Rumors on Ivy Bridge-E: 3 SKUs, September Release?
by Ian Cutress on June 20, 2013 6:51 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Ivy Bridge-E
A performance enthusiast always wants to know what is coming next. This morning HardwareLuxx published a rather interesting and official looking Intel slide detailing information about the upcoming enthusiast platform, Ivy Bridge-E. While we cannot confirm the legitimacy of the slide, it does follow several patterns we had been assuming for a while.
Firstly the launch date is a little surprising. Initially we have all been discussing October/November, but this slide puts the launch squarely at the beginning of September, between the 4th and the 11th. This is around the same date as IDF San Francisco, held on the 10-12th September.
As with previous launches, there will be a strict NDA date for media to publish results and demonstrations. Judging by what is written there does not seem to be much room for an upgrade to new chipsets, meaning that X79 is still the platform of choice at this time. I would not mind seeing an X89 with a full set of SATA 6 Gbps and USB 3.0 in the near future.
Alongside release details, CPU-World has posted information on the processor SKUs which are expected to be released. The top SKU is to be an i7-4960X, featuring 6 cores (12 threads) at 3.6 GHz which turbos up to 4 GHz and a total of 15MB L3 cache. This is going to be our top end SKU, which normally retails for $999-$1099. Below this is the i7-4930K, also 6 cores (12 threads) but set at 3.4 GHz with turbo up to 3.9 GHz and 12MB L3 cache. The final SKU should be the more interesting – the i7-4820K. The –K moniker suggests this part is unlocked, but unfortunately it is only a quad core (8 threads) part with 10MB L3 cache.
| Ivy Bridge-E SKUs (predicted) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SKU | Cores / Threads | Speed / Turbo | L3 Cache | TDP | Memory |
| i7-4820K | 4/8 | 3.7 GHz / 3.9 GHz | 10 MB | 130 W | DDR3-1866 |
| i7-4930K | 6/12 | 3.4 GHz / 3.9 GHz | 12 MB | 130 W | DDR3-1866 |
| i7-4960X | 6/12 | 3.6 GHz / 4.0 GHz | 15 MB | 130 W | DDR3-1866 |
One of the main benefits of Nehalem but a big issue with Sandy Bridge-E was the lack of a cheap overclocking SKU – while the i7-920 had big success, the i7-3820 eventually came along but it was not enough. This Ivy Bridge-E low end SKU is going to be directly compared with the i7-4770K Haswell SKU, and the only thing going for it is the quad channel memory support, as it loses at IPC. All three IVB-E CPUs should come in at 130W TDP, and as an overclocker I am hoping that the Ivy Bridge overheating issues are sorted with the IVB-E processors.
Source: HardwareLUXX, CPU-World
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cjs150 - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
"I am hoping that the Ivy Bridge overheating issues are sorted with the IVB-E processors"Take off the IHS, then the rubbish thermal paste Intel uses. Replace with high quality thermal compound, re-attach IHS. Problem significantly reduced
Kevin G - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
And in the process, your warranty is also voided.ElvenLemming - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
To be fair, technically any overclocking voids your warranty.Razorbak86 - Friday, June 21, 2013 - link
Personally, I don't really care about the warranty. I'm much more interested in the impact of better temperatures on overall performance. I de-lidded my 3770K two weeks ago, replacing the stock TIM with Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra, and I was stunned at how much the temperatures dropped. All four cores now run ~20C cooler than before on the 4.8 GHz offset overclock that I use 24/7, and I can now reach 5.0+ GHz without thermal throttling. I'm very happy with the results, and I would de-lid IVB again in a heartbeat. Once de-lidded, IVB performs exceptionally well in high overclocks.ElvenLemming - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
The TIM isn't the problem, it's actually quite high quality. The problem is the gap caused by the glue holding the IHS to the die. Delidding removes the glue which removes the gap.apinkel - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
It's good to see info on this upcoming release.On the x76 vs. x89 topic.
I'm a software developer. In college I took a COBOL course. When I graduated everyone was saying that in 5, maybe 10, years COBOL would be obsolete. Here we are 25 years later and there are still a lot of fortune 500 companies who are running their businesses on effective, surprisingly flexible COBOL platforms.
I've watched young leaders choose the latest and greatest software solutions instead of using the pre-existing COBOL platform. They believed the tool that made their life easier was in the companies best interest. They usually spent themselves into oblivion trying to integrate and manage their systems in the context of the existing platform.
In looking back on Intel's past history, I trust that they have solid business reasons for choosing the release chipset that they did.
apinkel - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
The big question is always what comes next and when. Until the day of it's actual release, (not just announced, but shipping) there's no way to know. It may be fun to discuss it because it's the stuff that makes this stuff interesting but no one has a crystal ball on these things.Just experiences, insights, decisions and actions. Kinda fun ain't it?
Torchholder - Thursday, June 20, 2013 - link
No core count increase = not interested.ShieTar - Friday, June 21, 2013 - link
Most games still don't really use more than 6 cores. And anybody not into gaming is better of with a Xeon system. Single socket Xeon boards are often even cheaper than the Enthusiast-Boards.Senti - Friday, June 21, 2013 - link
Since when Xeons can be overclocked?And who cares about games? Most non-ancient CPUs will do just fine in them up to the crazy resolutions.