I've had a really fun time reading this thread. I think everyone needs to take a deep breath (or drink a beer,) and calm down.
First of all, this is a mainstream platform, so lets define "mainstream."
Google says,
Google said:
n. the ideas, attitudes, or activities that are regarded as normal or conventional; the dominant trend in opinion, fashion, or the arts.
So mainstream would be what the average consumer needs out of a device and traditionally there have been a couple things that the general public wants (in general):
- Faster devices
- Smaller form factors
- Extended battery life (mobile.)
- Lower total cost of ownership.
The way that Intel has gone after all of these fairly well by improving IPC from generation to generation with a general increase in clocks up to ~3.6-4Ghz on average, smaller manufacturing processes allow for lower voltages which benefits ULV devices (such as xxxx-U series Intel CPUs on laptops,) and by improving the iGPU there is very little need for
the mainstream user to need more than what Intel is providing on chip.
So yes, Intel is doing a great job producing a mainstream chip. The problem that people like
@Mindweaver has is that he wants his needs from a computer to be mainstream needs, which probably isn't realistic given the kinds of users here at TPU. So while I know that I would want a cheap mainstream chip that runs at high clocks, has a lot of cores and, doesn't have a GPU, that's not realistic for the average consumer or business which is what Intel is trying to target.
...and for what it's worth, I would consider myself a power user considering what I do in my free time as well as being a software engineer professionally but, when push comes to shove even people like me don't always need a super powerful machine. I'm writing this on a laptop with a 4700HQ. It's a laptop, I do laptop like things on it, I even dev on it but, when push comes to shove, if I need more power I use a server which is venturing outside of what would be considered mainstream as I suspect most normal users aren't writing applications or libraries.
Personally, I think this is in line with what Intel has been trying to achieve and that's taking over the iGPU market while reducing TDP on mobile devices. That is what the average consumer wants, so that is what we will get. It's really as simple as that... and if you don't like it, you can always pay for a pair of Xeons just like businesses do.
tl;dr: We users here at TPU are probably the furthest from the definition of mainstream users but, even us power users don't always need maximum performance. Intel is merely catering to the masses and you shouldn't get too upset because we are the minority. Intel cares about businesses that need long battery life on laptops and slim/cheap/fast workstations and that your run of the mill user wants a computer that simply works. I want a cheap 100 core CPU just as much as the next person but, the reality is that we're confined to dealing with what the masses need or coughing up the dough for what businesses pay for servers. Thats simply reality because more will always cost you.
That's what a forum is, is a place to discuss our hobby!
Ok now my wife is calling my name.. lol