Relevance of Broadwell and Skylake vs. Haswell

[termathor]

Hi there,

I've read quite a number of threads, Intel docs & specs, e-shops prices, etc ... and I can't figure out what added value do Broadwell and Skylake have over Haswell.
I read Broadwell and Skylake are a bit/a lot more expensive over Haswell, but can't see any added value.

I'm mostly interested in gaming with over-clocking builds, BTW, but any added value in other use is valid.

Anyone has any type of use where those 2 architectures are better than Haswell that could trigger an upgrade ?

PS: yes, I know most games are largely GPU-bound, but a couple of them recent ones (Hitman, looking at you !) are now very CPU-bound, so this is still relevant to gaming.

 

[Supernova1138]

Broadwell didn't offer anything new on the desktop aside from better integrated graphics. Skylake doesn't offer a huge advantage in terms of CPU performance aside from tending to overclock slightly better than the Haswell refresh CPUs. Skylake's value largely comes from adding DDR4 RAM support and chipset features like more PCI-E lanes being available off the chipset for high performance SSDs and what not.

 

[Ecky]

Changes in Skylake vs Haswell:

-14nm vs 22nm process, causes a reduction in power usage, especially on lower-clocked CPUs. E.g. i5 6600 = 65w TDP, i5 4690 = 84w TDP.

-Skylake has a much bigger, more modern iGPU. If you're not using a discrete card, it's much more useful vs Haswell's.

-Skylake iGPU has hardware acceleration for decoding and encoding of more formats.

-Skylake runs cooler, for whatever reason, with similar maximum safe temperatures, which is probably a factor in why it has more overclocking headroom (on average) vs Haswell.

-Skylake is 5-10% faster per clock, due to an updated core design.

-Skylake has a much wider core, which benefits more from hyperthreading. A Skylake i3 is more faster (yes, that's what I meant to say) than a Haswell i3 than a Skylake i5 vs Haswell i5. For this reason, the i3 6100 is quite dramatically better than i3 4xxx.

-Skylake uses DDR4, which is faster than DDR3, and rapidly dropping in price. Before long it will be cheaper than DDR3, too.

 

[Ecky]

Broadwell desktop CPUs mostly brought huge improvements in integrated GPU performance over Haswell, in a low-TDP format. The 5775c for instance, often outperforms a 4790K in CPU-tasks while using 2/3 the power, while also having this iGPU performance on-tap:

 

[thx1138v2]

Although somewhat dated now (Aug '15) the following article lays it out very well.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/intel-skylake-core-i7-6700k-reviewed/

 

[termathor]

Thanks, all, for the detailled answer.

From what I'm reading, skylake brings mostly a far better iGPU, some better power management, allowing for better OC and some small performance.

End of the day, I think a gaming rig, using a dedicated GPU, is almost identical between all 3 platforms.

Again, thanks for the exaplanation.