Looking to fend off the renewed challenge from rival firm Advanced Micro Devices Inc., semiconductor maker Intel Corp. has just announced the launch of its 8th Generation Intel Core “Coffee Lake” desktop chips that it says are its best gaming processors to date.

Intel said Sunday evening that the new generation of processors are designed for gamers, as well as content creators and also “overclockers,” who rebuild or upgrade older hardware to make it run faster than it was originally designed to.

Like previous generations, the new chips range from Intel Core i3 to Intel Core i7, with the higher number of cores providing increased performance. The Coffee Lake chips are still manufactured via the 14-nanometer process that predecessor chips such as Kaby Lake, Skylake and Broadwell were built on. But it’s clear from the specifications Intel has published that they deliver a lot more bang for your buck.

That’s because the new generation of Coffee Lake chips include its first ever 6-core i5 processor, along with its first four-core i3 processor. The new Core i5 series also comes with Intel’s new Turbo Boosting 2.0 technology, which accelerates processor and graphics performance for peak loads, automatically allowing processor cores to run faster than the rated operating frequency if they’re operating below power, current and temperature specification limits.

As for the new Core i7 chips, they also pack six cores and the new Turbo Boosting tech, along with something called HyperThreading technology, which helps to ensure that processor resources are used more efficiently. This enables multiple processing “threads” to run on each core, while also increasing processor throughput and improving overall performance on threaded software.

The new, more powerful chips are supported by the introduction of a new series of Intel Z370 chipset-based motherboards, which help by providing more efficient power delivery. Intel said this is important as the new six-core chips need this to achieve their maximum performance. It added that more than 50 new motherboards and system designs will be made available by its hardware partners, so users can mix and match them to build more powerful gaming platforms.

Intel’s focus on gamers is likely for two reasons. For one thing, gamers are the main, albeit not not the only, audience for these kinds of high-powered chips. “We are laser-focused on giving the enthusiast community the ultimate desktop experience, from chart-topping performance to a platform that can flex with their needs,” said Anand Srivatsa, general manager of the Desktop Platform Group at Intel. “Our 8th Gen Intel Core desktop processors deliver tremendous improvements across the board and – for gamers, in particular – offer an unbeatable experience.”

In addition, some observers have suggested that rival AMD has been struggling to win over gamers with its rival Ryzen central processing unit chips, which have otherwise helped it take market share from Intel.

“Intel is facing heavy competition in this high-end desktop space from AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper,” said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “These high-core-count desktop CPUs are best for multithreaded apps like lossless video transcoding applications, physical rendering, bulk image converters, computational fluid dynamics, megatasking or running many applications at the same time, ray tracers, common file compression, encryption and decryption, application compiling and gaming while streaming.”

Intel said its new chips will officially launch on Oct. 5, with prices ranging from $117 for its low-end Core i3 processors to $359 for its higher-performing Core i7 chips.

Image: Intel