32nm core I7 question

[winkdaddy123]

Sorry this is a noob question but will the current x58 motherboards support the 32nm i7 chips set to be released Q4 2009?

 

[o1die]

Knowing Intel, probably not. They'll make some slight change to require a new board, maybe just voltage.

 

[someguy7]

They have not accounced the 32nm i7 yet. The new roadmad has 32nm dual cores with the IGP on the cpu die. Those are for socket that will run the i5s. So far all I've seen so far for the i7 is the new core revision.

 

[cjl]

Actually, they should fully support it, from the stuff I've seen. The exception would be if the BIOS supports it, but there should not be a problem with the socket or chipset.

 

[winkdaddy123]

Hmmm...so thats a "yes, a "no" and a "we dont know yet". I guess there isnt a good consenus on the answer yet...

 

[enigma067]

Knowing Intel, probably not. They'll make some slight change to require a new board, maybe just voltage.

Does speculation answer a question?

It is best to ask the question to the manufacturer.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Hmmm...so thats a "yes, a "no" and a "we dont know yet". I guess there isnt a good consenus on the answer yet...

This. From what we can tell the chipset will have nothing to do with support anymore since the memory controller is on the CPU. Its the same with AMD CPUs/chipsets. The chipset means nothing with support just the socket itself and if the BIOS is updated to recognize the CPU.

But I doubt that they will make it not support it. Intel cannot really do much anymore since the chipset doesn't have anything as important now except the PIe controller. Of course to make it not be able to run in a X58 mobo Intel could move the PCIe controller to the 32nm Core i7s and since the X58 chipset does have one it woulc conflict and so on unless Intel made the 32nm Core i7s disable it when placed into a X58 mobo.

But we have to wait and see. I doubt we will know much until late this summer much like we didn't know much about Penryn until late summer 2007.

Does speculation answer a question?

It is best to ask the question to the manufacturer.

Who are you and what did you do with enigma?

 

[aznguy0028]

i believe from a business point of view, they would support it. it would be stupid to not otherwise. I'm pretty sure it'll be like the 65nm transistion to the 45nm on the LGA775. just need a bios update if the board supports it and things will be good to go.

the X58 is currently the LGA1366, with the i5 coming out using the LGA1156 socket. now ask yourself if you were a company, to get rid of socket LGA1366 and bring in a new socket for the 32nms and make more people change boards? intel will go out of business if it pushes a move like that... makes NO sense.

side note, the LGA1156 will be for the lynnfields, which is the average consumer socket while the LGA1366 will remain the higher tier socket for enthusiasts.

 

[aznguy0028]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=14227

"Gulftown is the successor to the Nehalem-based Core i7 and is due in the middle of 2010. Gulftown has six cores, but is capable of efficiently handling twelve threads at once, thanks to its next generation Hyper-Threading. It will use the X58 chipset due to the LGA-1366 socket"

there you have it. LGA1366.

 

[aznguy0028]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=14225

"Havendale was a dual core version of Lynnfield, itself the Core i5 mainstream version of the Nehalem Core i7. It would've used the same LGA-1156 socket as Lynnfield."

 

[fazers_on_stun]

i believe from a business point of view, they would support it. it would be stupid to not otherwise. I'm pretty sure it'll be like the 65nm transistion to the 45nm on the LGA775. just need a bios update if the board supports it and things will be good to go.

the X58 is currently the LGA1366, with the i5 coming out using the LGA1156 socket. now ask yourself if you were a company, to get rid of socket LGA1366 and bring in a new socket for the 32nms and make more people change boards? intel will go out of business if it pushes a move like that... makes NO sense.

side note, the LGA1156 will be for the lynnfields, which is the average consumer socket while the LGA1366 will remain the higher tier socket for enthusiasts.

Yeah, I tend to agree with you and Jimmy, although a quick google search did not turn any info up except for forum postings. Certainly not any official statement from Intel.

Rumor has it that Westmere will include some optimizatons that didn't make it into Nehalem, and will show big improvements in certain benchmarks. certainly power should go down and clocks up. Anyway I hope we see more info by this summer. I haven't seen any posts from the known Intel engineers on other enthusiast websites in some time, so I'll take this with a big grain of salt until then

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

No ones posted this link yet, it gives some info
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/10/intel-demos-first-ever-32nm-processors/

 

[archibael]

Typically speaking, when a new shrink shows up that is "incompatible" with the old motherboards, it's the VRM which is the Achilles' heel. Power on a new process node is reasonably predictable, but can throw a monkey wrench into the best laid plans of "socket compatibility" if it goes awry.

If the QuickPath port is at a higher speed than the design max of the current Core i7s or there's a new memory configuration (DDR4?), a new motherboard might be needed, but I suspect VRM is a more likely culprit if a change needs to be made.

 

[winkdaddy123]

Here is a quote I found from a link somone else posted in another thread:

"Intel’s X58 chipset will remain the top dog through 2010. Chances are that we won’t see it replaced until the next tock with Sandy Bridge. Now that isn’t to say that the six-core 32nm Gulftown will work in existing X58 motherboards; while that would be nice, Intel does have a habit of forcing motherboard upgrades, we’ll have to wait and see."

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3513&p=6

 

[gamerk316]

i believe from a business point of view, they would support it. it would be stupid to not otherwise. I'm pretty sure it'll be like the 65nm transistion to the 45nm on the LGA775. just need a bios update if the board supports it and things will be good to go.

Not always. Some REALLY early LGA775 mobos simply can't use quads or duos at all (ASUS p5nd2-SLI edition, for example...).

This argument is why I always wait for the next CPU arch to come out before I buy, so I know how much farther I can upgrade my system before starting over again...

 

[Kari]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-nehalem-core-i7,7000.html

They have. 2nd half of 2009. This should really piss of the thousands of people that just got raped on a i7 system. Funny thing is it wont even work on that $300 board you just bought. Pretty sad, but typical of Intel.

I think Toms got their facts mixed up, at least most other sites I've seen said the replacement for i7 won't be out until mid 2010...

 

[fazers_on_stun]

I think Toms got their facts mixed up, at least most other sites I've seen said the replacement for i7 won't be out until mid 2010...

You are right - the replacement for i7 (high-end) is the 6-core Gulftown 32nm processor, out in mid-2010. The stuff Zip is referring to is the mainstream i5 LGA 1156 socket, not the i7 1366 socket.

 

[rasmasyean]

Intel to Launch 32-Nanometer CPUs by September 2009
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159294/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws

Obama Lauds Intel Plan to Invest $7B in Chip Plants
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159291/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws

 

[pausert20]

Zip is confused. The next Core i7 processors to be launched are the ones that fit the LGA 1156 socket which will be the Lynnfields. Then sometime in 2010 the pulled in Westmere based (Clarkdale) will be launched. Still not sure when the Gulftown replacement for Bloomfield will launched.