Behind the Intel Core i7-8086K – and the 8086 it celebrates
The 8086K is a far less important chip than the 8086, but there’s still much to like about this overclock-friendly beast Intel is in nostalgic mood, marking the 40th anniversary of its first 8086 processor with a special edition Core i7-8086K chip. It’s worth taking a breath to say why the 8086 chip was so special: when released on 8 June 1978, it was the first 16-bit processor and gave birth to the x86 instruction set that underpins every desktop chip and OS out there.
It’s only a little ironic, then, that Intel itself didn’t really care about the 8086. It was a defensive tactic, designed to combat the threat of the Zilog Z80 processor; for those who got a B- in their Intel history quiz, Zilog was a company created by ex-Intel engineers. Intel’s management was far more interested in what it saw as the silicon future: a 32-bit chip called the 8800 designed for mainframes. (It proved too ambitious – when finally released in 1981, it was slower than its main competitor, and Intel stopped its production in 1986.)
“Because nobody expected the design to live long, no-one placed any barriers in my way and I was free to do what I wanted,” the project leader, Stephen Morse, told US technology magazine PC World back in 2008. “The only requirements that management gave me were to make it somehow 8080-compatible… and that it address at least 128KB of memory.”
It’s telling that things might have been very different if Zilog’s engineers had taken a similar approach. Having enjoyed success with the 8-bit Z80, they decided its
“It’s the first Intel processor to hit 5GHz in turbo mode, and its first six-core processor with a 4GHz base frequency”
16-bit successor, the Z8000, would have a different design that wasn’t backwardscompatible. When their customers realised that programs couldn’t be migrated to the new chip, they looked around for a processor that would work. Namely the 8086. No wonder, then, that Intel has broken out the party poppers on the chip’s 40th anniversary. It gave away 8,086 of its limited edition Core i7-8086K chips to lucky fans – and will only produce 50,000 in total. It’s the first Intel processor to hit 5GHz in turbo mode, and also the first six-core processor with a 4GHz base frequency “out of the box”.
Other than this, you would struggle to tell the difference between the i7-8086K and the i7-8700K. Put them through an X-ray and they’ll look identical: six cores, 12 threads, 12MB of L3 cache, a 95W TDP. The difference is that Intel has selected the most overclockable versions of the i7-8700K and given them a different name. Oh, and it’s charging an extra £60 or so for the privilege.
So, from a purely economic point of view, is it worth the price? For keen overclockers, yes. Specialist retailer Silicon Lottery’s testing suggests that every i7-8086K can be overclocked to 5GHz with ease, compared to the top 86% of 8700K chips. Move up to 5.1GHz, and 50% of 8700K chips can make the jump; 92% of 8086K chips achieve this feat. Note that this overclock is for all six cores, not for a single core being turbo boosted.
The reason it’s only worth it for overclockers is that, for everyday performance, you can get more decisive gains by buying a faster SSD – and that will deliver all-round benefits rather than jumps in specific tasks. But, for once, you have to ask if it’s worth being so rational. The Intel Core i7-8086K is a phenomenally fast chip, and I suspect that its limited edition status, together with its unique name, will mean it’s remembered (and bought second-hand) far longer than the otherwise identical 8700K.