Intel Core i7-5820K Features Fewer PCI-Express Lanes After All

[lilhasselhoffer]

That is definitely one way of looking at it. However, another way of looking at is as follows:

The entry level quad core Sandy Bridge-E Core i7 3820 was locked (or partially locked as some have referred to it) and its successor the entry level quad core Ivy Bridge-E Core i7 4820K was unlocked and deserving of the "k" designation. Finally the 6 core Haswell-E 5820K will presumably also be deserving of the "k" nomenclature.

Each entry level part had a slightly different approach and could just as easily been the result of experimentation and uncertainty.

The Core i7 3820 was delayed and thus not released with the 3930K / 3960X. It also had a slightly different core design but my initial impression was that Intel was trying to decide how to best gimp the ~$300 product.


As for competing with ones self, if there is no competition from another company in this segment of the market then Intel is indeed competing with themselves. Beyond that point, the market is IMO a bit crowded and it's crowded with Intel parts. Perhaps Intel will discontinue some additional processors or sort it out some other way. Or perhaps they will simply allow some overlap in pricing, we will see but it only really matters to those willing to pony up for it,....to all else it's purely academic.

Also one small point, even if there were some overlap with the same pricing for two or more chips, the X99 / LGA2011-3 platform would likely still be more expensive based on X99 motherboard pricing and DDR4 RAM pricing. Given this likely eventuality perhaps price overlap on two or more different processors is a bit more forgivable from Intel's perspective.

Again we will see soon enough,...

Agreed. All of your points are fair and valid. What I keep coming back to is that Intel is run by intelligent people. We both seem to be making that assumption.

Going by that assumption, you've still got to explain the 4820. The 3820 coming later to the party is a reasonable point to bring up. Intel deciding how best to gimp an already gimped chip (having two cores lasered off is gimped in my book) is nothing new for this industry.

I concede that this would be the logical point for a paradigm shift in what entry level enthusiast chips offer. Intel is switching up a bunch of what they are doing, so one more switch shouldn't matter too much. My problem then becomes Broadwell.


Let's say it's 6 months down the line. Broadwell on the mainstream platform launches. If the 5820 is still around and unlocked there are only two possibilities. The 5770 (or whatever they call the high-end mainstream offering) starts to compete with the 5820. Yes there is a generational gap, but most people will overlook a 10% increase in IPC for 50% more cores and more PCI-e.

So tell me, Intel is competing with a superior platform against their own less superior platform. The only way that could fly is if the 5770 were also 6 core, and even then it'd be a question of same price, but better features on the enthusiast platform.

Do you see how an unlocked entry level enthusiast platform price competing with the mainstream high end offering screws everything up that Intel has built over the past four years? Why would anyone at Intel believe this is a rational decision?


This is why I'm reasonably certain that entry level 2011-3 options aren't going to hit the $300 option. Spin it however you must, but they aren't going to scalp sales of their high end mainstream options in order to sell entry level enthusiast platforms. They've proven that they'll take the hit on delivered performance, in order to make sure they don't have to compete with themselves. Why would they sacrifice even more sales in the future?



I can see one situation in which I am wrong. They could pursue this pricing if 80% of their chips were binned with a slightly defective PCI-e root complex. Sell off all the defective units at competing prices, to prevent chip loss. They could do this while refining the process for better yields, and slowly phase out the 5820 as production no longer had problems with producing the large PCI-e root complex.

Of course, this assumption is based upon Haswell and Broadwell being a particularly bad turning point for the process of CPU development. The point at which we'll see an even more dramatic slow-down of performance gains per generation than we already have. Moore's law is great, but we're a bit behind on it. I guess Moore didn't really factor in the eventual issues of quantum physics...


On that note, I'm done. This debate is fun and all, but we'll see exactly what Intel has decided upon soon enough. To that end, you've got the last words in the discussion.

 

[dj-electric]

400$ confirmed btw for the 5820K, a store has started pre-selling here.

 

[vega22]

Does that mean that either of you don't feel the money you spent on your computer was worth it? I don't know about everyone else, but I'm still perfectly content with my 3820 and I definitely don't feel my money was wasted or that I was screwed in the process. Overall progress might be screwed, but I don't think my purchase from several years ago was.

i think all 3 of my latest systems are worth the money dude. that being said my current system cost less than one of these 8 core chips if it was back on air cooling...ok it might only have half the cpu power. but a cpu sat in a box aint doing nothing anyway...

 

[Dan848]

You say HEDT is being revived by Intel, from being what? Expensive? New features being released before the mainstream platforms>?

I don't think it is, at least for gaming enthusiasts. The platform is many things for many users, but speed and overclocking isn't one of them.

And, $200 dollars is incorrect, he will have to purchase a new motherboard and CPU at the very least if he opts for the 4790K [and will reuse his DDR-3 RAM if that is what he has], and if he has an OEM version of Windows he will have to purchase a new copy of that as well. A very good CPU 12 phase motherboard alone will cost ~ $250 for X97.