Intel Launches 8th Generation Core CPUs (anandtech.com)

Reader joshtops writes: Today Intel is launching its new 8th Generation family of processors, starting with four CPUs for the 15W mobile family. There are two elements that make the launch of these 8th Gen processors different. First is that the 8th Gen is at a high enough level, running basically the same microarchitecture as the 7th Gen. But the key element is that, at the same price and power where a user would get a dual core i5-U or i7-U in their laptop, Intel will now be bumping those product lines up to quad-cores with hyperthreading. This gives a 100% gain in cores and 100% gain in threads. Obviously nothing is for free, so despite Intel stating that they've made minor tweaks to the microarchitecture and manufacturing to get better performing silicon, the base frequencies are down slightly. Turbo modes are still high, ensuring a similar user experience in most computing tasks. Memory support is similar -- DDR4 and LPDDR3 are supported, but not LPDDR4 -- although DDR4 moves up to DDR4-2400 from DDR4-2133. Another change from 7th Gen to 8th Gen will be in the graphics. Intel is upgrading the nomenclature of the integrated graphics from HD 620 to UHD 620, indicating that the silicon is suited for 4K playback and processing.

Comments

Lies, damn lies, and benchmarks

[Locke2005]

Intel is claiming a 40% performance gain based on the additional cores. But the fact is that most apps use only a single thread, so with a lower clock rate, most apps will actually run slower! Yes, for the few apps designed to use all available threads there should be an improvement, but only if the memory architecture has enough bandwidth to keep all those CPUs fed with data. The limiting factor in most high performance computing is not CPU cycles, it's delays in getting data to each CPU. In other words memory bandwidth is more important than total available CPU cycles. Also, these processors slow down the clock rate as each additional CPU is utilized to avoid overheating.d Short summary: Your Mileage May Vary.

Re:Lies, damn lies, and benchmarks

[alvinrod]

On the other hand, the turbo is faster so unless you're really pegging that single core for a prolonged period of time, the new chip is going to have a small performance edge. Also, the bigger L3 cache will probably be helpful in certain applications.

Re:So, in fewer words

[rock_climbing_guy]

Amen to this. I remember years ago when AMD was considered a joke and they suddenly burst onto the scene with their "Athlon" line of processors.

Prior to this, Intel would charge north of $1000 for their top-of-the-line CPUs and AMD forced them to sell for more competitive prices.