Intel's big announcement yesterday at Computex was Whiskey Lake and Amber Lake eighth-generation Core processors alongside showing off a prototype 28-core chip. But there was another reveal which is sure to excite performance junkies: Intel is releasing a limited edition anniversary processor that is capable of hitting 5GHz.
Intel is celebrating its 50th anniversary next month, but also the 40th anniversary of the x86 architecture and 8086 microprocessor. Intel thinks that's worth marking, and so we're getting a limited edition 8th Gen Core i7-8086K processor.
What's special about this chip is it's the first with a 5GHz single-core turbo frequency. The 6-core, 12-thread processor has a base clock speed of 4GHz, but as a K-series chip it ships fully unlocked. If you have the right cooling, you'll be able to push this chip (hopefully) much higher than 4GHz.
The Core i7-8086K will be available to purchase from 12:01am PDT on June 8 (the actual 40th anniversary date), but you may not need to buy one. As part of the anniversary celebration Intel is going to give away 8,086 of them.
Later this week you'll be able to register for your chance to win an i7-8086K, with registrations open for just 24 hours. Winners will be informed by email no later than two weeks after the closure of the sweepstakes and then delivery of the processor will happen six to eight weeks after that.
Intel says you'll be able to buy an i7-8086K chip from all the usual places, but because it is a limited edition processor stock will be hard to find. One thing we don't know yet is how much the chip will cost, but it certainly won't be cheap.