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Intel Haswell CPUs Debut, Put To the Test
jjslash writes "Intel's Haswell architecture is finally available in the flagship Core i7-4770K and Core i7-4950HQ processors. This is a very volatile time for Intel. In an ARM-less vacuum, Intel's Haswell architecture would likely be the most amazing thing to happen to the tech industry in years. Haswell mobile processors are slated to bring about the single largest improvement in battery life in Intel history. In graphics, Haswell completely redefines the expectations for processor graphics. On the desktop however, Haswell is just a bit more efficient, but no longer much faster when going from one generation to another." Reader wesbascas puts some numbers on what "just a bit" means here: "Just as leaked copies of the chip have already shown, the i7-4770K only presents an incremental ~10% performance increase over the Ivy Bridge-based Core i7-3770K. Overclocking potential also remains in the same 4.3 GHz to 4.6 GHz ballpark."
With AMDs CPU/GPU solutions?
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It's an interesting addition which can be useful for some.
But when it comes to general performance improvement it's rather disappointing. Looks like they have fine tuned the current architecture without actually adding something that increases the performance at the same rate as we have seen the last decades. To some extent it looks like we have hit a ceiling in increased performance with the current overall computer architecture and that new approaches are needed. The clock frequency is basically the same as for the decade old P4, the number of running cores on a chip seems to be limited too, at least compared to other architectures.
One interesting path for improving performance that may be useful is what Xilinx has done with their Zynq-7000 which combines ARM cores with FPGA, but it will require a change in the way computers are designed.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
A more immediately useful feature is backwards-compatible hardware lock elision. Before taking a lock, you emit an instruction which is a NOP for older CPUs but causes Haswell to ignore the lock and create an implicit transaction. Instant scalability improvement to just about every app out there with contention, without having to distribute Haswell-specific binaries.
My favorite feature, though, is scatter/gather support for SIMD. Scatter/gather is very important because up until now loading memory from several locations for SIMD use has been a pain in the ass involving costly shuffles and often requires you to load more than you actually immediately wanted, possibly forcing you to spill registers. It's really not something you want to do, but sometimes there are no good alternatives. I'll be super interested to see benchmarks taking this into account.
This was the giveaway.
What do you care if there are still people who would rather use a desktop PC that's not behind a garden wall and actually get work done? Why do you insist that the PC platform has to be killed off? Isn't there room in the world for more than one set of computing needs?
This notion, that only the most popular form of anything should exist pops up strangely often around here. The iPad is phenomenal, so Android tablets should just disappear from the market. The iPhone is popular so no Windows phones can be allowed. That sort of thing.
Friend, I can understand that you'd rather work on a tablet and have someone else make decisions about what you can and cannot have, what you can and cannot do, but why in the world are you so insistent that no one else be able to make their own choice?
I don't get you.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Anandtech tested it, idle power is down probably due to the new voltage regulator (FIVR) but active power.... 113% the performance for 111.8% so performance per watt is essentially unchanged. If what you need is CPU power then you're better off waiting for a IVB-E hex-core in Q3, in threaded applications a quad-core Haswell won't touch a hex-core Ivy Brigde - it's trailing Sandy Bridge hex-cores as well. If you're not interested in the graphics or battery life, it's a giant yawn.
That said, the GT3e graphics for mobile looks to carve out a solid niche in the notebook market, the R-series desktop processors (GT3e graphics, BGA only) is probably compelling for AIOs that don't have room for graphics upgrades anyway and the lower idle wattage should be good for all laptops with Haswell graphics. None of the processors launched now have the new idle states for ultramobile/tablets, so the effect of those we'll have to wait to see. Anandtech tested the i7-4950HQ and it was impressive how a 47W mobile chip consistently beat AMDs A10-5800 100W desktop APU in gaming benchmarks. Of course it's going to sell in a price range of its own, but AMD just lost the crown here.
As a CPU in a regular tower with discrete graphics it's at best incremental but I think the full launch lineup hit all of Intel's main competitors - it's threatening AMD and nVidia's low end discrete card sales, it's threatening AMDs APU sales and the lower idle power is promising for their lower power parts that will compete with ARM. They're just not winning much against the i7-3770K but then they're also fighting against themselves in that market, the FX-8350 is not even close. The 8-series chipset finally brings 6 SATA3 ports, so the main AMD advantage chipset-wise also disappeared.
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The clock frequency is basically the same as for the decade old P4, the number of running cores on a chip seems to be limited too, at least compared to other architectures.
P4 was an architecture where clock frequency was the design goal, with no regards for actual performance. Any non-trivial operation used lots of cycles, because one cycle was just too short to do useful work. A simple shift instruction was four cycles. An integer multiplication nine cycles. Since Banias, the design goal was performance, not clock speed. The amount of work done in a cycle is vastly increased. The clock speed of P4 and current processors is just not comparable.
On the Macintosh side, Apple shipped pre-release Intel Macs with 3.6 GHz P4s to developers. The first real hardware with 1.83 GHz Core Duos ran _faster_. But if you look at benchmarks, current high-end consumer Macs run about 15 times faster again!
To maybe make a stronger impression: If Apple replaces the processor in the fastest iMac with a Haswell chip, you'll get a computer that would make it into the top 100 of the June 2000 "Top 500 Supercomputer" list. That's how fast a modern Intel computer is, compared to a P4.