Intel X79 enthusiast chipset details leaked, scheduled for Q4

[Jos]

Chinese site it.com.cn has managed to get their hands on an alleged Intel slide outlining the company's next platform for enthusiasts. According to the roadmap, the successor to the popular X58 platform carries the X79 moniker and will arrive in the final quarter of 2011 -- three years after the former's debut. The upcoming platform will seat four-core and six-core Sandy Bridge-E processors and bring several improvements in connectivity as well as memory bandwidth.

The platform will feature the LGA 2011 socket (yes, another one) and see the PCI-E hub moved from the northbridge to the processor die -- much like with the P67. The X79 chipset (or platform controller hub) also gets a DMI connection to the processor but supplements this with an additional PCI-Express 2.0 x4 link to the processor's PCI-E hub, for a total bandwidth of 8GB/s to support the integrated 10-port SATA 6Gbps controller plus four 3Gbps ports.

By comparison, current high-end 6-series chipsets only get two-port 6Gbps SATA beside four 3Gbps ports. Eight of the SATA 6Gbps ports can be set up as SAS (serial-attached SCSI), and RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 are also supported. There's no talk of an integrated USB 3.0 controller or Thunderbolt for that matter, but the PCH still features 14 USB 2.0 ports.

Boards based on the X79 will allow for two PCI-Express x16 @ x16 or four PCIe x16 @ x8 slots and are set to have at least four DDR3 slots since Sandy Bridge E CPUs work with quad-channel memory. Other features include an integrated Lewisville gigabit Ethernet PHY chip and audio codec with support for dual stream HDMI and DP audio. Lastly, the slides mention overclocking capabilities for the processor and memory, which is expected for this enthusiast platform.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/43058-intel-x79-enthusiast-chipset-details-leaked-scheduled-for-q4.html

 

[Guest]

Yes, I can finally replace my good old Q6600 and P35 Combo

 

[spydercanopus]

The CPU integrated northbridge sounds exciting. Not only will they be far faster for graphics, but the simpler motherboard design can utilize the awesome power of CPU coolers for better stability.

 

[Cueto_99]

Another socket? Can't believe every time Intel brings out a new CPU series they need a new platform... just remember, people on a budget do prefer to upgrade...

 

[dedparrot]

i think i'll be rocking my X58 for another couple of years at least, until i see my i7 920 quite inadequate for the then crop of games, to play them at medium graphics.

 

[cyriene]

It is another socket but this is the successor to X58 which has been 3 years which is a decent amount of time in the pc world. Those on a budget should not be looking at this line of chipset anyway.

 

[DokkRokken]

Another socket? Can't believe every time Intel brings out a new CPU series they need a new platform... just remember, people on a budget do prefer to upgrade...

I guess Intel determined that the people who buy this sort of platform are generally the type to go all out, and buy everything new. It's not a platform geared to people that are on a budget anyways; that's the duty of the P/H67.

 

[gwailo247]

dedparrot said:
i think i'll be rocking my X58 for another couple of years at least, until i see my i7 920 quite inadequate for the then crop of games, to play them at medium graphics.

+1

Gotta say for being a few years old its still a bad-*** processor.

But I miss upgrading computers, these days you pretty much have to buy a brand new rig.

 

[dividebyzero]

DokkRokken said:

Another socket? Can't believe every time Intel brings out a new CPU series they need a new platform... just remember, people on a budget do prefer to upgrade...

I guess Intel determined that the people who buy this sort of platform are generally the type to go all out, and buy everything new. It's not a platform geared to people that are on a budget anyways; that's the duty of the P/H67.

Precisely.
X79 (previously X68) is a successor to X58, which came to market in November 2008.
So unless someone upgraded to X58, then downgraded to P55, then again upgraded back to the relative performance of X58 again with the P67, I doubt many(if any) people would be too inconvenienced...it also doesn't sound like someone with budgetry constraints.

If you're thinking budget then X79 isn't probably for you- likewise, if you were in the X79's upgrade demographic you would in all likelihood have been aware of the socket change.

In short; If you hadn't heard of X79 or Sandy Bridge-EN then you probably have no need for it.

 

[DDG4005]

Looking at some of the posts here makes me feel way behind the curve. I'm still sporting two P45 chipset-powered motherboards and Core 2 Quad processors (3GHz) in both my boxes. My machines can still run all the lastest games with nary a hiccup though (after upgrading to GTX 560 Ti video cards) so I'm not planning on upgrading or building a new box for awhile.

Besides I'm still waiting for a chipset that included the 3x3x3 feature set: SATA 6G, PCI-Express 3.0, and USB 3.0.

 

[leondobr]

I shudder to think what they'll charge for an unlocked processor for this board and the board itself based on the pricing differentials in the 5x generation. And the features don't look like all that much more than you get with a decent P67 board. The P67 is beyond overkill for me.

A thousand dollar processor and new, expensive motherboard will be a tough sell without the 3x3x3 features, especially considering how incredibly powerful a P67 board with easily max overclocked a 2600k processors is.

It'll surely be better, but by how much? I usually upgrade my best machine, but this time I'll be taking a hard look at price. For once, I may skip a 'tick'.

 

[Guest]

Quote

dividebyzero
on March 30, 2011
7:34 PM

then again upgraded back to the relative performance of X58 again with the P67,

/Quote

I lol@this post

P67 slaughters X58

X58 owners can only dream about stuff like this:

http://i56.tinypic.com/nwc6qw.png


It isn't 2009 anymore, get out of your cave

 

[DDG4005]

leondobr said:
I shudder to think what they'll charge for an unlocked processor for this board and the board itself based on the pricing differentials in the 5x generation. And the features don't look like all that much more than you get with a decent P67 board. The P67 is beyond overkill for me.

A thousand dollar processor and new, expensive motherboard will be a tough sell without the 3x3x3 features, especially considering how incredibly powerful a P67 board with easily max overclocked a 2600k processors is.

It'll surely be better, but by how much? I usually upgrade my best machine, but this time I'll be taking a hard look at price. For once, I may skip a 'tick'.

I don't think it would cost much more than the P67 chipset although its power usage could be higher.

 

[dividebyzero]

Quote

dividebyzero
on March 30, 2011
7:34 PM

then again upgraded back to the relative performance of X58 again with the P67,

/Quote

I lol@this post

P67 slaughters X58

Well, no it doesn't actually. The P67 chipset lacks some degree of functionality in comparison with the X58 chipset. For instance, many enthusiasts use Crossfire or SLI...and many enthusiasts would also use a SATA6Gb boot drive -or more. It is releatively easy to accomodate both on virtually any rev.2 X58 board- not so with a P67 unless you introduce latency into the system with a bridge chip.
I would also note that every LGA1366 CPU is overclockable to the degree that the binning process and board's build allows. LGA1155 is limited to two SKU's -the 2600K and 2500K
So, yes. Relative performance.
Of course if you just wanted an excuse to show a screen, then here's one showing a process that a "P67" can't compete with (feel free to argue the point with the rest of the world)

 

[LinkedKube]

I've decided to skip the next socket release unless amd pulls something out of an elephant's back end. The only thing I can see of need is a bluray burner.

 

[slamscaper]

dividebyzero said:

Quote

dividebyzero
on March 30, 2011
7:34 PM

then again upgraded back to the relative performance of X58 again with the P67,

/Quote

I lol@this post

P67 slaughters X58

Well, no it doesn't actually. The P67 chipset lacks some degree of functionality in comparison with the X58 chipset. For instance, many enthusiasts use Crossfire or SLI...and many enthusiasts would also use a SATA6Gb boot drive -or more. It is releatively easy to accomodate both on virtually any rev.2 X58 board- not so with a P67 unless you introduce latency into the system with a bridge chip.
I would also note that every LGA1366 CPU is overclockable to the degree that the binning process and board's build allows. LGA1155 is limited to two SKU's -the 2600K and 2500K
So, yes. Relative performance.
Of course if you just wanted an excuse to show a screen, then here's one showing a process that a "P67" can't compete with (feel free to argue the point with the rest of the world)

+1. Couldn't agree more. X58 is a better choice for tri and quad-GPU setups as it features 40 native PCIe lanes compared to p67's 16.

X58 is also a better choice for those looking for the absolute best multi-threading performance. The 990x is currently the fastest desktop CPU when running properly threaded software.

 

[leondobr]

No argument that the unlocked Gulftown with insane cooling can handle more threads a little faster. And the next 'Tick' will have even more cores and some new features. Enthusiasts, me included, will want it.

The question that is open is whether it will be seen as a major upgrade like the X58 was, and be as popular as the X58. The basic overclocked P67 with 2600k blows away the average overclocked X58 with unlocked Gulftown on air or water cooling at less than one third the price. There's a thermal brick wall for the 5x generation just above 4GHz that standard cooling just can't surmount.

For me, I'm going to want to see a big performance advantage in the X79 generation with air or water cooling to spend big bucks.

 

[fpsgamerJR62]

"Boards based on the X79 will allow for two PCI-Express x16 @ x16 or four PCIe x16 @ x8 slots and are set to have at least four DDR3 slots since Sandy Bridge E CPUs work with quad-channel memory" - What's so great about that ? My 2-year old MSI K9A2 Platinum V2 790FX board can do that stuff too albeit with dual-channel DDR2 memory.

 

[dividebyzero]

There's a thermal brick wall for the 5x generation just above 4GHz that standard cooling just can't surmount.

Really ?
The Xeon X5698 (Westmere-EP -LGA1366) ships with a stock 4.4GHz clock.

And to answer your next post...Yes, Xeon E/L/W/X series processors are compatible with some X58 boards -the Asus P6T7 WS being an example.

Core i7 990X, 980X and 970 are CPU's that failed the test to become Xeon W/X series.

"Boards based on the X79 will allow for two PCI-Express x16 @ x16 or four PCIe x16 @ x8 slots and are set to have at least four DDR3 slots since Sandy Bridge E CPUs work with quad-channel memory" - What's so great about that ? My 2-year old MSI K9A2 Platinum V2 790FX board can do that stuff too albeit with dual-channel DDR2 memory.

Your board has PCI-E 3.0 lane specification ?
You don't think that maybe quad channel DDR3-1866 isn't significant step up from dual channel DDR2-1066 ?
You might also note that X79 natively supports SATA6Gb...and I doubt that the X79 PCH comes anywhere close to the running joke that the SB600 is.
Of course there's a few other relevant differences too, such as the probable ONFI 3.0 interface

 

[leondobr]

The Xeon X5698 (Westmere-EP -LGA1366) ships with a stock 4.4GHz clock.

Yes, but with only two processors enabled.

I certainly hope that this next generation has enough new stuff, more processors, more memory channels, more speed, etc, so that I can justify buying it. I'm just saying that the P67 will be a tough act to follow for any but the most rabid enthusiasts with the deepest pockets.

 

[dividebyzero]

I certainly hope that this next generation has enough new stuff, more processors, more memory channels, more speed, etc, so that I can justify buying it. I'm just saying that the P67 will be a tough act to follow for any but the most rabid enthusiasts with the deepest pockets.

Think of X79 as P67 with a few more bells and whistles and you won't be far from the mark. Chipsets (and boards) aren't revolutionary by nature- more evolutionary.
P35 wasn't greatly removed from the earlier 975X, and P45 is little different from X38/48, nor P55/P67 from X58.
The primary difference for X79 is the ability to insert a six or eight core (12 or 16 thread) Sandy Bridge CPU into the socket, which will not be the case for P67/Z68. Think of the quad-channel memory support and the extra I/O connectivity as "added value", and while it may not seem like much of a trade off -at first glance- for an enthusiast chipset, bear in mind a couple of points:
1. Enthusiast boards/chipsets have never been inexpensive and making the feature list more comprehensive won't speed up adoption. Having to buy a 4-DIMM RAM kit on top of a likely expensive CPU won't help matters. For the ones who don't care there's the Asus Rampage IV Extreme, Gigabyte X79A-UD9 and 2P server boards.
2. Compare the differences to AMD's 990X/FX chipset with the 890FX/GX, and spare a thought for ( CPU aside) the "added value" that chipset upgrade brings.

 

[dividebyzero]

Rumour mill time.
VR-Zone are reporting that SNB-E launch is being pushed out to January. So it would seem that Intel still see Sandy Bridge (P67/Z68/H61 etc) and Gulftown (X58) as being viable for the foreseeable future (i.e current CPU's and higher clocked models to come).
Reading between the lines it would also seem that Intel is not rushing to get Sandy Bridge-E into the marketplace to combat the (possible) imminent arrival of Bulldozer...which might say as much about BD's performance as it does Sandy Bridge-E.

IMO I would discount any process problems with releasing SNB-E, since it is an incremental advance on a fairly mature series and the motherboard vendors seem close to showtime judging by the offerings at Computex.