Intel Release Dates

[daw123]

Hello guys and girls,

Anybody know what the actual release date is for the I7 950 and 975?

Some shops are claiming 21/4, 22/4, 28/4 and now I've also seen 6/5.

Obviously the first two dates have been and gone with no news (or stock updates).

I've searched on the 'Net and all I can find is hearsay from computer websites.

Has there been any press releases by Intel on this?

 

[Idontcare]

Prolly waiting for the channel inventories to appreciably decline before they release them so they don't end up with a veritable buttload of inventory writeoffs for Q2.

Until then they can keep shipping/selling all the non-920 D0's they like as Nehalem EP's.

 

[daw123]

I thought the Nehalem EP (or Xeon) had 2QPIs, whereas the standard Nehelam only has 1. Are they able to change a normal Nehalem into a Xeon; i.e. add a second QPI?

Excuse my ignorance, but I don't know what is involved in adding the second QPI.

It's also frustrating that the goal posts seem to be changing on the release dates, since I'm waiting to buy a 950. At this rate Intel won't be releasing the 950/975 Q2.

I also don't want to place the order now, because I don't know whether I'm getting a good deal with whoever I place the order with. The shops (there's about six) which are showing the 950 on their websites vary in cost by about £65, which is a hell of a difference.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: daw123
I thought the Nehalem EP (or Xeon) had 2QPIs, whereas the standard Nehelam only has 1. Are they able to change a normal Nehalem into a Xeon; i.e. add a second QPI?

Excuse my ignorance, but I don't know what is involved in adding the second QPI.

It's the same die, already has two QPI's, they disable one of the QPI's for bloomfield i7's.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...el/showdoc.aspx?i=3448

Originally posted by: daw123
It's also frustrating that the goal posts seem to be changing on the release dates, since I'm waiting to buy a 950. At this rate Intel won't be releasing the 950/975 Q2.

Keep in mind that Intel has plans to milk the Bloomfield i7's all the way thru till next year when 6-core 32nm gulftown finally releases.

They got practically no compelling reasons to push the timeline for 950/975 D0's any harder than they feel like pushing it.

Whatever they roll out they will be peddling for a year, save for maybe possibly one more binspeed increase. So no rush for them.

 

[daw123]

That makes sense, thanks IDC.

 

[Idontcare]

It may make sense but its still a bitch isn't it? Back in the days leading up to the GHz mark we'd see a new CPU speedbin released every other month from both camps.

Kept things feeling a HELL of a lot fresher than this stale market we got now where the most exciting thing to look forward to for almost a year at a stretch is a new stepping or two and practically NO pricecuts.

Can't blame Intel for it though, they work for their shareholders and this model definitely maximizes shareholder value.

 

[daw123]

Yes, its a PITA.

My new build has ground to a stand still (and has been for months), because I've been waiting for the 950. I knew I would be p*ssed off if I spent £500 on the 940, then Intel released the slightly faster and newer stepping 950 a few weeks later.

One good thing I suppose, is that I've now got the money whereby I can buy the MB, CPU, RAM and a OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD all at the same time. At this rate, though I'll have the money to buy a 1 or 1.5TB HDD and a second HD4870 X2 for quad-fire as well.

 

[IntelUser2000]

It's also due to the economy. The Core i7's aren't really selling well due to economic reasons and that the motherboards cost too much.

 

[Denithor]

Does the second QPI add anything in terms of single-cpu performance or is it just necessary to smooth the interface between two chips in a dual configuration? I ask because the QPI is what appears to give i7 very impressive multiGPU performance and you gotta wonder if having the second path open would improve this even further.

Does Intel plan to release a 32nm quad or are they going straight to 6-core (Gulftown)? What happened to Westmere?

I was personally waiting for the perfect trifecta - Westmere, Intel SSD (at reasonable price) and Windows 7 - before rebuilding my main box. Now, well?

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Does the second QPI add anything in terms of single-cpu performance or is it just necessary to smooth the interface between two chips in a dual configuration? I ask because the QPI is what appears to give i7 very impressive multiGPU performance and you gotta wonder if having the second path open would improve this even further.

Currently the second QPI is restricted to 2S connections between the CPU's.

BUT there is lots of speculation running amok (nemesis ) that Larrabee will have a QPI interface and will enable direct connection thru QPI to the CPU.

IF this comes true it will surely require a new socket for the desktop (to handle the IO for the 2nd QPI) and thus would be something likely deferred to Westmere and not be something the current i7 owners can look forward to using with their current rigs.

Originally posted by: Denithor
Does Intel plan to release a 32nm quad or are they going straight to 6-core (Gulftown)? What happened to Westmere?

Currently they have no quads planned for the 32nm westmere "tick"...first they will release 2C/4T mainstream chips this fall (presumably mid-Nov) and the extreme lineup won't actually get refreshed until spring 2010 when gulftown (6C/12T westmere) is released.

Originally posted by: Denithor
I was personally waiting for the perfect trifecta - Westmere, Intel SSD (at reasonable price) and Windows 7 - before rebuilding my main box. Now, well?

If by "westmere" you mean the 2C/4T chip then your on track for this fall provided Win7 releases by then. If by "westmere" you mean the extreme line-up that will displace the existing i7/bloomfield line-up then you are waiting for gulftown and you will be waiting another year for that.

 

[daw123]

Well, I phoned the following companies for an ETA on the I7 950 (they all have the 950 listed on their website).
http://www.morecomputers.com - ETA 6/5/09 (guy phoned their supplier). Supplier supposedly has 285 950s on order from Intel and this is the delivery date.
http://www.ballicom.co.uk - ETA 30/5/09 (guy supposedly phoned Intel - I didn't quite believe this)
http://www.specialtech.co.uk - ETA unknown (the guy said that he has been trying to get an ETA for the last few weeks from his suppliers)
http://www.onestoppcshop.co.uk - ETA 1/5/09 (guy phoned their supplier)

Four different shops and four different ETAs. wtf. No one seems to know anything.

It also seems as if suppliers putting in very large orders are being pissed about by Intel, because Intel are keeping them in the dark on the release date.

I can understand that Intel wants to get rid of all their 940s (and 965s), but the fact that the 950 (and 975) is around the corner, why the hell would some one pay full price for a chip, which is to be replaced by a newer stepping and slightly faster chip for the same price. The same will apply to suppliers and distributors. Why the hell don't they sell the 940s and 965s at a discounted price (say knock 15% off) to get rid of them?

 

[ghost recon88]

Originally posted by: daw123
Well, I phoned the following companies for an ETA on the I7 950 (they all have the 950 listed on their website).
http://www.morecomputers.com - ETA 6/5/09 (guy phoned their supplier). Supplier supposedly has 285 950s on order from Intel and this is the delivery date.
http://www.ballicom.co.uk - ETA 30/5/09 (guy supposedly phoned Intel - I didn't quite believe this)
http://www.specialtech.co.uk - ETA unknown (the guy said that he has been trying to get an ETA for the last few weeks from his suppliers)
http://www.onestoppcshop.co.uk - ETA 1/5/09 (guy phoned their supplier)

Four different shops and four different ETAs. wtf. No one seems to know anything.

Those ETAs have a wide gap between them, however remember that when it comes to hardware not all shops and online sites get them the same day. It's not like new movie releases. Some get their stock quite a bit before other places depending on how much stock they ordered (smaller guys tend to get their stock last).

 

[daw123]

I'm going to leave it another week and check out http://www.onestoppcshop.co.uk next Friday to see if they have any in stock (as per their ETA). They also have the best price out of the four.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
If by "westmere" you mean the 2C/4T chip then your on track for this fall provided Win7 releases by then. If by "westmere" you mean the extreme line-up that will displace the existing i7/bloomfield line-up then you are waiting for gulftown and you will be waiting another year for that.

So they don't plan to have a 4C/8T 32nm chip this year (or maybe even next year)? Crap.

Well, I suppose the 2C/4T 32nm would still be a nice upgrade from my current e8400. Any idea what the TDP on those chips is going to be? And will they run on X58 boards or something else?

I'm using the EVGA stepup program to swap my 9800GTX+ for a GTX 260/216 and will then have a matched pair that would play nice together for folding & gaming (if I get an SLI board). So that's something I will look for in my next motherboard.

 

[ilkhan]

nope. What we're expecting are 45nm 4c/8t (lynnfield/bloomfield), 32nm 2c/4t (clarkdale), and 32nm 6c/12t (gulftown).

 

[SuperSix]

Official Intel launch date is 05/31.

We expect shipments ~1 week prior.