Intel Skylake / Kaby Lake

[Phynaz]

So therefore it means that Intel changed the naming scheme to prevent speculation on the Internet.

Why in the world would Intel, the worlds largest and most profitable semiconductor manufacturer, give a **** about Internet message board speculation on their data center class CPUs?

Do you think anything anyone posts here is going to affect their sales in any way?

Wallmart's CIO - "I read speculation about Intel on Anandtech Forums and it convinced me to switch to AMD"

Yeah, sure.

 

[Roger Wilco]

So the lower-end Skylake-X chips are mainly a starting point for people looking at the HEDT arena? I am assuming Kabylake-X will be the same? Will Coffee Lake have an i9?

My terrible Coffee Lake speculations:

Celeron 2c
Pentium 2c/4t
i3 4c/4t
i5 4c/8t
i7 6c/6t
i9? 6c/12t

Intel is going to have a ton of very similar CPUs being manufactured and sold concurrently.

 

[blue11]

- L2 cache = 1MB (Skylake-X), 4x as much as Core i7-7700K
- Dual DDR4-2666 for Kaby Lake-X / Quad DDR4-2666 for Skylake-X
- 112W for Kaby Lake-X / up to 160W for Skylake-X
- Apparently all Core i9 parts support AVX-512 (TBC)
- Launch in June, except 7920X (August)

Will share the image you guys want as soon as I'm allowed to.

All Skylake-SP dies are labeled as supporting AVX-512 by Intel, but only the Xeon Platinum and Gold 6000-series have "two AVX-512 FMA units", i.e. full throughput. Those Xeon SKUs are the ones derived from XCC dies. We'll have to wait and see if SKL-X has full-speed AVX-512 or only 256-bit FMA units. The answer will depend on whether the feature is e-fused or actually part of the die design, I suppose.

Boost clocks are a nice improvement over Broadwell-E, but I wonder if the Turbo Boost 3.0 speed can be achieved on all cores (OC), or if it's the limit of the silicon, since only one specific core is promised to reach that speed.

 

[dooon]

Exclusive: Skylake-X (Core i9) Lineup and Specifications

Core i9-7920X
12C/24T
16.5MB L3
44 PCIe lanes
Clocks TBD (August Launch)

Core i9-7900X
10C/20T
13.75MB L3
44 PCIe Lanes
3.3Ghz Base
4.3Ghz Turbo 2.0
4.5Ghz Turbo 3.0!

Core i9-7820X
8C/16T
11MB L3
28 PCIe Lanes
3.6Ghz Base
4.3Ghz Turbo 2.0
4.5Ghz Turbo 3.0

Core i9-7800X
6C/12T
8.25MB L3
28 PCIe Lanes
3.5Ghz Base
4.0Ghz Turbo 2.0

Core i7-7740K
4C/8T
8MB L3
16 PCIe Lanes
4.3Ghz Base
4.5Ghz Turbo 2.0

Core i7-7640K
4C/4T
6MB L3
16 PCIe Lanes
4.0Ghz Base
4.2Ghz Turbo 2.0

- L2 cache = 1MB (Skylake-X), 4x as much as Core i7-7700K
- Dual DDR4-2666 for Kaby Lake-X / Quad DDR4-2666 for Skylake-X
- 112W for Kaby Lake-X / up to 160W for Skylake-X
- Apparently all Core i9 parts support AVX-512 (TBC)
- Launch in June, except 7920X (August)

Will share the image you guys want as soon as I'm allowed to.

this?

 

[tamz_msc]

Why in the world would Intel, the worlds largest and most profitable semiconductor manufacturer, give a **** about Internet message board speculation on their data center class CPUs?

Do you think anything anyone posts here is going to affect their sales in any way?

Wallmart's CIO - "I read speculation about Intel on Anandtech Forums and it convinced me to switch to AMD"

Yeah, sure.

If they read any of these forums, maybe they'll have some sense as to how to make a decipherable naming scheme?

For example, what made them realize they could use core i9 for desktop parts after almost 10 years?

 

[Sweepr]

this?

These guys...

 

[Arachnotronic]

I was going to wait for CFL-S, but I don't think I can resist the Call of Skylake-X.

 

[LTC8K6]

Yeah, the CL 6C12T could easily be an "i9" chip.

 

[LTC8K6]

If they read any of these forums, maybe they'll have some sense as to how to make a decipherable naming scheme?

For example, what made them realize they could use core i9 for desktop parts after almost 10 years?

It's a higher number than AMD is using...?

 

[tamz_msc]

It's a higher number than AMD is using...?

This has nothing to do with AMD. If we assume that on the more expensive platform, i7 would from now on mean 4 cores, then Westmere was 6 cores on LGA1366 and was still labelled as an i7.

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

I remember almost 10 years ago when we were joking about a "Core i9" name. They're not actually going to do it are they?

 

[Arachnotronic]

I remember almost 10 years ago when we were joking about a "Core i9" name. They're not actually going to do it are they?

I think Core i7 980X was originally rumored to be called an i9.

 

[dullard]

That pricing is too tight for the high margins that Intel aims for with HEDT.

Yeah, not going to happen. Once you kill your margins, you can almost never get them back.

Those prices aren't reduced margins from what Intel is currently selling. Here is Intel's HEDT webpage with current prices:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i7-processor-extreme-edition.html

• The top HEDT chip right now (6950X) is $1575. The 7920X will replace it. I didn't include the 7920X in my post since it wasn't on Sweepr's list at launch.
• The next HEDT chip (6900K) is $1000. The 7900X will replace it.
• The next HEDT chip (6850K) is $550. The 7820X will replace it.
  
• The next HEDT chip (6800K) is $360. The 7800X will replace it.
  
• The lowest HEDT chip (5820K) is $320. The 7740K will replace it.
• I added a $250 rung since there wasn't an equivalent in Intel's current lineup. But they can't really justify charging much more for the 7640K than the 7600K ($240).

I just kept Intel's margins as they were. Which is what Intel usually does in situations like this when new chips (but not revolutionary chips) replace older chips. They may float $30ish up or down, but Intel almost never completely changes their pricing tiers unless there is a whole new chip design.

 

[frozentundra123456]

this?

Impressive line up but it all comes down to pricing. If they price the hex core like the 6800k and the 8 core like 6850k, then it should be very attractive. One has to wonder though if the quadd are there to force the hex and up parts into a higher bracket. That would effectively be giving less cores for the money, and with AMD back in the game, I don't think they can get away with that.

 

[tamz_msc]

Those prices aren't reduced margins from what Intel is currently selling. Here is Intel's HEDT webpage with current prices:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i7-processor-extreme-edition.html

• The top HEDT chip right now (6950X) is $1575. The 7920X will replace it. I didn't include the 7920X in my post since it wasn't on Sweepr's list at launch.
• The next HEDT chip (6900K) is $1000. The 7900X will replace it.
• The next HEDT chip (6850K) is $550. The 7820X will replace it.
  
• The next HEDT chip (6800K) is $360. The 7800X will replace it.
  
• The lowest HEDT chip (5820K) is $320. The 7740K will replace it.
• I added a $250 rung since there wasn't an equivalent in Intel's current lineup. But they can't really justify charging much more for the 7640K than the 7600K ($240).

I just kept Intel's margins as they were. Which is what Intel usually does in situations like this when new chips (but not revolutionary chips) replace older chips. They may float $30ish up or down, but Intel almost never completely changes their pricing tiers unless there is a whole new chip design.

Those aren't launch prices. Hear over to ARK for the RSPs. Why would they replace a 6 core CPU with a 4 core on the X299 platform?

 

[Ajay]

Core i9-7820X
8C/16T
11MB L3
28 PCIe Lanes
3.6Ghz Base
4.3Ghz Turbo 2.0
4.5Ghz Turbo 3.0

Core i9-7800X
6C/12T
8.25MB L3
28 PCIe Lanes
3.5Ghz Base
4.0Ghz Turbo 2.0

Wha....? Seriously Intel, way to gimp the heck out of the 7800X. 28 lanes, no problem, but the massive difference in clocks
7820X looks sweet, but will probably be out of my price range - overclocking these suckers should be very satisfying!!

 

[raghu78]

It will be interesting to see whats the avg max OC for Skylake-X. If the 12C/24T Skylake-X chips get to 4.8 Ghz on water then they would probably be faster even in multithreaded apps like Cinebench than Ryzen 16C/32T which are typically going to top out at 3.9 -4.0 Ghz . 10C/20T Skylake-X will have a tougher fight against 14C/28T and the 8C/12T would probably lose to 12C/24T. Skylake-X at max OC will have a >= 30% single thread performance lead against the Ryzen HEDT chips which is going to be their major selling point.

 

[Ajay]

It will be interesting to see whats the avg max OC for Skylake-X. If the 12C/24T Skylake-X chips get to 4.8 Ghz on water then they would probably be faster even in multithreaded apps like Cinebench than Ryzen 16C/32T which are typically going to top out at 3.9 -4.0 Ghz . 10C/20T Skylake-X will have a tougher fight against 14C/28T and the 8C/12T would probably lose to 12C/24T. Skylake-X at max OC will have a >= 30% single thread performance lead against the Ryzen HEDT chips which is going to be their major selling point.

The 12C/24T SKX uses a different (larger) die. I seriously doubt it will overclock any where near 4.8 GHz, even on custom water. Good bins on the other SKX line should be able to hit that kind of overclock (It'll be like the the old 32nm i7-990X!).

 

[LTC8K6]

This has nothing to do with AMD. If we assume that on the more expensive platform, i7 would from now on mean 4 cores, then Westmere was 6 cores on LGA1366 and was still labelled as an i7.

Your humor fuse is blown...

Maybe these are finally a significant boost in performance and thus the i9 label?

 

[tamz_msc]

Your humor fuse is blown...

Maybe these are finally a significant boost in performance and thus the i9 label?

Hmm, I don't think that the naming is based on performance.

More likely it is to differentiate the 6/8/10/12 core chips more explicitly from the quad cores. Sandy-E and Ivy-E had quad cores on X79 but still used the i7 label.

Edit: Even the 4C/4T 7640K is being called an i7. At this point their naming scheme seems like an afterthought.

 

[FlanK3r]

High clocks! But Im afraid of the price

 

[LTC8K6]

Hmm, I don't think that the naming is based on performance.

More likely it is to differentiate the 6/8/10/12 core chips more explicitly from the quad cores. Sandy-E and Ivy-E had quad cores on X79 but still used the i7 label.

Edit: Even the 4C/4T 7640K is being called an i7. At this point their naming scheme seems like an afterthought.

I wonder about the title of the slide?

Seems odd to call them high end gaming chips.

Unless they really are a gaming boost.

"High end gaming newly invented" according to Google translate.

 

[Sweepr]

Wha....? Seriously Intel, way to gimp the heck out of the 7800X. 28 lanes, no problem, but the massive difference in clocks
7820X looks sweet, but will probably be out of my price range - overclocking these suckers should be very satisfying!!

There will be a much larger gap between the bottom two products from their HEDT lineup now. I think Intel wants to make their $599 SKU is a more compelling buy (than Core i7-6850K currently is), and Core i9-7820X looks like a beast. You're getting 33% more cores, up to 12.5% higher Turbo and extra L3 compared to Core i9-7800X. On the plus side, the cheaper model should overclock nicely, looks like there is some headroom there.

 

[Sweepr]

I wonder about the title of the slide?

Seems odd to call them high end gaming chips.

Unless they really are a gaming boost.

"High end gaming newly invented" according to Google translate.

They will unveil the chips at a special event @ E3-2017, so it makes sense to me. We all know how well Skylake/Kaby Lake gaming performance scales with faster RAM, so I'm expecting great things from the new cache setup + 4-channel DDR4-2667.

 

[Ajay]

There will be a much larger gap between the bottom two products from their HEDT lineup now. I think Intel wants to make their $599 SKU is a more compelling buy (than Core i7-6850K currently is), and Core i9-7820X looks like a beast. You're getting 33% more cores, up to 12.5% higher Turbo and extra L3 compared to Core i9-7800X. On the plus side, the cheaper model should overclock nicely, looks like there is some headroom there.

I hope so, the hexacore is usually the easiest to overclock, but the lame base/turbo frequencies are causing me some concern - hopefully unfounded.