I am predicting that a pattern will emerge and hold, and its very simple:
Mainstream Intel chips will continue to be thermally handicapped in order to create incentive for enthusiasts and the OC crowd to pay more for a "true" enthusiast grade chip, an Intel 6 core with fluxless soldering and an enthusiast class branding.
I predict Ivy-E will not use TIM, but Solder instead and will yield impressive OC results and good temp/performance curves. If recent mainstream chips had used solder, they would OC like absolute crazy and remove incentive to buy Intel's intended enthusiast grade chips.
I predict Haswell-E will use Solder, and Broadwell mainstream chips will use TIM as well.
I don't think this is to make more money, but it appears to be an effort to guide enthusiasts in a more focused direction and to prevent mainstream chips from overtaking enthusiast chips in a majority of commonly used applications. Even if a comparably few people OC their chips, the reputation of those overclocked chips as being faster than their enthusiast class counterparts may give potential buyers the kind of information that Intel would rather them not be aware of. By limiting thermal performance on the mainstream, that information will not exist and will not apply and Intels CPU lineup will make more sense from a potential performance per dollar perspective, taking overclocking into account.
Overclocked chips establish reputations as being faster than more expensive counterparts, so it makes sense for Intel to do this in my opinion.
Mainstream Intel chips will continue to be thermally handicapped in order to create incentive for enthusiasts and the OC crowd to pay more for a "true" enthusiast grade chip, an Intel 6 core with fluxless soldering and an enthusiast class branding.
I predict Ivy-E will not use TIM, but Solder instead and will yield impressive OC results and good temp/performance curves. If recent mainstream chips had used solder, they would OC like absolute crazy and remove incentive to buy Intel's intended enthusiast grade chips.
I predict Haswell-E will use Solder, and Broadwell mainstream chips will use TIM as well.
I don't think this is to make more money, but it appears to be an effort to guide enthusiasts in a more focused direction and to prevent mainstream chips from overtaking enthusiast chips in a majority of commonly used applications. Even if a comparably few people OC their chips, the reputation of those overclocked chips as being faster than their enthusiast class counterparts may give potential buyers the kind of information that Intel would rather them not be aware of. By limiting thermal performance on the mainstream, that information will not exist and will not apply and Intels CPU lineup will make more sense from a potential performance per dollar perspective, taking overclocking into account.
Overclocked chips establish reputations as being faster than more expensive counterparts, so it makes sense for Intel to do this in my opinion.