Intel’s 10th Gen Comet Lake-S sales are looking quite dismal at the moment. As per data provided by Mindfactory, one of Germany’s largest retailers of computer hardware, the Core i7-10700K sold just around 50 units in May. That’s 20 times less than the competing AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and even lower than the previous-gen Core i7-9700K which sold 170.
The reasons for this are two-fold. Firstly, there are severe processor shortages as far as the Comet Lake desktop parts go. Most stores are selling the 10th Gen processors for abysmal prices, with the Core i7-10700K going for as much as $680 on Amazon.
The second reason is that the majority of Mindfactory buyers are part of the DIY crowd. As such, they tend to make educated decisions. It’s no secret that the 10th Gen Comet Lake-S lineup is an incremental upgrade over the older 9th Gen Coffee Lake parts. They’re essentially the same CPUs with mild overclocks and SMT enabled. In the case of the 10900K, you get two additional cores as well. But that’s about it. This has resulted in most enthusiasts shying away from purchasing Intel’s latest processors.
Regardless, as the supply improves and price fall in line with the offical MSRP, we should see the 10th Gen Comet Lake chips replace the 9th Gen parts on the retail market.
