Save Zero Dollars By Opting for Intel's iGPU-Crippled GPUs

[delaro]

Intel has always been overly priced so I find this not surprising at all.

 

[InvalidError]

Intel has always been overly priced so I find this not surprising at all.

I'd say $170 was a pretty fair price for my i5-3470 seven years ago, as was $220 for my C2D E8400 before that. Now though, $170 gets you an i3, which is retarded. The amount of performance at any given price point is supposed to increase over time, not get worse or remain about the same over a span of seven years.

I'm glad that AMD's CES presentation was largely in line with rumors and indicate that AMD may very well correct a substantial chunk of the last decade's stagnation by bringing 8C16T into the mid-range.

 

[nitrium]

Then what’s the point of the F series even existing? At least it should be cheaper since they’ve removed the igpu?

They haven't really removed it though. It's still physically present, but disabled for you to use (which also explains why they don't overclock any higher). So the manufacturing cost of these chips is identical to their counterparts.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Ha ha, Intel are always have "paper" releases but this time not even got the paper!
The "F" just stands for f**cked, because the igpu doesn't work on.
Great idea - morons will still buy these "f"'d chips.

 

[InvalidError]

Then what’s the point of the F series even existing? At least it should be cheaper since they’ve removed the igpu?

They haven't really removed it though. It's still physically present, but disabled for you to use (which also explains why they don't overclock any higher). So the manufacturing cost of these chips is identical to their counterparts.

You do realize that the i5-9400F is the same die as the i7-9900k and 1S Xeons, right? By that logic, they should be priced the same. That's not how it works. Lower-end SKUs are made from lower-binned dies and dies with non-fatal defects in areas of the chip that can be disabled so the die can be sold as a lower-end SKU missing some subset of features. Basically, the F-series are an outlet for dies with defective or under-performing IGP, enabling Intel to sell those chips instead of tossing them in the trash.

Being able to sell chips with more defects on them by marketing them under a slightly different model line lacking those features instead of scrapping them altogether reduces costs (turns rejects into something monetizable), so these should be a fair bit cheaper.

 

[Supahos]

My good ole 3350p was the cheapest i5 they ever sold but it got bad reviews from idiots that can't read that it didn't have onboard so they did away with the p series. Got mine for $155 and then got a bundle for my ram and a z series board and oced the locked processor to a decent performer. Unfortunately this is the opposite of that...

 

[stuffwhy]

TDP ratings are the same but is there any thermal headroom gained by not having the iGPU working? Even a little bit?

 

[Supahos]

No, it's disabled once you plug a card in the Pci slot anyway.

 

[InvalidError]

TDP ratings are the same but is there any thermal headroom gained by not having the iGPU working? Even a little bit?

Most of the idle power in a GPU comes from refreshing the RAM and display outputs. An unused IGP doesn't have any RAM of its own to refresh, doesn't have any display outputs to keep alive, doesn't have any activity in its 2D/3D pipeline or anything else either, so practically everything in the IGP is in power-down/stop state (almost the same state it is in when forced off in BIOS/OS or fused off at the factory) where the TDP contribution is negligible.

 

[bramahon]

I'm curious what that "F" stands for, - could be "funny", "free" or something else altogether! So, does the the disabled gfx chip help dissipate some of the heat generated by the cores/uncore?

 

[Supahos]

No more than an inactive one on a regular 9*** chip would. My guess is the F is for failed but intel would never fess up to it

 

[spentshells]

0 dollars savings, I demand to pay more.

 

[rantoc]

They most likely recycle chips with defective gpu's which makes sense considering their shortage but sell that defective silicon at full price is to put it mildly... greedy. No thx!

 

[COLGeek]

To iGPU or not to iGPU is not something new. Former Xeons came in both varieties. As I was never going to use an iGPU in those workstations, I always preferred the non-iGPU variants. Cost differences, IIRC, were negligible.

Seems more variety and availability of products would be a good thing for consumers, especially given recent shortages.

 

[mischon123]

Binning chips with damaged graphics and damaged cores. Bottom of the barrel at full price.

 

[Olle P]

The Non IGP CPU's SHOULD be cheaper! Like 50 or 75 cheaper at least.

From a value perspective:
How much would the IGP be worth if sold as a discrete graphics card? As an IGP the value is less than that.
For example a GeForce GT710 cost $40. How well does it do performance wise compared to Intel's IGPs?

 

[Diji1]

>I cannot understand why anyone would buy an intel product if there is a viable alternative.

It's the less risky option. There are some applications where Ryzen doesn't play nice eg. some methods of streaming.

"but they do come in handy in the case of a GPU failure or if you retire an older chip to a system that doesn't have a discrete graphics card"

Another reason: additional HDMI port for audio so audio works.

Or maybe I'm the only person with horrendous experience thanks to Windows 10 when using HDMI audio.

 

[mspencerl87]

I feel like even though this is the case we should still "Just Buy It"

 

[King_V]

The F stands for Intel [MOD EDIT] Edition.

https://imgur.com/gallery/yEoK2OH

But in all seriousness you would think that the deactivation of part of a CPU would have at least lowered the TDP.

I imagine it doesn't because these CPUs typically will run above their rated TDP, though I didn't read the article on the P-states fully, so am unclear on how hard the CPUs will push themselves, etc.

 

[InvalidError]

How much would the IGP be worth if sold as a discrete graphics card? As an IGP the value is less than that.

Another way to look at it: how much of the die does the IGP account for? For Coffee Lake, it looks like about 20%, which makes the IGP worth about 1/5th of the silicon manufacturing cost.

 

[gdmaclew]

Why so serious....

I see you bought a Heath Ledger/The Joker t-shirt as well.

 

[JamesSneed]

Seriously I swear Intel and Nvidia's CEO's have some type of bet going between them to see how much they can jack with customers. Nvidia is winning but this gets Intel back into the race.

 

[Co BIY]

The list price doesn't reflect how much Intel actually charges the purchasers. I doubt OEMs will be paying the same on deals with all other terms the same.

Any working chips put into the market will help bring down prices in general. So I see this as a win.

For the right use case there will be no reduction in performance so why should there be a price decrease ?

 

[shrapnel_indie]

I'm curious what that "F" stands for, - could be "funny", "free" or something else altogether! So, does the the disabled gfx chip help dissipate some of the heat generated by the cores/uncore?

Could stand for Failed iGPU. With their abysmal availability, presuming flaws in the chips as the reason, it;s the only way they can recoup more of the losses... Unfortunately they're not offering "scratch and dent" price discounts (They could easily knock off $20 - $25 if they chose to) on damaged iGPUs.

 

[Supahos]

So if you were buying a brand new TV that was the most expensive consumer tv on the market. Both had optical audio ports but one was broken and one wasn't. You'd expect to pay the same price for both because today you plan to use HDMI?