Highly anticipated: Rumors surrounding the release dates of Intel's 9th generation of processors have been swirling around for some time now. But the latest claim adds to those voices that say the CPUs will be here soon. Specifically, the new chips will reportedly arrive on October 1.

News that Intel was delaying its 10-nanometer processors came as a blow to many, but it appears we don't have long to wait for the new Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5 parts, which are built on the 14nm++ node.

According to WCCFTech's sources, October 1 will see the launch of three next-gen unlocked CPUs, with the rest of the chips arriving in the first quarter of 2019. Among the initial releases is the hugely anticipated Core i9-9900K. Not only will this be the first mainstream desktop Core i9, but it also comes with 8 cores and 16 threads.

The Core i9-9900K has a base clock of 3.6 GHz, which can be boosted up to 5.0GHz in single and dual cores. It can hit 4.8GHz in four cores, and 4.7GHz in six and all eight cores. The CPU is also said to come with 16 MB of L3 cache and Intel's UHD 620 graphics chip.

A recently leaked benchmark showed the Core i9-9900K easily outperforming the Ryzen 7 2700X and the Core i7-8700K.

Next is the Core i7-9700K, which is thought to be the first mainstream i7 chip with eight cores. As Intel is making hyperthreading an i9-only feature, the i7-9700K has eight threads. It also features a 3.6GHz base clock but slightly lower boost speeds than the i9-9900K---though it is reportedly $100 cheaper and has the same 95W TDP.

Finally, there's the 6 core/6 thread Core i5-9600K, which has a 3.7GHz base clock and a 4.3GHz boost with all cores (4.6GHz single).

The table below, courtesy of WWCFTech, includes the other 9th-generation chips set for release next year.

This is still all rumor, of course, but it's looking increasingly likely that the new processors will be here in a few weeks' time.