Intel Skylake / Kaby Lake

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dark zero

Platinum Member
Jun 2, 2015
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Well, if you think about it, Devil's Canyon wasn't much better than Haswell anyway. If you were a Haswell 4770k owner that did a delid and hit 4.6-4.7 GHz (or so) then the 4790k was no improvement whatsoever.

So, bearing that in mind, Gen10 graphics will be a bigger upgrade than anything people saw moving from Haswell to Devil's Canyon. There will definitely be room for improvement on the Skylake TIM as well.

Supposedly Intel Gen 10 GPU will perform equal as GDDR5 in their mid tier (supposedly up to 750ti without EDRAM and up to 970M with EDram)
 
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R0H1T

Platinum Member
Jan 12, 2013
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Supposedly Intel Gen 10 GPU will perform equal as GDDR5 in their mid tier (supposedly up to 750ti without EDRAM and up to 970M with EDram)
Well I say BS to that one, unless they're basically doubling the number of EU's from Skylake GT4e I don't see that being even a remote possibility.
 
Aug 11, 2008
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Yea, pure fantasy. If they make a desktop 65watt version GT4e might reach GT 750 levels or so, but in a power constrained laptop, it would be less.
 

Sweepr

Diamond Member
May 12, 2006
5,148
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Alienware just updated their lineup to Skylake:

alienware-homepage-echolaunch-20140106.jpg


NEW Alienware 13
& Optional Graphics Amplifier
Engineered for high-performance gaming anywhere, the new Alienware 13 combines stunningly powerful performance and incredibly mobile design.​
Processor Up to Intel® Core™ i7-6500U (Dual-Core, 4MB Cache, up to 3.1GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
Processor All-day battery life made possible with the optional 62Whr battery
OS Windows® 10
Graphics NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M with 2GB GDDR5

NEW Alienware 15
& Optional Graphics Amplifier
The new Alienware 15 is crafted with carbon fiber for a durable, elite feel. Add the optional Alienware Graphics Amplifier to unleash 4K gaming.
Processor Up to Intel® Core™ i7-6820HK (Quad-Core, 8MB Cache, Dynamically Overclocked up to 4.1GHz)
OS Windows® 10
Memory Up to NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980M with 4GB GDDR5

NEW Alienware 17
& Optional Graphics Amplifier
Roaring graphics. Massive screen. The new Alienware 17 is the gamer's choice for power and performance. Add the optional Graphics Amplifier to elevate the experience.
Processor Up to Intel® Core™ i7-6820HK (Quad-Core, 8MB Cache, Dynamically Overclocked up to 4.1GHz)
OS Windows® 10
Graphics Optional NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980M with 4GB GDDR5

Available right now.

www.alienware.com/Landings/laptops.aspx
 

Sweepr

Diamond Member
May 12, 2006
5,148
1,142
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It says "ships in 7 to 9 business days" on their webpage for the 13" model, 11-15 business days for 15", and 12-16 business days for 17"...

Right. Now look at the 18'' Haswell model:
- Ships in 11–15 business days
- Ships in 7-9 business days
 

Fjodor2001

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2010
3,710
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Right. Now look at the 18'' Haswell model:
- Ships in 11–15 business days
- Ships in 7-9 business days

Yup, there are other models that are not available too. Some are though, and for those it shows "ships today" (September 28).
 

Sweepr

Diamond Member
May 12, 2006
5,148
1,142
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Yup, there are other models that are not available too. Some are though, and for those it shows "ships today" (September 28).

Which? All the customizable Haswell and Skylake notebooks I see ship in 7 days or more. Trying to create drama again? Unfortunately for you this is not exclusive to Skylake models. :(
 
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Sweepr

Diamond Member
May 12, 2006
5,148
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Interesting remarks about Skylake's IMC:

Skylake's IMC Supports Only DDR3L

Skylake's IMC officially supports only DDR3L with a voltage of 1.35, and it officially supports DDR4 at 1.2 V. This might seem a little counter-intuitive to some users, as the entire reason for continuing DDR3 support is to make it cheaper and easier for customers to upgrade to the new Skylake platform, but these voltages are likely used to avoid damaging the IMC. Although it would be nice to use any DDR3 from 1.35 V - 1.65 V, running at these higher voltages could burn out the IMC and kill the processor over time.

If this is the case, though, then why do OEMs such as Gigabyte support DDR3 at 1.5 V on some of their motherboards? And why do others such as Asus and ASRock support DDR3 at 1.65 V? RAM running at these voltages might be capable of operating on the motherboard without causing damage to the board itself, but again, over time it will likely damage the CPU. So if you don't have DDR3L on hand, you are probably better off to go ahead and spring for the more expensive DDR4.

Another interesting point that we learned from Intel about the IMC is that it only supports clock speeds up to 4,133 MHz. Although DDR4 is still relatively new, and most RAM kits currently run between 2,133 and 3,000 MHz, some RAM kits are already reaching beyond 4,233 MHz.

RAM kits running at clock speeds above 4,133 MHz will likely encounter more errors than other DDR4, and it is probably best to limit yourself to memory running below this clock speed for the time being. DDR4 at higher clock speeds will become more useful in the future as Intel refines its IMC to support faster RAM, but that isn't likely to happen until a Skylake refresh or the release of Cannonlake.

www.tomshardware.com/news/skylake-memory-support,30185.html#xtor=RSS-181
 

IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
8,686
3,785
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Yea, pure fantasy. If they make a desktop 65watt version GT4e might reach GT 750 levels or so, but in a power constrained laptop, it would be less.

If Skylake GT4e is really 50% faster than Broadwell GT3e, it'll be at GT 750 level.

Now Kabylake is one after that, so it'll be probably noticeably faster. I am guessing GTX 750 Ti is realistic for a GT4e top-end. The unknown is what "2x128MB eDRAM" means for Kabylake. It seems unlikely they'll double eDRAM and also substantially increase GPU performance a second time in the same 14nm process without making it a power hog.

Supposedly Intel Gen 10 GPU will perform equal as GDDR5 in their mid tier (supposedly up to 750ti without EDRAM and up to 970M with EDram)
Intel graphics always disappoints and at best, somewhat off the mark. The best was when they were claiming Iris Pro 5200 had GTX 650M performance, when in reality it was 20% slower.

Based on some rumors we should have had 780M performance back in 2013. Such big changes are hard to believe since every year for a few years now Intel's GPU gains are decreasing noticeably.
 

Sweepr

Diamond Member
May 12, 2006
5,148
1,142
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DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,583
10,785
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Interesting remarks about Skylake's IMC:

Unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. All of Intel's IMCs have had a weakness for high vDIMM. Of course, that hasn't stopped certain people from ignoring those limitations and getting away with it, at least some of the time.
 

dark zero

Platinum Member
Jun 2, 2015
2,655
138
106
If Skylake GT4e is really 50% faster than Broadwell GT3e, it'll be at GT 750 level.

Now Kabylake is one after that, so it'll be probably noticeably faster. I am guessing GTX 750 Ti is realistic for a GT4e top-end. The unknown is what "2x128MB eDRAM" means for Kabylake. It seems unlikely they'll double eDRAM and also substantially increase GPU performance a second time in the same 14nm process without making it a power hog.

Intel graphics always disappoints and at best, somewhat off the mark. The best was when they were claiming Iris Pro 5200 had GTX 650M performance, when in reality it was 20% slower.

Based on some rumors we should have had 780M performance back in 2013. Such big changes are hard to believe since every year for a few years now Intel's GPU gains are decreasing noticeably.

Intel was really lazy, but if Broadwell managed to land GT 920 levels with edRAM and GT 730 levels without that on DDR3, definately with more speed from DDR4 they will have a noticeable boost (GTX 750M) without eDRAM and GTX 750ti if they had EDRAM.

And if Kabylake is a big step (more than 80%), expect reaching those levels.
 

Fjodor2001

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2010
3,710
182
106
Some Skylake-U (Windows 10) laptops available right now @ US:
<Cut>
There's others directly from the manufacturer.

Finally some interesting ones! But I'm holding out for the Dell XPS13 or ASUS UX305 Skylake replacements. That is unless some other company surprises me with something better... :)
 

MikeA65

Junior Member
May 16, 2015
16
0
0
There is a post on the RWT forums about an update to the Intel Optimization Manual that includes new details about Skylake.
http://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?threadid=154100&curpostid=154100

One of the most interesting is the fact that Skylake has 5 decoders, up from 4 that Intel has had since Core 2. Given that x86 decoders are one of the more power consuming parts of the CPU, Intel must have had a good reason to do this, yet Skylake has a relatively small increase in IPC. I wonder what this means.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
9,990
126
There is a post on the RWT forums about an update to the Intel Optimization Manual that includes new details about Skylake.
http://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?threadid=154100&curpostid=154100

One of the most interesting is the fact that Skylake has 5 decoders, up from 4 that Intel has had since Core 2. Given that x86 decoders are one of the more power consuming parts of the CPU, Intel must have had a good reason to do this, yet Skylake has a relatively small increase in IPC. I wonder what this means.

Perhaps that change will be more apparent, with AVX512-compatible software, on their Xeon CPUs? Just hypothesizing here, no real basis for thinking that.
 
Mar 10, 2006
11,715
2,012
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There is a post on the RWT forums about an update to the Intel Optimization Manual that includes new details about Skylake.
http://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?threadid=154100&curpostid=154100

One of the most interesting is the fact that Skylake has 5 decoders, up from 4 that Intel has had since Core 2. Given that x86 decoders are one of the more power consuming parts of the CPU, Intel must have had a good reason to do this, yet Skylake has a relatively small increase in IPC. I wonder what this means.

Increasing IPC is flipping hard!