Intel's eight core plans revealed

[Archean]

Intel's eight core plans revealed

While Intel is about to release some of the first processors based on its Haswell-E specifications, it is starting to look like they will not be the eight core fiestas expected.

Of the three Haswell-E Core i7 CPUs expected, only one of them, the Core i7-5960X, will actually come with 8 cores, and that is the one which will cost an arm and a leg to buy.

The Core i7-5960X and the other two, the i7-5930K and i7-5820K, will contain only six cores.


Just as a side note, selling your arm & leg will only buy you a 'top end processor for one year'

 

[LNCPapa]

Yeah... this was rumored a while back and as I said back then it would prevent me from upgrading if it held true. Not paying $1k for a CPU but was willing to pay up to $600 for an 8-core 16-thread chip from Intel. Guess I can spend all the money I've been saving for my new build on a pair of GTX 880 when they come out - as long as the price isn't too disgusting on those.

 

[Archean]

IF OC potential is good enough I think 5820 may be a good value for the money. The money saved can be utilized for getting couple of 880s.

 

[LNCPapa]

The reason I won't be going that route @Archean is that would provide a short term stop-gap. The price of the X chip (5960/5970) won't drop below $1k and every other chip will be 6 core. You'll have to go to a new mobo to get all the features of these new chips and when the 69xx series of chips launches you'll probably need another new mobo to support all of those features made available. We can always use more PCI-E lanes and I'm betting that will increase with the 69xx chips. Going with the 5820 gets you into the 6-core 12-thread world but at the expense of lasting for just the one generation. That's my issue with this but it may not be anything that would deter you. Also, I'm a bit upset with Intel if this is true as they've always only differentiated the x930K, the x960X, and the x970X by clock speed. As far as I can remember off the top of my head this is the first time it hasn't been the case.