Curious-looking Core i7-3910K LGA2011 Processor Surfaces

[btarunr]

Intel's Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" series may be less than two months away from seeing the light of the day, but in the run up to that, a curious-looking Core i7-3910K "Sandy Bridge-E" part cropped up on roadmaps with retailers. We're pretty sure it's not a typo misread by someone for "i7-3970X," because the list even mentions the S-spec code "SR0TN," which doesn't correspond with the "SR0WR" s-spec code of the i7-3970X.

The Core i7-3910K is based on the same Sandy Bridge-E C2-stepping silicon as the i7-3970X, and is said to feature 3.00 GHz clock speed. There's no clarity on exactly how many cores it features, but given that it's named in the i7-3900 series, and not the i7-3800 series, we're leaning toward it being a six-core part. A bid by Intel to clear out "imperfect" Sandy Bridge-E silicon by giving it a relatively low clock speed? We doubt that, it features the "K" brand extension, which denotes unlocked base-clock multiplier. Intel's cheapest LGA2011 six-core part is the i7-3930K, which goes for roughly US $550. If Intel prices this chip just right, by that we mean $400-ish, it could be a tease for all those shelling out $350 for a Core i7-4770K. Low clock speed, but unlocked. Two extra cores, quad-channel memory, and a bigger PCIe budget, albeit an older micro-architecture. Decisions, decisions.



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[NeoXF]

:O Mainstream 6-core pl0x?

 

[Kaynar]

If it goes for 2/3 of the price of the 3930k but can overclock just as good its going to be a great buy, even if it is "old tech". Just like the old days were 920 and 950 had $200 price gap but could overclock to the same level. I still haven't bought a Haswell system as I am holding off till october, so could this CPU be a game changer for my choice of platform?

 

[dj-electric]

If this CPU will cost the right amount of money it could single-handedly lift LGA2011 socket sales up high

 

[Hood]

If this CPU will cost the right amount of money it could single-handedly lift LGA2011 socket sales up high

Given the price/performance slot this will fill, $440 to $480 would be my guess. Not so cheap as to compete with 4770Ks, not so expensive as to make it irrelevant to those building budget 2011 systems. And slow enough to not make the ones who bought $600 3930Ks and $1000 3960Xs feel like they got ripped off. Still, this should bring more socket 2011 sales, with cheaper motherboards following. And that will tempt a lot of 1155/1150 users to make the jump (me included!).

 

[Sihastru]

Most probably this will be a "let's dump our stock" CPU, just before the next gen is released. So it should be good silicon, since the process matured quite a bit and it's a C2. And that means the overclocking will be just as good as on any 3930K.

Very interested in it, since I found out that the 4900 series does not have an 8-core part. Right now I'm on a 3820, a good "in between" chip, but it's not really up to the LGA2011 enthusiast standards.

Pricing should be great (well, hopefully) for us and stocks will NOT last. So if you're interested in some 6 core action, jump on it right away!

 

[PopcornMachine]

Interesting. I'm Eying the new 4820K as a possible upgrade if I really "need to" build a new computer, but his could be nice too.

All depends on the price.

 

[Darksword]

Interesting part. I've been itching to move from my i7-930 and a 6-core chip that can hit 4.5Ghz would be very tempting if it's priced at $399 MSRP.

 

[MarksmanR]

Seeing how Haswell's out, why don't they just skip Ivy Bridge and go straight for Haswell-E processors? And make them octo-cores while they're at it.

 

[TheHunter]

What will be interesting is power consumption., OC'ed +300w for sure xD