Source: Intel
Intel has announced the discontinuation of its 8th Generation Coffee Lake Desktop CPU lineup including the flagship Core i7-8700K. A total of 31 desktop parts and 3 mobile CPUs featured in Intel's 8th Generation lineup will reach EOL status this year.
Intel Discontinues 8th Generation Coffee Lake Desktop CPUs, Replaced By 10th Gen Comet Lake CPUs
Launched back in 2017, the Intel 8th Gen Desktop CPU family was the first response from the blue team against the first generation AMD Ryzen CPUs codenamed Pinnacle Ridge. Intel launched its Core i7-8700K as the flagship CPU, offering 6 cores and 12 threads, the first major core bump in almost a decade. Currently, Intel offers its mainstream processors with up to 10 cores & 20 threads while AMD has gone with 16 cores and 32 threads on its Ryzen 3000 CPUs.
According to Intel, the vast majority of 8th Generation Core processors are being discontinued. As mentioned in the PCN (Product Change Notifications), a discontinuation program for 8th Gen CPUs commences from 1st June. Intel will still be taking orders for 8th Generation processors till the 18th of December with the last batch of 8th Gen CPUs shipping on 4th June, 2021.
Intel states that the reason for discontinuation of these processors is due to the market demand for the listed products being shifted to other Intel products. The 10th Gen Comet Lake family does offer better specifications than 8th Gen Desktop CPUs at vastly lower price points so it makes sense to turn older CPUs to EOL status.
Market demand for the products listed in the "Products Affected/Intel Ordering Codes" table below have shifted to other Intel products. The products identified in this notification will be discontinued and unavailable for additional orders after the "Last Product Discontinuance Order Date".
Following is the complete list of all the 8th Gen CPUs that will be discontinued:
The warranty and support periods for your CPUs will remain intact and you will still be able to find used 8th Gen CPUs in the marketplace but overall, 10th Gen Core i3 and Core i5 CPUs now offer far better value and performance proposition over the older 8th Gen parts.