Haswell-E, 8 cores, DDR4

[ShintaiDK]

Some info from VR-Zone

http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-core-i7-ivy-bridge-e-core-i3-haswell-lineup-detailed/37832.html

 

[Shephard]

DDR4 is the only interesting thing here.

 

[HendrixFan]

We have heard early reports of 8 core chips before but they always seem to get phased out as the release nears. Hopefully this one will stick. I have been holding off on upgrading until I could double my cores and likely OC to 5Ghz. Looks like just one more year of waiting!

 

[RussianSensation]

6-core Haswell-E for $500, DDR4 and 20nm GPUs by summer 2014? Sounds good!

I am not seeing the new SATA Express though.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I am not seeing the new SATA Express though.

That will most likely first come with Skylake-E on the LGA20xx platform.

 

[SPBHM]

highest clocked memory at 2133...

 

[cytg111]

DDR4 is the only interesting thing here.

Why? I fail to see how DDR4 is relevant, allright it will clock a tad higher, but thats it.

 

[wlee15]

highest clocked memory at 2133...

You're gonna have to start somewhere

 

[meloz]

Not that I will ever use that much RAM, but why the restriction of 1 DIMM per channel?

Is this something peculiar to DDR4 (cannot be....otherwise how will they handle the requirements of datacenter consumers when Haswell-E based Xeons are released) or an effort to restrict the amount of system RAM so that Haswell-E does not eat into the IVB-E based Xeons?

 

[Soulkeeper]

Not that I will ever use that much RAM, but why the restriction of 1 DIMM per channel?

Is this something peculiar to DDR4 (cannot be....otherwise how will they handle the requirements of datacenter consumers when Haswell-E based Xeons are released) or an effort to restrict the amount of system RAM so that Haswell-E does not eat into the IVB-E based Xeons?

"DDR4 also anticipates a change in topology.[disputed – discuss] It discards the multi-drop bus approach used in previous generations in favor of point-to-point where each channel in the memory controller is connected to a single module.[6][9] This mirrors the trend also seen in the earlier transition from PCI to PCI Express, where parallelism was moved from the interface to the controller,[9] and is likely to simplify timing in modern high-speed data buses.[9] Switched memory banks are also an anticipated option for servers.[6][9]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR4_SDRAM#Technical_description

 

[meloz]

If only one DIMM module can be connected to one channel, this will become a problem for some server users (VPS etc). They like to populate all 8 slots with current gen SB-E Xeons.

Of course, we do not know the capacity of a single DDDR4 DIMM stick. 32 GB might be commonly available by the time Xeons based on Haswell-E launch. Meh, should be okay for most users. There's always dual-socket for those who need greater density.

 

[ShintaiDK]

If only one DIMM module can be connected to one channel, this will become a problem for some server users (VPS etc). They like to populate all 8 slots with current gen SB-E Xeons.

Of course, we do not know the capacity of a single DDDR4 DIMM stick. 32 GB might be commonly available by the time Xeons based on Haswell-E launch. Meh, should be okay for most users. There's always dual-socket for those who need greater density.

Density should go up quite high.

 

[moonbogg]

8 core Haswell-E sounds pretty exciting to me. Looks like a great platform, provided it OCs good. I'm wondering if games will be more multi threaded after the new consoles come out. A chip like this could be the thing to get.

 

[boxleitnerb]

Where is the progress? There is the Sandy-Bridge-EP Xeon E5-2687W with 8x 3.1 GHz and a 150W TDP. I hope Intel clocks Haswell-E quite a bit higher than the 3.0 GHz mentioned in the slides.

 

[cytg111]

"DDR4 also anticipates a change in topology.[disputed – discuss] It discards the multi-drop bus approach used in previous generations in favor of point-to-point where each channel in the memory controller is connected to a single module.[6][9] This mirrors the trend also seen in the earlier transition from PCI to PCI Express, where parallelism was moved from the interface to the controller,[9] and is likely to simplify timing in modern high-speed data buses.[9] Switched memory banks are also an anticipated option for servers.[6][9]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR4_SDRAM#Technical_description

does that mean that for a mobo to sport 4 dimms it has to be quad channel ??

 

[Soulkeeper]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2010/08/26/ddr4-what-we-can-expect/1

this was a nice read on ddr4
I can't wait, but then i'm excited by most any tech advances

 

[Soulkeeper]

does that mean that for a mobo to sport 4 dimms it has to be quad channel ??

Sounds possible, depending on how the mem controller is setup and if a switch is/isn't used.
Maybe having the possibility of adding 1, 2, 3, or 4 each potentially increasing bandwidth
The need for pairs will be removed.
I get the sense that 2 dimm boards could become more common if they can increase the density a lot with this tsv stuff.

 

[Lepton87]

We have heard early reports of 8 core chips before but they always seem to get phased out as the release nears. Hopefully this one will stick. I have been holding off on upgrading until I could double my cores and likely OC to 5Ghz. Looks like just one more year of waiting!

Good luck with that 5GHz. HW usually hits 4.3-4.6GHz, this is less then IB. SB-E tended to OC a tad lower then regular 4-core SB so I'll guess that it will do even worse then 4-core HW, 22nm is a mature process I don't see how they can make significant improvements. My guess is that they will OC in the 4.2-4.6 range.
Also we could have had 8 cores with not that much less performance (OC included) in 2011 if Intel decided to launch a full SB-E chip not 75% of it. Color me unimpressed.
At the very least IVY-E should have been 8 core and HW-E should have been 10 cores.

 

[HendrixFan]

My brother's 2011 setup I built for him clocked at 5Ghz and it seems more people are getting 4.6 to 4.7 than anything lower from that socket. But when I say I'd like to upgrade from what I have to 5Ghz that is a general vicinity more than a minimum.

I'm on a i7 920 that is clocked at 3.6 so a 100% increase in cores, a 50% (roughly) increase in clockspeed combined with whatever IPC increases (20% or so?) should be plenty for me to really feel the difference in an upgrade.

You are right that this is very much a wait and see, but it does seem like the biggest step forward since the 980x for enthusiasts.

 

[cytg111]

Sounds possible, depending on how the mem controller is setup and if a switch is/isn't used.
Maybe having the possibility of adding 1, 2, 3, or 4 each potentially increasing bandwidth
The need for pairs will be removed.
I get the sense that 2 dimm boards could become more common if they can increase the density a lot with this tsv stuff.

If so, I revise my view on DDR4 from meh to awsome .. on 2 dimm boards, some discount boards maybe but people are getting RAM spoiled, regressing from easily and cheaply maxing out those 32GB's via 4x8 .. nah

 

[Fjodor2001]

Looks quite nice actually!

I have some questions though:

-Approximately how much is an 8 core Haswell-E likely going to cost?

-How come the DDR4 interface is limited to 2133 MHz? Would it be that hard to increase the bandwidth further? I know it will be point to point so if several memory slots are used that will help, but still.

-Looking at the roadmap I do not see 14 nm mentioned at all, despite that it stretches to Q1/Q2 2015! How should we interpret that? Is 14 nm delayed, or will Intel use those fabs for the mobile CPUs competing with ARM?

-No Broadwell on the Desktop roadmap. What's up with that? Will it be mobile only after all?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Looks quite nice actually!

I have some questions though:

-Approximately how much is an 8 core Haswell-E likely going to cost?

-How come the DDR4 interface is limited to 2133 MHz? Would it be that hard to increase the bandwidth further? I know it will be point to point so if several memory slots are used that will help, but still.

-Looking at the roadmap I do not see 14 nm mentioned at all, despite that it stretches to Q1/Q2 2015! How should we interpret that? Is 14 nm delayed, or will Intel use those fabs for the mobile CPUs competing with ARM?

-No Broadwell on the Desktop roadmap. What's up with that? Will it be mobile only after all?

8 cores will most likely cost the same as 3930K and 3970X today.

Its official supported and guaranteed DDR4 speed. Just like SB was 1333, IB/HW 1600, IB-E 1866 and so on.

14nm is on track. But why would you talk about 14nm on an enthutiast roadmap that will use 22nm for its CPUs.

Desktop refresh might mean Broadwell

 

[RussianSensation]

8 cores will most likely cost the same as 3930K and 3970X today.

I doubt that. In that case if an 8-core Haswell-E is $500 like the 3930K, the 6-core will replace i7-4820K at around $325? Sounds too good to be true. I think they'll have the 6-core at the $500 mark and 8-core at the $1,000 mark to further entice people to spend $1000 because thus far the 3960X/3970X and 4960X are just money grabs. If Intel splits 6-core at $500 and 8-core at $1,000, a lot more people who need moar cores will want to spend $1,000.

14nm is on track. But why would you talk about 14nm on an enthutiast roadmap that will use 22nm for its CPUs.

The problem is Skylake will be out H1 2015. If AMD manages to increase IPC 20-30% by 2015, Intel will have no choice but to launch a 6-core Skylake chip. If Skylake 6-core comes out on the "mainstream" platform with 15% IPC increase over Haswell, and it'll be on 2nd generation 14nm process, it'll suddenly make an 8-core Haswell-E on 22nm questionable.

Intel really needs to go back to Socket 1366 strategy because right now their "Enthusiast" platform is using outdated CPU architecture and outdated feature set and waste a lot more power, while being slower in games.

 

[CakeMonster]

The problem is Skylake will be out H1 2015.

Why should it? Intel has slipped from the 12 month cycle. Its almost two and a half years since SB. I seriously doubt they will manage (or even want to) get Skylake out in H1 2015 if there is a mainstream refresh in 2014.

 

[Sweepr]

8-core Haswell >3GHz? Damn, this thing will be fast. Twice the number of cores than a LGA1150 Haswell (Haswell-EP will have up to 14-cores though). If only LGA1150 chips didnt include an IGP I bet they could release a nice <250mm² 8C/16T Haswell at reasonable TDP levels (95-130W).