maintain click rates well above 1.1 GHz.   Combine that with slightly better IPC and you have a big win for Apple even if they can’t hit the high boost frequencies.    Apple May very well be able to hit 2.5 GHz in an ARM based Mac Book without significant throttling.  That is with passive cooling though that cooling may need a bit of engineering.  
    watto_cobra
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