Next Generation Intel (Sandy Bridge) CPU Shown @ Intel Developer Forum

[ShaidarHaran]

And it hit 4.9GHz on the stock cooler

Finally a reason to upgrade!

[Greasy]

Imagine that on good water.

[nycdarkness]

That stock cooler looks quite beefy compared to the current intel stock coolers.

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by nycdarkness

That stock cooler looks quite beefy compared to the current intel stock coolers.

I believe it's the same as the Gulftown (6-core i7) cooler.

[H001iGAN]

yes its the same exact cooler, does anyone know if the 2011 socket comes out at the same time as the mainstream sockets?

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by H001iGAN

yes its the same exact cooler, does anyone know if the 2011 socket comes out at the same time as the mainstream sockets?

Sadly, it does not. Rumors are not until the 3rd quarter next year, which is up to 1 year from now

I'm going to have some extra money this Christmas, it might just be time to build a new high-end rig. I'm not sure if I'll regret not waiting until socket 2011, but the overclockability on the quad Sandy Bridge parts is downright sick, and I'm a sucker for OC'ability.

[shadow001]

Originally Posted by ShaidarHaran

Sadly, it does not. Rumors are not until the 3rd quarter next year, which is up to 1 year from now

I'm going to have some extra money this Christmas, it might just be time to build a new high-end rig. I'm not sure if I'll regret not waiting until socket 2011, but the overclockability on the quad Sandy Bridge parts is downright sick, and I'm a sucker for OC'ability.

Keep in mind that the motherboards for sandy bridge might be somewhat limited for overclocking though,as it seems they run on a single clock generator,with all the busses running at a multiplier above or below that reference clock.


With the current X58 boards,there's multiple clock generators for each bus protocol(DDR3,QPI,PCI-e,etc..),which allows to set specific values for each one independently....

[Bires]

Anand's review seesm to indicate there is a very good chance that overclocking will be removed from the motherboard-side and the chips will rely on agressive turbo modes.

I've been watching SB for a while now with excitement, since it could have a HUGE power ramp with excellent performance; extremely low power at desktop, ramping up >100W when needed.

[H001iGAN]

I heard only the 2011 socket will be able to overclock using base clock like the x58, is this true?, hopefully it doesn't cot $1000+ for CPU's and 500+ for mobos

[ShaidarHaran]

Looks like access to Bclk adjustments on 1155 socket mobos will be very limited, instead having to rely upon multiplier adjustments. In all honesty that's perfectly fine with me, as long as they don't gimp the multiplier adjustments or force enthusiasts into the $1000 CPU territory in order to overclock. I'm perfectly happy with paying $300 for a CPU if it means I'll have access to significantly more performance than I have now.

[shadow001]

Originally Posted by H001iGAN

I heard only the 2011 socket will be able to overclock using base clock like the x58, is this true?, hopefully it doesn't cot $1000+ for CPU's and 500+ for mobos

Well,the socket itself has a lot more pins and it seems that the 2011 form factor includes a Quad memory channel setup,meaning we install 4 memory modules at a time,rather than 3 with the current X58 boards,so that's more traces to route on the motherboard PCb itself,and maybe even the first single socket boards with 8 memory slots(1 pair for each memory controler).


All else being equal,these boards should be more expensive to make because of the extra materials involved,but i guess just how much will it cost also depends on how much of a fight does AMD's bulldozer put up against the high end sandy bridge chips...We'll see in a year from now.

[Qb2k5]

If the 4.9GHz on air is true than this should be able to handle any 2000 or older MAME 3D game with no issues.

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by Qb2k5

If the 4.9GHz on air is true than this should be able to handle any 2000 or older MAME 3D game with no issues.

This is not an "if it's true" scenario, click the link.

[shadow001]

It's no big deal as i'm already doing 4.5 Ghz on air and it's a CPU with 6 cores + hyperthreading at 32nm(12 threads total),so if anything,the 32nm process is even more refined with sandy bridge than with gulftown,and the 1155 pin versions top out at 4 cores if i'm not mistaken.


The wildcards are the 2011 pin versions,which i'm assuming(could be wrong),that those will have up to 8 cores on one die,considering that intel has 22nm prototypes using 10 cores up and running right now,which is impressive in it's own right,and by the time the need is there to release these 22nm chips,intel has had more than enough time to refine the process,hence these monster overclocks we're seeing.

[ShaidarHaran]

Yeah, if you've already got a Gulftown system the 1155 platform won't offer much of an upgrade, except in terms of single thread performance. Sandy Bridge is purported to be between 10-30% faster than Bloomfield/Lynnfield/Gulftown per thread and with maybe 10-20% more clock headroom it's faster but nothing that will knock your socks off. I'm still on socket 775 with a Core 2 Quad @ 4GHz though, so a 4-core/8-thread Sandy Bridge at around 5GHz should be a nice kick in the pants.

[shadow001]

Originally Posted by ShaidarHaran

Yeah, if you've already got a Gulftown system the 1155 platform won't offer much of an upgrade, except in terms of single thread performance. Sandy Bridge is purported to be between 10-30% faster than Bloomfield/Lynnfield/Gulftown per thread and with maybe 10-20% more clock headroom it's faster but nothing that will knock your socks off. I'm still on socket 775 with a Core 2 Quad @ 4GHz though, so a 4-core/8-thread Sandy Bridge at around 5GHz should be a nice kick in the pants.

My main reason is that i can still use my X58 board with the gulftown simply by flashing the bios,so i got another 700Mhz overclock beyond what my i7 920 could do reliably(was running at 3.8Ghz),to 4.5 Ghz on the gulftown,2 more hardware cores,2 more hyperthreading cores and 50% more L3 cache,and using the same board.



So now i'm good for a long while and let's see what hits the market in a year or 2 from now....Odds are these 1155 boards are going to cost at least 250$ for a good one,and who knows how much will the 2011 socket boards cost,but i wouldn't be too surprised if the better ones cost upwards of 400$,as some of the premium X58 already do right now....

[Qb2k5]

Originally Posted by ShaidarHaran

This is not an "if it's true" scenario, click the link.

Well what I meant was if possible on standard consumer versions. From what I noticed engineering samples always clock better than retail versions. But in the end its pretty impressive to see 4.9Ghz on air though. Hell I get amazed everytime I turn on my pc that I could get 4.2ghz on air easily.

Kinda brings back the time when I first built my first rig and tried to clock the p3 500 to 600mhz.

[Qb2k5]

Originally Posted by shadow001

My main reason is that i can still use my X58 board with the gulftown simply by flashing the bios,so i got another 700Mhz overclock beyond what my i7 920 could do reliably(was running at 3.8Ghz),to 4.5 Ghz on the gulftown,2 more hardware cores,2 more hyperthreading cores and 50% more L3 cache,and using the same board.



So now i'm good for a long while and let's see what hits the market in a year or 2 from now....Odds are these 1155 boards are going to cost at least 250$ for a good one,and who knows how much will the 2011 socket boards cost,but i wouldn't be too surprised if the better ones cost upwards of 400$,as some of the premium X58 already do right now....

Yep, when the X58s first came out they were expensive for a long time. Maybe for a year and a half. 6GB DDR3 packs are still pricey. With the 2011 socket you better believe that thing will be another expensive platform or unless AMD's BullDozer could pull off another Athlon64 vs P4 scenario which I don't see happening. I think the Nehalem family of cpus still offer enough headroom to last another 2-3 years or even longer for highend gamers and for highend productivity purposes like rendering, encoding, folding, and etc. Hell I tried running those 4K videos from YT (I know there not true 4K) and the 920 can run it at 40% without breaking a sweat. Unless game engines require more than 8 threads two years from now I probadly wont upgrade to the SB. But more likely to the gulfttown 6 core cpu, and hold off until the Ivy Bridge comes out.

[{0}Salamander{0}]

I'm after a cheap 6-core Gulftown too, though I refuse to pay more than £250 for a CPU, so the current offering of the i7 970 at £500 is just way too much.

[H001iGAN]

Ivy bridge? what's that. and when?
I just hope my current CPU won't bottleneck any of the future GPU's in SLI.

[shadow001]

Originally Posted by H001iGAN

Ivy bridge? what's that. and when?
I just hope my current CPU won't bottleneck any of the future GPU's in SLI.

That the next architecture after sandy bridge,and it'll likely be using the 22nm process,which intel is already making the initial test samples to fine tune the 22nm process before it goes into mass production late next year,or early in 2012.


As for the second part of your question,it already does,as i fully expect that within the next 2 years,a single GPU card will perform the same or better,than my 2 HD5970's in quad crossfire,meaning a lot more users stuck with a CPU limitation issue,as GPU's keep improving in performance and features at a much faster pace than CPU's do....


The current Cypress is at 2.15 billion transistors at 40nm,well at 22nm,that's almost a 100% increase in transistor budget in terms of physical space requirements for a given die size,meaning a GPU from ATI that within the next 2 years,maybe have well over 4 billion transistors in it,so it'll be much higher performance just on that transistor budget increase alone.


Now imagine using 2~3~4 GPU's of those in either SLI or crossfire and you're hoping that CPU's available at the time can properly feed up to 4 of these monsters....Unlikely.

[Perky McGiggles]

This isn't really OT but I pretty much stopped keeping up with Intel processors after my last upgrade...

So, 1156 and 1366 are effectively dead come next year? Not a big deal for me, just curious as I know at least one person trying to decide on a socket right now.

[shadow001]

Originally Posted by Perky McGiggles

This isn't really OT but I pretty much stopped keeping up with Intel processors after my last upgrade...

So, 1156 and 1366 are effectively dead come next year? Not a big deal for me, just curious as I know at least one person trying to decide on a socket right now.

Everything is pretty much dead to be honest,as i seriously doubt that AMD is going to be milking the AM3 socket yet again,at least when it comes to the high end version of bulldozer,as it's going to compete with the high end version of sandy bridge,it's 2011 pin socket and support for Quad DDR 3 memory configurations.


AM3 only supports dual channel DDR 3 setups,so in theory,bulldozer would be at a large disadvantage in memory bandwith intensive applications...Maybe that G34 socket will get used,which is only used in the server market,and does support quad memory configurations:

Socket G34 is a CPU socket designed by AMD to support AMD's multi-chip module Opteron 6000-series server processors. G34 was launched on March 29, 2010, alongside the initial grouping of Opteron 6100 processors designed for it. Socket G34 supports four DDR3 channels, two for each die in the 1974 pin CPU package. Socket G34 is available in up to four-socket arrangements, which is a change from the current Socket F CPUs supporting up to eight-socket arrangements. However, four Socket G34 CPUs have eight dies, which is identical to what eight Socket F CPUs have. AMD declined to extend Socket G34 to eight-way operation citing shrinking demand of the >4-socket market. AMD is targeting Socket G34 at the high-end two-socket market and the four-socket market. The lower-end two-socket market will be serviced by monolithic-die Socket C32 CPUs with half the core count as the equivalent Socket G34 CPUs.

As for 1156 and 1366 sockets being dead,that's what it looks like,so you either have the choice of getting the best you can right now,or hold on to it and see how the sandy bridge vs bulldozer competition ends up like,and if either performs well enough for the obvious price premiums asked,or what kind of discounts you can get for the current 1156~1366 processors and moherboards by then.

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by Qb2k5

Well what I meant was if possible on standard consumer versions.

Should be, at least on the unlocked "K" models.

Originally Posted by Qb2k5

From what I noticed engineering samples always clock better than retail versions.

Actually the reverse is true. Engineering samples are usually among the first working chips received from the fab, they generally overclock worse than their retail counterparts.

Originally Posted by Qb2k5

But in the end its pretty impressive to see 4.9Ghz on air though. Hell I get amazed everytime I turn on my pc that I could get 4.2ghz on air easily.

Kinda brings back the time when I first built my first rig and tried to clock the p3 500 to 600mhz.

Overclocking is addictive. I've had two of my Core 2 chips @ 4GHz since day one. Can't wait to bust 5GHz, hopefully on air.

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by shadow001

Odds are these 1155 boards are going to cost at least 250$ for a good one,and who knows how much will the 2011 socket boards cost,but i wouldn't be too surprised if the better ones cost upwards of 400$,as some of the premium X58 already do right now....

I disagree. 1155 is the mainstream platform, not the enthusiast platform. Should be able to buy a decent board at launch for $150-$200.

[shadow001]

Originally Posted by ShaidarHaran

I disagree. 1155 is the mainstream platform, not the enthusiast platform. Should be able to buy a decent board at launch for $150-$200.

Check out some of the current 1156 boards as it is.....NCIX lists some at up to 380$ if you want all the bells and whistles and is built for overclocking,such as this one:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS


Prices on motherboards are getting rediculous,but it could be in part due to the price of gold since the traces on the board do get a thin layer of gold to improve electrical conductivity,and the price of gold has shot thru the roof over the last 10 years.


It used to cost about 300$ an ounce 10 years or so ago,now it's up to 1200$ an ounce....

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by shadow001

Check out some of the current 1156 boards as it is.....NCIX lists some at up to 380$ if you want all the bells and whistles and is built for overclocking,such as this one:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS


Prices on motherboards are getting rediculous,but it could be in part due to the price of gold since the traces on the board do get a thin layer of gold to improve electrical conductivity,and the price of gold has shot thru the roof over the last 10 years.


It used to cost about 300$ an ounce 10 years or so ago,now it's up to 1200$ an ounce....

Just because there are expensive boards for sale doesn't mean they're all expensive. You can find 1156 boards for $105 @ Micro Center.

[shadow001]

Originally Posted by ShaidarHaran

Just because there are expensive boards for sale doesn't mean they're all expensive. You can find 1156 boards for $105 @ Micro Center.

True....But it's when you mentioned the word overclocking that things get expensive,since the boards have to be overbuilt beyond the stock specifications to handle that abuse in the first place,and people tend to forget that.


What gets a chip to a given clock isn't just the chip itself,but also the motherboard in question as well,and i think it's a given that 105$ special at microcenter will run just fine at stock,but i'd have my doubts it could handle the loads that that asus extreme could when pushing for the highest possible overclocks,regardless of cooling...

[ShaidarHaran]

Originally Posted by shadow001

True....But it's when you mentioned the word overclocking that things get expensive,since the boards have to be overbuilt beyond the stock specifications to handle that abuse in the first place,and people tend to forget that.


What gets a chip to a given clock isn't just the chip itself,but also the motherboard in question as well,and i think it's a given that 105$ special at microcenter will run just fine at stock,but i'd have my doubts it could handle the loads that that asus extreme could when pushing for the highest possible overclocks,regardless of cooling...

The boards won't have to deal with overclocking anymore, that's all handled @ the CPU level via multiplier adjustments. As for the design of the board needing to be "overbuilt", all the current boards with eleventeen + n power phases are overkill, ask any engineer. All you need is a solid design. I've got 3 Gigabyte EP45-UD3L boards with 3 overclocked Core 2s, two of them @ 4GHz. Those are entry level boards all purchased for $100 or less.

[{0}Salamander{0}]

I hate the way that I will have to junk 2 Intel motherboards within 4 years because the socket's are "out of date".

If only Intel could adopt AMD's stance on AM2 / AM3 etc.