News 6-core Nehalem coming to LGA1366 this year

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/06/10/6-core-nehalem-coming-this-year/1

Sources close to Intel say it will release a 6-core Nehalem derivative in roughly the same timeframe as Lynnfield.

 

It'll be called the i6 at my guess.

Did i read this right? the 6 core CPU will be able to use exactly the same motherboards as the existing i7's?

If so, then that's the obvious update for an i7 rather than a i5.

 

Its good to know that if my i7 ever stops being overkill, I have something to upgrade to without needing to change my motherboard and memory again.

Any plans for a 6-core chip for skt 1156?

 

Intel's approach / line up / naming conventions are looking confusing to be honest.

i7 discontinued, to be replaced by i5 which may actually offer better performance ?

new 6 core chip for the top end... certainly wont be called i6 which implies 'lesser'.

crazy. I actually think it all started to go wrong with the Core Duo and Core2 Duo branding which was also lame.

 

Does any1 know where they got the i7/i5 branding from?

 

Windows 7
Core i7

Just an idea

 

its loosely based on psychological studies "even if the product is pants it sells better with an i in front of it!" only joking

 

As far as I understand it Intel aren't replacing i7 with i5. Only some early i7 chips are being discontinued, new chips will continue to be release under the i7 name. i5 is the new less-hardcore range that should sit under i7. Some of the higher end i5's will no doubt be faster than some of the lower i7's but the i7 architecture overall is more hardcore, what with it having triple channel DDR etc that I believe i5 won't have.

 

So ...

Core Duo = 2 cores

Core 2 Duo = 2 cores

Core 2 Quad = 4 cores

Core i7 = 4 cores / 8 threads

Core i5 (may) = 6 cores?

For high street consumers, the naming scheme is extremely confusing. It's probably as bad, or worse, as NVIDIA's naming schemes.

For example, most high street customers assume that 'Core 2' means 2 cores.

A smaller percentage of consumers think 'Core 2 Duo' means 2 plus 2 cores.

Some people ( not enthusiasts ) think that 'Core i7' means a new cpu with 7 cores.

Intel should completely drop the 'core' branding if the name refers to a chip generation or anything other than the actual number of cores.

I believe NVIDIA and INTEL deliberately seek to confuse the public. So a Core i7 sounds like it has more cores than it actually does. A new NVIDIA graphics card is given a name that prevents most people from realising it is based on old architecture and is no different from another card with a different name.

 

So is that 6 core with hyper threading to 12 simultaneous threads?

 

Yup, 6-core, 12 thread monster.
I believe that the i7 platform will be high-end enthusiast only. i.e. Very expensive.
There will be virtually only extreme chips. They are expensive to make and intel wants its profit margins back.

i5 will be mainstream, with high-end 4 core, 8 thread, and dual channel memory.
low end will be 2 or 4 cores with integrated graphics on chip.
the 4 core ones will come at a later date, on smaller process.
We may see 6 cores on i5, but not for a while.

AMD might get lucky, they have had integrated memory controllers for quite a while now, and adding a third or fourth channel would up the pin count, and give them new success.
Won't happen until a new socket tho, just not enough pins atm...

Gamers may be stuck with 4 core 8 thread chips, and very powerful GPU's (DX11 etc...).
Are we going to be CPU limited because of our budget ?
If a high end i5 is going to limit GPU's in SLi or Crossfire, then what ?
What if even overclocked it stayed CPU limited ?
6-core AMD ?
8-core AMD ?
Not with only two memory channels....6 maybe, but having three cores per memory channel is a little much...large cache will help, but yet again = big chip.

I'm not sure why intel brought in the i7 only to take it way way up to the top only....

 

It's official: Intel hates us all.

 

Wow, did they hire marketing gurus from ReVidia or something? These naming conventions are getting crazy out of hand!

Anyway, apart from that I think their new positioning actually makes some sense. 1156 for the mainstream, 1336 for tech demo/extravagant setups/server applications. Now all they need is a proper way of communicating that, and they'll be fine.

 

Their new lineup will be very balanced... if only they'd get the naming halfway right.
AMD's CPUs are good, no questions asked, but if they don't come up with something as fast as i5 they'll be in major trouble by the end of the year I guess.

 

Looking it up on wikipedia, it seems they went from:

286
386
486
Pentium
Pentium II
Pentium III
Pentium IV
Intel Core
Intel Core 2

then i7 was going to be called Intel Core 3, but changed their mind because apparently calling it i7 makes it easier in the future to distinguish which are the best processors. I am guessing they will give higher numbers to superior processors, for example i8 may be to core i7 what the 45nm core2 chips are to the 65nm core2 chips.

Possibly.

 

Still happy with my E6600
I may upgrade to a Q6700 if I feel I need more CPU power.

 

Who wants 2 more frames in Crysis!? anyone?... no? yeah, me neither

 

Why does core i5 have to be so crappy on the pcie front...either one x16 or 2 x8's....at the moment the pcie control is still on the chipset and has not yet migrated to the cpu (or has it?) I think a core i5 quad running at 5GHz on air with more pcie lanes would be great for gaming for the foreseable future....so can we have chipsets x56 and x57 please.

 

No.
Core i5 is either 4 cores/4 threads or 4 cores/8 threads, depending on the model.
New Core i7 CPUs will be 6 cores/12 threads.

And I completely agree with you: the naming aproach is insane.

 

Lets no forget that the server chips will still be out there and will use the LGA1366 socket...

So as far as upgrading goes, it just means that you have to do a bit more leg work