After that, it would be more about subtler but still welcome improvements. The flagship 3.7GHz Core i9-10900K (base clock of 3.7GHz) and its non-K variant (2.8GHz) would support a Velocity Boost feature that would hike clock speeds as long as the thermals allow. Otherwise, you’d have to make do with ‘just’ the regular Turbo Boost. These high-end parts would tout 10 cores and 20 total threads.

Beyond that, these would represent modest but welcome refreshes. The eight-core i7, six-core i5 and four-core i3 lineups will reportedly see clock speeds climb 100MHz to 200MHz. Higher-end CPUs would support up to 2,933MHz DDR4 memory, while the lot would feature enhanced chip and memory overclocking as well as support for 2.5Gbps Ethernet and WiFi 6.

There’s no mention of when the 10th-gen lineup would appear, but Intel sometimes debuts processors at CES. We wouldn’t be surprised if they’re announced at the January 2020 event as a result, and that there will be a slew of upgraded PCs arriving at the same time. There’s certainly pressure to act quickly. AMD’s latest Ryzen processors are extremely competitive, and frequently offer more cores for the money. Intel’s refresh could negate at least some of that advantage.

There aren’t any dramatic clock speed improvements, although the 12-, 14- and 18-core chips all hit a healthy max turbo boost of 4.8GHz. Really, this is all about refining the formula. In addition to the higher Turbo Boost Max 3.0 speed, they include support for up to 256GB of 2,933MHz DDR4 RAM, 72 platform PCIe 3.0 lanes on every model, Deep Learning Boost to give AI a lift, WiFi 6 support and faster Ethernet. You won’t be hurting for memory or bandwidth.

You can expect these chips to arrive by November. That timing is convenient, to say the least — AMD expects to ship its 16-core Ryzen 9 that month. While the Ryzen will likely undercut Core X chips in terms of cores per dollar with a $749 price, Intel’s update should make it considerably more competitive. You won’t have to ‘settle’ for a non-X chip just to have money left over for, well, the rest of your computer.