Core i7, i5, i3

[nyker96]

i personally don't see i5s i3s as a viable upgradable platform. they are at most 4 core, maybe a little better 4 cores than 775 can get but that's about it. might as well max out to 4 cores on the 775, then buy the next gen beyond i7. the way I see it, I can get about 80% the power of quad i7 with a q9xxx cpu, getting it for the quad is pretty petty for an upgrade. so only reason i will go i7 is for the octo cores. but then again, by the time octo is out in mass, who knows maybe there will be better choices/platforms out there for the money. so I think i'm skipping i7 most likely. all that i5 i3 stuff makes so little sense for anyone already got a 775/am2+ systems. only people building for now, and building new should consider them, that entire platform is going into toilet in the next round, no problem for people owning a dell or never wanna touch the machine.

 

[ilkhan]

I also wanted to throw in that, at least for clarkdale/arrandale, the "onboard" NB also kicks the IMC onto the second die, moving it "off" die and behind a QPI link. It'll be interesting to see RAM latency measurements and compare them to PII/bloomfield/gulftown/lynnfield/everything.

 

[taltamir]

i personally don't see i5s i3s as a viable upgradable platform

This is a strawman argument as there IS NOT SUCH THING AS AN i7 OR i5 or i3 platform... there are two platforms, an X58 (aka socket 1366) and P55 (Socket 1156). Nothing is stopping you from buying an i3 socket 1156 system and upgrading to an i7 s1156 later on.

i7 will be available for BOTH, i5 and i3 only for the latter. (well there is also that other budget platform they are planning, i forgot the name of it though)

And for MOST usage the i7 on socket 1156 should OUTPERFORM the socket 1366 version (lower latency). But for cases where extreme ram bandwidth is necessary (servers) or when two full speed 16x pcie v2 are required (CERTAIN but not ALL multi GPU configurations) or when you want a multi socket system, then s1366 shines.

so lets compare an i7 s1366 to an i7 s1156:
Single OR Dual video CARD (with one or two GPUs) latency: s1156 wins.

Single video CARD (with one or two GPUs) bandwidth: tie

Dual video CARDS (with one or two GPUs PER CARD) bandwidth: s1366 wins

Southbridge interconnect (for SATA3, USB3, etc): s1156 wins (same bandwidth, lower latency)

Ram throughput: triple vs dual channel, s1366 wins. HOWEVER, it has NO real effect on a home user (with less than 1% difference in speed for gaming and office apps)

Multi socket systems: only possible in s1366

Cost: s1156 wins

Size of socket: s1156 wins

Size of mobo (due to number of major chips and cooling for them): s1156 wins

Power/heat: s1156 wins

 

[ilkhan]

ability to run gulftown: s1366 winsis the only game in town

ability to run 32nm with >2 cores: (see above)

potential to run sandy bridge: s1366 wins (unless they move to a DDR4, sandy 1s/2s xeons will almost certainly run on a s1366 variant.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Originally posted by: ilkhan
ability to run gulftown: s1366 winsis the only game in town

ability to run 32nm with >2 cores: (see above)

potential to run sandy bridge: s1366 wins (unless they move to a DDR4, sandy 1s/2s xeons will almost certainly run on a s1366 variant.

I doubt they will never introduce quad core on 32nm as eventually they will want to fill the in between segment. Look at the amount of SKUs they have with S775, its kind of ridiculous.

Sandy Bridge is too far off to speculate. Gulftown yea...

As for Clarkdale/Arrandale memory latency, it'll still be much lower than on a Northbridge. From the pictures its like what? Less than 1cm apart? The Uncore clocks are supposed to be lower on Lynnfield than Bloomfield though, and Clarkdale/Arrandale will likely inherit that so it won't be so straightforward to analyze.

 

[ilkhan]

point on 32nm. But I was mostly referring to westmere generation chips. Theres still nothing on the roadmaps to show westmere >2 cores on s1156 AFAIK.

 

[IntelUser2000]

I'm talking about Westmere timeframe actually. How many people thought it was stupid that Intel would put a overclock limit on the Core i7 Bloomfield's?? Many months and a retail release later, we know that's not true.

Roadmaps can always change. It's too early to tell. Lack of replacement equals lack of profits. Unless they are planning Clarkdale's clock speed to be high enough to replace Lynnfield, which I doubt it.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: ilkhan
ability to run gulftown: s1366 winsis the only game in town

ability to run 32nm with >2 cores: (see above)

potential to run sandy bridge: s1366 wins (unless they move to a DDR4, sandy 1s/2s xeons will almost certainly run on a s1366 variant.

= $$$ period.

 

[ilkhan]

If s1156 mobos start at $80 and you get the slowest lynnfield without HT, you might save $200 over a cheap X58 board and an on sale 920. Cheaper, yes. Still not cheap.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: ilkhan
ability to run gulftown: s1366 winsis the only game in town

ability to run 32nm with >2 cores: (see above)

potential to run sandy bridge: s1366 wins (unless they move to a DDR4, sandy 1s/2s xeons will almost certainly run on a s1366 variant.

now you are just talking out of your backside; you have no proof and even if you did I would not believe "proof" that shows intel NOT transitioning to 32nm on s1156; heck the link idontcare posted shows future s1156 chips, including a "fusion" system (gpu/CPU on same die). Intel is going to support all THREE platforms, and the s1156 is a mainstream, not the BUDGET platform, so expecting it to not have access to good processors or their derivatives is rediculuous.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster

Originally posted by: ilkhan
ability to run gulftown: s1366 winsis the only game in town

ability to run 32nm with >2 cores: (see above)

potential to run sandy bridge: s1366 wins (unless they move to a DDR4, sandy 1s/2s xeons will almost certainly run on a s1366 variant.

= $$$ period.

Problem is Lynnfield 2.8ghz w/HT is projected to be priced at $284 US. Add $100 motherboard for a total of $384.

vs.

$200 Core i7 920 2.66ghz w/HT (Microcenter) + $185 X58 motherboard with 6 DDR3 slots. Same $385. (and you can apply a 10% off motherboard discount at Newegg now for a lower price).

It looks like the major advantages Lynnfield will have are perhaps a better upgrade path (i.e. cheaper CPUs but lack of 6 core upgrade path down the line) and TurboMode. However, you can have a Core i7 system now, probably overclocked to 3.8-4.0ghz and enjoy it for the summer for the same price.

This comparison is especially difficult since we can't say how well Turbo Mode will work in overclocked scenarios (i.e. will this depend on the brand of the motherboards?) and also how well will the processor overclock compared to D0 stepping on socket 1366.

 

[ilkhan]

1: clarkdale does NOT have the IGP on the same die. its a seperate (and 45nm) die on the same substrate and socket. The IMC is on that second die as well.
2: the roadmaps don't show ANY 32nm quads. Not for s1156, not for s1366. Will we see them? probably. But theres zero info available regarding them. Oh, and clarkdale is 32nm, meaning we will see 32nm on s1156. We just don't know of any quads.
3: Im not talking out of my ass. Im looking at the available info and extrapolating a bit. Between QPI and triple DDR3, theres no reason for Intel to develope a new socket for sandy, s1366 will do just fine. Will s1156 survive that transition? I don't know. But almost certainly is better than "I don't know".
4: Intel will have 4 sockets for nehalem generation chips. s989/s1156/s1366/s1566. Which 3 are you referring to? I expect you left out s989, as its the same arch as s1156, just with less power pins for lower powered mobile chips. Maybe you meant s1156/s1366 plus s775. But I don't know.