Beans - New Intel Core i7, i5 and i3 pricing and specs leaked

[HEXUS]

Why wait to find out what you'll be paying for the next generation of Intel processors?

Read more.

[Mazzle]

Hmm seems like my plan to buy a 920 D0 Step before they start phasing it out but hopefully drop it to sub £200 price real soon, for me it's still the best bang for buck CPU.

Based solely on the chart from the beans I don't see anything that would entice me down from an i7 aside from the obvious that 3 and 5 are cheaper.

If there are any major differences with 3 and 5 i.e with the 1156 socket with features that the 1366 socket won't have? Could someone enlighten me, I'm a AMD guy so my knowledge is limited to nothing when it comes to Intel lol but I will be joining the dark side within the next month!

[OilSheikh]

Why release a i3 if Quad core has more cores than it? Or is i3 a rebranding of the c2d range with a bit more oomph?

[kalniel]

If there are any major differences with 3 and 5 i.e with the 1156 socket with features that the 1366 socket won't have? Could someone enlighten me, I'm a AMD guy so my knowledge is limited to nothing when it comes to Intel lol but I will be joining the dark side within the next month!

They (as well as the core i7 8xx series) have PCI-Express controllers on the CPU rather than the motherboard, so graphics cards connect directly to the CPU which should give a small performance boost, but more importantly requires a much simpler motherboard design/chips/wiring which will reduce power consumption and cost.

Really tempted by the i7-860, but I'll wait for the p57 chipset methinks.

[scaryjim]

Why release a i3 if Quad core has more cores than it? Or is i3 a rebranding of the c2d range with a bit more oomph?

i3 has a better architecture, onboard memory controller (so more yummy bandwidth) and also introduces hyperthreading, so you can still run 4 simultaneous threads on your dual core processor. There's probably more advantages that I haven't mentioned, but they seem like the pertinent ones to me...

[Terbinator]

The i7 975 & 965 (although not in the list) have a QPI of 6.4 GT/s - as opposed to 4.8 ?

Core i7-975 4/8 3.33 Yes 8 4.8 1366 970 591

[Scott B]

You're right, my mistake, apologies.

[Mblaster]

Confused at how the i7 960 and 950 are the same price while (i think) the only difference is the lower clock speed on the 950?

Also, any reason behind the i7 750 being the only CPU without hyperthreading? I thought they'd keep that the same throughout a product range.

[=assassin=]

The i7 860 seems like a good deal, but the i7 870 price (being nearly double) doesn't make any sense at all.

[funke_munke]

Does anyone else think they totally borked the "simplifying" of their processor ranges? Even I'm lost and I read about these things every day!

[kalniel]

Does anyone else think they totally borked the "simplifying" of their processor ranges? Even I'm lost and I read about these things every day!

It's hugely illogical to system builders, but then we're informed enough to work around these things. It's clearer to the consumer however - they don't care what kind of socket the motherboard is, they just want a brand and a clear indication of performance, and in this instance that's what they've got - Core i7 is faster than Core i5 is faster than Core i3.

[shaithis]

Will any of the 9xx series be on 32nm?

[kalniel]

Will any of the 9xx series be on 32nm?

Gulftown is the 32nm replacement for 9xx, but they'll add a couple of cores at the same time.

There won't be any quad core 32nm chips, only dual and hex-core.

[shaithis]

Thanks for the info but that sure as hell leaves me in a dilema.....

2 cores seems to few, 6 a tad overkill....not to mention I would assume they will have some premium pricetag for 6 cores *sigh*

[kalniel]

Thanks for the info but that sure as hell leaves me in a dilema.....

You're telling me.

Seems like they're starting off a new socket in 1156 with loads of promise for people wanting just enough performance but on a budget, then saying: bang.. here's your chip - it's downhill from now and we won't offer anything better. If you're serious about wanting performance then you can pay for it, go to 1366, and get more than you wanted. Otherwise be happy with our nice low power chips with integrated graphics

It's almost inviting AMD to come up with a sub-extreme level performance chip.. but they don't seem to have anything in the locker ready for it.

[=assassin=]

There won't be any quad core 32nm chips, only dual and hex-core.

There will be eventually Just not until 2011, and only possibly Q4 2010 at the very earliest (but unlikely).