This was a thought that I had not long ago. Haswell was released almost 2 years ago. Broadwell is on the horizon, along with Skylake. All of this tells me one thing - Intel is running behind on Broadwell. That isn't exactly news. We have probably all heard by now that there were issues with the 14nm process or whatever and that is why Broadwell is going to be released so close in time to Skylake. That is understandable. These things happen. Shrinking is a hard thing to accomplish, so problems are bound to arise every now and then. What strikes me though is that..... no one really cares. I haven't seen any backlash or even anyone really talking about it. This is hinting at something, imo. The enthusiast cpu market doesn't need much progress anymore. The haswell i5s and i7s are enough.
Productivity and the 2011 platform is an entirely different situation though, and not really what I am talking about. Sure, enthusiasts can go to 2011, but what do they gain in terms of actual performance increase, especially in-game? Not much. Now for the professionals, it makes sense, of course. But for gaming, lga1150 is all that you really need.
With the set backs, Intel re-released haswell with the death valley refresh, and updated the platform to z97 for seemingly no reason (though Broadwell support is there). In the midst of all of this, there hasn't really been much of a push back. The reason for no backlash, as far as I can see, is either because they have no real competition anymore in that market space or because better performance is irrelevant for that market space. Are requirements stagnating? Does it just not matter anymore because of a lack of competition?
I think it's a combination of no competition and the fact that as the die shrinks it will be harder and harder to increase performance. Broadwell is a prime example of this. I believe if Intel wanted to they could sell the 5960 for the price of a 5820. But why would they when competition doesn't exist.
And with the push to utilize cores more efficiently both in-game and in other software and in Windows (I am assuming that Microsoft is going to move towards better utilization for multitasking in W10), the need for massive cpu improvements is waning. I really hope to see some more competition in the coming years with the promise of Zen and whatnot. What consumer doesn't want competition?
Honestly I think the big thing is that it took them a while to get 14nm working, if they could have gotten it working earlier then they probably would have gotten it out earlier. Honestly x86 itself it hitting a wall, and with more and more software being made to use multithreading properly the need to ever increasing single thread performance isn't what it used to be. Plus silicon is probably being a limitation too.
I believe in AMD's craftiness. What with Zen returning to SMT cores instead of the Piledriver/Excavator CMT cores, we may see AMD breach the 5Ghz stock clock wall. Complete with AMD Athlon 64 level performance. People really can't bitch about CPU temps when Intel released the I7-4770K which burns hotter than the sun.
In all honesty, If you are running Haswell there is really no reason to upgrade for a while. it does everything pretty well. Broadwell and Skylake are Intel's answer to AMD's APUs.
Remember we have people that are still running 2600ks that are doing amazing even to this day, and that CPU is old as hell. the way processors are getting i don't think there is much innovation to do anymore. Core performance won't be a necessity. the amount of cores is what's going to matter for the future. so speaking as of now, all Intel is doing is continue to make the CPU's much more efficient. as apposed to AMD who is trying to get the Processor and iGPU to work together regardless of heat-output. only time will tell. AMD's failures are their own fault, the only company stopping AMD from succeeding is AMD. no one else.
I do think Intel definitely doesn't see AMD as competition in the slightest, which once again is AMD's own fault. but on a Simlar note i don't think Intel want's AMD to go away, as much as it may seem. Intels best products came cause of AMD's Innovation. and with the FX Zen Processors, I don't think Intel is scared or worried. but they are definitely keeping a close eye on those processors. compared to the way Intel see's AMD's APUs. where they don't really have to do much.
I think AMD innovates in terms of instruction sets such as HSA first and foremost. They may not be on par with Intel from an architectural standpoint but they do excel above them in instruction sets of which I believe is more important long term for strides within technology such as Skynet :)
It seems that also Intel customers will really need Zen to be a success for AMD. Which is also familiar ground historically. Skylake isn't bringing much of anything for the desktop, and its few extra PCIe lanes might be the best of it. (DDR4 isn't worth paying any extra for) Broadwell has gotten irrelevant, but they have to put something out for the sake of appearances.
Yeah, they need to put out Broadwell in order to justify the Z97 release. About Skylake though, last I heard, it was supposed to support both DDR3 and DDR4. That is the biggest thing about it, from what I know.
I found out that I didn't even need to upgrade from my i7 920 to my i7 4770k now almost 2 years ago. with 2 GTX 780s in my x58 PC the FPS difference between that and putting them in the z87 PC was about 2 - 3 FPS. The only noticeable difference between my i7 920 and the 4770k when gaming was I was using ~80 less watts. so when you compare performance per watt the haswell kicks the crap out of my old i7. my old x58 PC is by far the single best investment I have ever made into a PC. I'm still waiting for that thing to hit a wall but it still kills everything I through at it. I cant think of any other time an 7 year old CPU was still useful let alone still pretty awesome. 7 years is going from a P3 to a core 2 duo. lol
I guess on the bright side of things of all this. Intel is saving me a crap load of money by making me not want to build a new PC every 2 or 3 years like I did back in the P4 and AMD x2 days.
Oh my that is beautiful. And that supposed to come out next year. Well I was gonna get a haswell E build in a couple months but man if thats coming out next year I may just wait and see what it is. Heck by that time I'll probably have the choice of boradwell e and normal skylake to chose from too in case this doesn't live up to what I want.
only 3.4Ghz.(the highest clock I could get without over volting and also keeping my ram at 1600) Granted the games I tested at the time were tomb raider, Just cause 2, BF3, Metro last light and hitman. I'm sure if I went and tested GTA5 there might be a bigger gap. if my 2 780s were not sitting in a water cooling loop I would take them out and test them on GTA5 and BF4 but I cant image it being that much different.
I keep my 4770k at stock 3.5Ghz because when I ran all those same tests I was getting maybe 3FPS more with a 4.5GHz OC but an added 15-20c in temps. In a world where I already run at over 100FPS in all the games I play that 3fps was not worth the trade off.
I'd try getv if you can get it to install on it, It only had a 3.2ghz i5 has the recommended requirements you'd probably be fine. Heck most of the 920 I have seen are clocked at 4ghz or just under so you've still got some room if you want to get more from it.
