Cheaper Intel 6C/12T CPU coming? Core i7-3910K spotted

[Sweepr]

Intel's Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" series may be less than two months away from seeing the light of the day, but in the run up to that, a curious-looking Core i7-3910K "Sandy Bridge-E" part cropped up on roadmaps with retailers. We're pretty sure it's not a typo misread by someone for "i7-3970X," because the list even mentions the S-spec code "SR0TN," which doesn't correspond with the "SR0WR" s-spec code of the i7-3970X.

The Core i7-3910K is based on the same Sandy Bridge-E C2-stepping silicon as the i7-3970X, and is said to feature 3.00 GHz clock speed. There's no clarity on exactly how many cores it features, but given that it's named in the i7-3900 series, and not the i7-3800 series, we're leaning toward it being a six-core part. A bid by Intel to clear out "imperfect" Sandy Bridge-E silicon by giving it a relatively low clock speed? We doubt that, it features the "K" brand extension, which denotes unlocked base-clock multiplier. Intel's cheapest LGA2011 six-core part is the i7-3930K, which goes for roughly US $550. If Intel prices this chip just right, by that we mean $400-ish, it could be a tease for all those shelling out $350 for a Core i7-4770K. Low clock speed, but unlocked. Two extra cores, quad-channel memory, and a bigger PCIe budget, albeit an older micro-architecture. Decisions, decisions.

http://translate.google.com.br/tran...e=UTF-8&u=http://www.expreview.com/27049.html

 

[Arachnotronic]

That'd be nice, but somewhat pointless if IVB-E is coming...

 

[CHADBOGA]

Now that would be quite a reasonable trade off.

 

[CHADBOGA]

That'd be nice, but somewhat pointless if IVB-E is coming...

Could be a $200 price gap between Hex Sandy and Hex Ivy.

Plus Ivy's single thread improvement is trifling.

 

[Sweepr]

Could be a $200 price gap between Hex Sandy and Hex Ivy.

Plus Ivy's single thread improvement is trifling.

Yes, at the right price ($400-500?) it would be a very interesting CPU, especially if it OCs @ >4.5GHz. SB-E is old but still packs a punch when it comes to MT performance. Core i7 4930K @ 3.4GHz (~4% higher IPC + 13,3% higher base clock + lower power comsumption) could be priced $100-150 higher.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Could be a $200 price gap between Hex Sandy and Hex Ivy.

Plus Ivy's single thread improvement is trifling.

IVB-E is cheaper to manufacture.

 

[SunnyD]

Put it at $300 and I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[Rvenger]

If its priced similar to the i7-4770k I will be more than glad to get rid of this POS Haswell.

 

[CHADBOGA]

IVB-E is cheaper to manufacture.

Intel probably want to maintain the image that new tech stuff is worth more, so probably don't want to price IVB-E too low.

Plus they may have some Sandy Hex's they need to clear from inventory.

 

[Rvenger]

They want to lower the price point without dropping the price of the 3930k so they can clear the inventory fast. This is a great move and I will buy one the day it releases and make my 4770k a keychain to remind me of the epic fail haswell was . (If it releases that is)

 

[CHADBOGA]

They want to lower the price point without dropping the price of the 3930k so they can clear the inventory fast. This is a great move and I will buy one the day it releases and make my 4770k a keychain to remind me of the epic fail haswell was . (If it releases that is)

What overclocks are you effectively limited to with your Haswell 4770K?

 

[Sweepr]

This could be a sign of the future. Next year's Haswell-E will have two versions: 6-core and 8-core. Maybe (just maybe) there will be a $300 6C/12T CPU or at least one model cheaper than $560.

 

[exar333]

Plus you can find pretty good deals on X79 MBs around too, if you look. A $300-400 6C SB + MB would be a nice build.

 

[Grooveriding]

This would be a good idea at this point. SB-E has been out what, two years now ? With the only consumer 6 core chip still selling for $500, it's about time to deliver one for less money. I'd guess it is the same chip as 3930K clocked a little lower for a cheaper price. Likely would overclock as well as a 3930K does with no real performance difference between the two once you account for overclocking.

 

[Rvenger]

What overclocks are you effectively limited to with your Haswell 4770K?

Getting it stable in general. I had 5 motherboards already. I had it at 4.2ghz stable for a week then all of a sudden it starts to crash. I had to increase the vcore 0.05v in order to get it to boot properly into windows. The Gigabyte board had flakey USB ports, ASRock's bios was broken with the freezing. Its not just the CPU, its both the CPU and Mobo. Hot running chips + bad bios = aggravation. I have my 3rd 4770k being delivered today. I will be coupling it with an Asus Maximus VI Hero so hopefully I will have some good luck.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Getting it stable in general. I had 5 motherboards already. I had it at 4.2ghz stable for a week then all of a sudden it starts to crash. I had to increase the vcore 0.05v in order to get it to boot properly into windows. The Gigabyte board had flakey USB ports, ASRock's bios was broken with the freezing. Its not just the CPU, its both the CPU and Mobo. Hot running chips + bad bios = aggravation. I have my 3rd 4770k being delivered today. I will be coupling it with an Asus Maximus VI Hero so hopefully I will have some good luck.

That is a terrible run for sure. :|

I would be keen to hear how your latest CPU & Motherboard combo work out for you.

 

[blackened23]

This would be a good idea at this point. SB-E has been out what, two years now ? With the only consumer 6 core chip still selling for $500, it's about time to deliver one for less money. I'd guess it is the same chip as 3930K clocked a little lower for a cheaper price. Likely would overclock as well as a 3930K does with no real performance difference between the two once you account for overclocking.

Indeed. I somewhat suspect intel may be shuffling desktop users to their enthusiast platform (x79,x99) instead of mainstream (z87, etc) - intel's roadmap pointing to a Haswell refresh on x99 which would be none other than Haswell-E, and the lack of Broadwell on desktop altogether seems to be evidence.

If Broadwell does indeed not arrive on LGA as all of their roadmaps state (BGA mobile only), it would make sense for intel to create lower price points for their enthusiast platform. So I guess a "3910k" would be a beginning of that? Also consider the "4820" will be a "-K" SKU which is unlocked with IVB-E.

Which, again, points to lower price points of entry for the Enthusiast Platform since mainstream won't be getting attention in 2014. Hmm! Makes you think.

 

[NTMBK]

Which, again, points to lower price points of entry for the Enthusiast Platform since mainstream won't be getting attention in 2014. Hmm! Makes you think.

Yes, it makes me think that I wish the enthusiast platform had a better chipset.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Plus you can find pretty good deals on X79 MBs around too, if you look. A $300-400 6C SB + MB would be a nice build.

When I was starting to piece together my next system, before I knew what I wanted for sure I did a little window shopping. I was really surprised at how inexpensive some socket 2011 boards were. In fact, on Newegg there is an EVGA x79 board that costs less than the AM3+ board I bought recently.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Getting it stable in general. I had 5 motherboards already. I had it at 4.2ghz stable for a week then all of a sudden it starts to crash. I had to increase the vcore 0.05v in order to get it to boot properly into windows. The Gigabyte board had flakey USB ports, ASRock's bios was broken with the freezing. Its not just the CPU, its both the CPU and Mobo. Hot running chips + bad bios = aggravation. I have my 3rd 4770k being delivered today. I will be coupling it with an Asus Maximus VI Hero so hopefully I will have some good luck.

Dang that sucks...

1 board 1 chip 4.8GHz all day.

Some usb flaking outside the mouse/keyboard with deep C states but it's worth it since I can get down into the low 40s for idle.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

When I was starting to piece together my next system, before I knew what I wanted for sure I did a little window shopping. I was really surprised at how inexpensive some socket 2011 boards were. In fact, on Newegg there is an EVGA x79 board that costs less than the AM3+ board I bought recently.

I saw that as well. Seems fairly cut down though compared to the rest of the X79 offerings: "only" 4 DIMM slots, lots of I/O port space on the back wasted, and I personally would've liked to see at least 2 more SATA slots and a USB 3.0 header. I'd easily fork over the $50 for the Asrock Extreme6 board.

I'd love to switch to SB-E if not for the hell of it, but I can't justify $500 for the cpu alone. Maybe one day...

 

[Gillbot]

Getting it stable in general. I had 5 motherboards already. I had it at 4.2ghz stable for a week then all of a sudden it starts to crash. I had to increase the vcore 0.05v in order to get it to boot properly into windows. The Gigabyte board had flakey USB ports, ASRock's bios was broken with the freezing. Its not just the CPU, its both the CPU and Mobo. Hot running chips + bad bios = aggravation. I have my 3rd 4770k being delivered today. I will be coupling it with an Asus Maximus VI Hero so hopefully I will have some good luck.

I told you to dump that garbage and go LGA2011. :whiste:

 

[Arachnotronic]

I told you to dump that garbage and go LGA2011. :whiste:

Yeah, I don't know why anybody buys the mainstream platform at this point. My next purchase will be an Ivy Bridge E.

 

[moonbogg]

Yeah, I don't know why anybody buys the mainstream platform at this point. My next purchase will be an Ivy Bridge E.

Lots of people trashing the new mainstream platforms in this thread. I feel lost. I am missing something. Haswell is faster than SB-E for all but very thread intensive stuff. Why would people choose SB-E at this point over Haswell?
I mean sure, I have SB-E myself, but I bought it on the gamble that it would help gaming, and it didn't. Still like it though because its cool for some reason.

 

[AdamK47]

It's what you build SB-E around that makes it better. It just takes money, that's all.