Monday, November 26th 2018
14nm 6th Time Over: Intel Readies 10-core "Comet Lake" Die to Preempt "Zen 2" AM4
If Intel's now-defunct "tick-tock" product development cadence held its ground, the 14 nm silicon fabrication node should have seen just two micro-architectures, "Broadwell" and "Skylake," with "Broadwell" being an incrementally improved optical shrink of 22 nm "Haswell," and "Skylake" being a newer micro-architecture built on a then more matured 14 nm node. Intel's silicon fabrication node advancement went off the rails in 2015-16, and 14 nm would go on to be the base for three more "generations," including the 7th generation "Kaby Lake," the 8th generation "Coffee Lake," and 9th generation "Coffee Lake Refresh." The latter two saw Intel increase core-counts after AMD broke its slumber. It turns out that Intel won't let the 8-core "Coffee Lake Refresh" die pull the weight of Intel's competitiveness and prestige through 2019, and is planning yet another stopgap, codenamed "Comet Lake."
Intel's next silicon fabrication node, 10 nm, takes off only toward the end of 2019, and AMD is expected to launch its 7 nm "Zen 2" architecture much sooner than that (debuts in December 2018). Intel probably fears AMD could launch client-segment "Zen 2" processors before Intel's first 10 nm client-segment products, to cash in on its competitive edge. Intel is looking to blunt that with "Comet Lake." Designed for the LGA115x mainstream-desktop platform, "Comet Lake" is a 10-core processor die built on 14 nm, and could be the foundation of the 10th generation Core processor family. It's unlikely that the underlying core design is changed from "Skylake" (circa 2016). It could retain the same cache hierarchy, with 256 KB per core L2 cache, and 20 MB shared L3 cache. All is not rosy in the AMD camp. The first AMD 7 nm processors will target the enterprise segment and not client, and CEO Lisa Su in her quarterly financial results calls has been evasive about when the first 7 nm client-segment products could come out. There was some chatter in September of a "Zen+" based 10-core socket AM4 product leading up to them.
Source:
HotHardware
Intel's next silicon fabrication node, 10 nm, takes off only toward the end of 2019, and AMD is expected to launch its 7 nm "Zen 2" architecture much sooner than that (debuts in December 2018). Intel probably fears AMD could launch client-segment "Zen 2" processors before Intel's first 10 nm client-segment products, to cash in on its competitive edge. Intel is looking to blunt that with "Comet Lake." Designed for the LGA115x mainstream-desktop platform, "Comet Lake" is a 10-core processor die built on 14 nm, and could be the foundation of the 10th generation Core processor family. It's unlikely that the underlying core design is changed from "Skylake" (circa 2016). It could retain the same cache hierarchy, with 256 KB per core L2 cache, and 20 MB shared L3 cache. All is not rosy in the AMD camp. The first AMD 7 nm processors will target the enterprise segment and not client, and CEO Lisa Su in her quarterly financial results calls has been evasive about when the first 7 nm client-segment products could come out. There was some chatter in September of a "Zen+" based 10-core socket AM4 product leading up to them.
123 Comments on 14nm 6th Time Over: Intel Readies 10-core "Comet Lake" Die to Preempt "Zen 2" AM4
240hz is a niche within high refresh rate gaming, which already is a niche in PC gaming and for many crossplatform titles, even PC gaming is a niche of the overall sales number in games. And it requires, as you have said, sacrifices. Either in resolution, in the total build cost, in the choice of monitor (TN only) and even in IQ. And all of that for questionable benefits the vast majority won't ever see, despite your fixation on how smooth a mouse pointer floats on a screen. Again: you are massively in the realm of diminishing returns, which translates as lots of effort and high cost for minimal benefits.
Get this : if 4K displays, which are undoubtedly significantly more common than 240hz screens, make up just 1.3 % how many 240hz users you reckon are out there ? Millions ?
But go on, maintain your conviction that 240hz is a big thing and it is on everyone's list of top priories.
You're right you don't have to like something to appraise it, but not having even experienced it proper is another matter entirely. At that point you're just blurting random nonsense. Do you even know who developed Horizon Zero Dawn? And what do you pretend to know about that studio?
Last but not least, because this is obviously very offtopic here, but yes, the face of gaming changed, and if you think it is getting worse, it just means the appeal is wearing off for you. I've gone through these mood swings myself when it comes to gaming, and the only right approach is to open up once again and broaden your horizon. The amount of games that exists now is ridiculously diverse, if you say gaming hasn't improved, you've just got blinders on or don't know where to look. Take that as a piece of advice rather than criticism: its still possible to find fantastic games, but only if you WANT to see it.
That's pretty much what it means and no, i won't, i'll keep my standards as high as the first day i've started with videogames, and luckily not everything is garbage, and i'm fine with 1 or 2 titles per year.
Its like all other things that get fashionable from time to time, its a cycle of endless repetition and reinventing the same wheel over and over and over again. The fact you can't see that shows how fine that eye of yours really is. Food for thought ?
Anyway we're much offtopic and that's partly my fault, i'd say it's best if we end it here.
IMO this thing's not happening, unless Intel already knows(from inside sources) that Zen2 is a monster with super high clocks & higher core count, than the current lineup.
And i dont think the goal is to max out. I mean... the only reason why you cant max out with such a card these days is because game manufacturers push the graphics towards the maximum resources available at the time. Perhaps even beyond that.
I read an article once about someone with the same desease as you, called FPS desease... wait no... what you have is some kind of hybrid form of FPS and Herts desease. lol
Any way... get rid of the 240Hz... and stop wanting to max everything out. Gaming isnt about best graphics or highest frame/Hz rate, its about good graphics/FPS/Hz without breaking the bank and enjoy the game while you're at it.
greets
8 years later and 144hz is a thing. 240hz is going the same way. It has advantages and objectively offers a better experience. A good 240hz monitor costs 270€ (AW2518HF), wich doesn´t break the bank at all and you can run Overwatch, CS, Fortnite, Warframe, Quake Champions and other titles with a RX580 1080p Medium/high settings with 160+fps. You are the typical "I don´t have it nor want to have it nor have money to have it, thus no one should have it too because is useless" type of guy. And everything needs to go accordingly your own bubble/world. Anything outside of it is "unecessary". Typical.
As a kid I was already overclocking CRTs to 85hz and 100hz. Refresh rates are a thing and they defo change your experience for the best. Wether or not you want it, that´s up to you, but don´t go on saying that no one needs that specially when it doesn´t break any bank.
If you can´t spot the obvious increased motion clarity and smoothness, then you must be doing something wrong. Now imagine with you controlling the game with your mouse.
As for this 10-core: it doesn't make sense to release a 10core die with Dual channel RAM and iGPU IMO so I think it is fake. But if it is true then this will run so hot the Earth's atmosphere is in serious danger of being ignited and burned away by people overclocking these things. Maybe intel really is scared of Zen2, which I believe will match Intel core to core due to superior IPC and similar clock speeds - but also vastly superior efficiency.Actually if I remember correctly the '8 core' Piledriver CPU has 16 ALU, because each 'integer execution unit' (AMD called them Cores) has two ALU and two AGU.
Come on intel, its time to come with something new insted of repacking old tech. I mean 14 NM came out in 2014 for mobile and 2015 for desktop/server and now most of 2019 now also will be 14 NM. That 4 years in total on the same die shrink. Guess im gonna stay X58 for 2019 as well then. Im not gonna upgrade before intel get there 10 NM out, cause yeah well we will not see a desent improve ment in CPU performance before a new die shrink.
So I7 980X you get another yeah of torture and abuse muha muhahaha (insert evil face here).
Good thing that's in the past now.