RedJaron writes:
> My original point was that comparing pure clock rates across CPU generations is absurd. ...
True, I was simplifying a bit, but what I meant was that for raw overall threaded performance,
the speed boost from an oc'd 5960X over an oc'd 3930K is not really that much, around 30%
to maybe 50% at best. I talked to someone yesterday who's in this very position; opinion was
it's not enough to justify the cost involved, in his case combined with the issue of the max RAM
for the new 5Ks still only being 64GB (Intel made a mistake there IMO, should have been more).
That's why I said I thought Intel would have been better off having some kind of mid-range 8-core,
rather than fiddle around with cripplied PCIe for the low-end. Having only the top-end as the 8-core
makes the option a tad unaffordable to many.
IMO the cheaper option should just be the 5930K, middle an 8-core with lesser cache or whatever,
top-end a better 8 core with more cache, extra PCIe, etc. I guess Intel's still thoroughly wedded to
its paranoia of not harming XEON sales, when in reality anyone who might be affected in that way
can't afford XEONs anyway, but will look at these new CPUs and conclude they're not much of an
upgrade over the earliest SB-E, unless of course one's existing CPU isn't oc'd at all, or if the newer
SATA3 connectivity is useful, etc.
Btw, in legacy terms this means the 4820K is now a rather peculiar chip, being a 4-core but with
a full 40 PCIe V3 lanes. Given the way the dependency on CPU power reduces as GPU loading
and PCIe loading increases for multi-GPU/multi-screen/high-res setups, it could even be possible
that an X79/4820K system is faster than an X99/5820K system, and certainly cheaper atm. Weird.
I really don't get Intel's decision to meddle about with PCIe lane provision in this way.
> People conveniently forget that a Haswell @ 4.4GHz will meet or beat a SB @ 4.8GHz ...
Actually it's generally about the same or less; I did a lot of checking while prepping for posts
way back. Also, it's waaaay easier to get SB to reach 4.8+ than it is to have HW at 4.4+. One
doesn't even need water to have a 2700K at 5.0 (old TRUE + 2 quiet NDS 120s works fine);
takes me 3 mins to sort this in the BIOS with an ASUS M4E/Z.
> ... while likely using less power. ...
Really not that much of a factor in the discussions I've had with solo pro types.
> And if you can use AVX2, the HW is the clear winner. ...
Hardly revelant until apps make use of it.
> ... Let's not forget the new extra features on current mboards like SATA Express, M.2,
> etc that weren't available on the original X79 models.
That is indeed one area that may persuade some to upgrade (I'm certainly not keen on
using a Marvell SATA3 controller to run a RAID1), but it'll be person/app/situation-specific.
With the pricing as it is for the 8-core, as I say for most typical solo pros I don't think the
cost will be regarded as being worth the mild performance boost. It would certainly be
useful when deadlines are tight, but again the cost is a thorn.
What's infuriating is there's absolutely no reason why Intel couldn't rerelease the original
SB-E for X79, unlocked to 8-core, even shrink it for lower power. X79 could easily use an
8-core consumer CPU, Intel just chose not to because they didn't have to. And btw, check
back through the original reviews, there were plenty of expectations on the part of hw sites
that X79 would eventually have an 8-core option; would they have said all that without
initial hints from Intel?
I really don't get why Intel made the new middle-ground $600+ CPU only a 6-core. It's just
not enough IMO. If all they're doing is setting performance/feature levels based on what AMD
can do in contrast, well, that's a mistake; their main market here is upgrades over X79 I reckon.
As some reviewers have said, Intel is competing with itself here. HW-E is obviously great for a
solo pro who's never had a 6+ core CPU before, but for the cost involved it's just not that
much better than SB-E for most users.
Reading reviews, the wide oc variability of these new 5Ks is also worrying. I found several reviews
where HW-E samples wouldn't go over 4.2. Elsewhere, one site managed 4.7, though at a pretty
crazy voltage, and a heat/temp level I'd never be comfortable with.
I really hope Intel can make these CPUs better at some point. If they offered an 8-core middleground
CPU for around $600 to $700 (by that I really mean between 400 and 500 UKP) which is 2X faster than
a 6-core SB-E (ie. stock vs. stock, or oc vs. oc; whichever), then I think it'd be a worthy upgrade for an
exsiting SB-E setup.
As for IB-E, the rationale is even weaker of course.
Ian.