Intel Skylake / Kaby Lake

[Ice_Dragon]

Skylake-C makes sense for the 4K iMac. Right now, it has Iris Pro 6200 with 128 MB eDRAM (48 execution units), Iris Pro 580 offers a marginal improvement of 72 execution units but with the same amount of eDRAM. Skylake-C will have 256 MB of eDRAM and who knows how many EUs.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The Skylake-based system obviously carries a non-trivial premium over the Haswell based one, but for a system that's going to be in use for a while, the superior platform and added performance of the Skylake chip are probably worth it. $70 over, say, 3-4 years is just not that much extra on an annual basis.
www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/18/intel-corp-desktop-skylake-chips-coming-down-in-pr.aspx

A really good question to ask here, about the "Skylake premium", is WHY? Intel traditionally phases in new parts, at pretty-much the same price-point as prior CPUs. So why does SKL have a platform price premium over Haswell, this late in the game? (We're halfway between SKL and KBL.)

Are yields still that much of a problem? (No SKL Celeron has surface yet, at least in the enthusiast / builder channels.)

DDR4 isn't the problem, it has now reached price-parity (DDR4-2133 versus DDR3-1600).

Motherboards aren't exceptionally more expensive. (I paid roughly $82 shipped for my ASRock Z170 Pro4S boards, and I would consider them full-featured midrange boards. It should be noted that normal list price is $110. For comparison, I paid $130 for a fairly full-featured mid-range S775 board, the GA-P35-DS3R.)

Or is it all just a price-gouging scheme from retailers worldwide, hoping to cash in on the SKL hype?

 

[LTC8K6]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015LH92UA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_item...yBLAngQAPiqQR3s1CISkW5qGoigWxlt8PihoCQI7w_wcB

3X Intel's list price...

 

[IntelUser2000]

Skylake-C makes sense for the 4K iMac. Right now, it has Iris Pro 6200 with 128 MB eDRAM (48 execution units), Iris Pro 580 offers a marginal improvement of 72 execution units but with the same amount of eDRAM. Skylake-C will have 256 MB of eDRAM and who knows how many EUs.

Early leaks showed that Skylake C is Iris Pro 580 on a desktop. Intel slides were talking about 50% improved performance of Skylake GT4e versus Broadwell GT3e, which is reasonable.

WCCFTech is inaccurately showing Skylake C as 256MB, when early Intel leaks showed that Skylake C is actually 64MB, and Kabylake GT4e has 2x128MB.

My impression is that 2x128MB is 2-Hi eDRAM stacks with 2x the bandwidth, and Kabylake GT4e may be the point where they start to need that kind of bandwidth. It's also possible that its for future-proofing, using the same eDRAM for Cannonlake and Icelake.

 

[Eug]

https://pikeralpha.wordpress.com

New MacBook9,1 frequency data found
I did some digging in OS X 10.11.4 and found additional information about the new and yet to be released MacBook9,1 / Mac-9AE82516C7C6B903 in the FrequencyVectors, suggesting that Apple will be using the following Intel processors:

Intel® Core™ m3-6Y30 Processor (4M Cache, up to 2.20 GHz)

Intel® Core™ m5-6Y54 Processor (4M Cache, up to 2.70 GHz)

Intel® Core™ m7-6Y75 Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)

 

[Sweepr]

Finally a Skylake Celeron review, probably more to come:

Intel 'Skylake' Celeron G3900T Review

- Cinebench R15

~20% faster.

- Windows Experience Index

- Sandra 2016 Memory Bandwicth

- 3DMark Sky Diver

- Dragon Quest X

- Power Consumption

www.gdm.or.jp/review/2016/0322/155427


Preliminary Skylake-E/EN/EP/EX Support Added to AIDA64

www.overclockers.ru/hardnews/75141/...sorov-intel-skylake-e-i-amd-summit-ridge.html

https://pikeralpha.wordpress.com

New MacBook9,1 frequency data found
I did some digging in OS X 10.11.4 and found additional information about the new and yet to be released MacBook9,1 / Mac-9AE82516C7C6B903 in the FrequencyVectors, suggesting that Apple will be using the following Intel processors:

Intel® Core™ m3-6Y30 Processor (4M Cache, up to 2.20 GHz)

Intel® Core™ m5-6Y54 Processor (4M Cache, up to 2.70 GHz)

Intel® Core™ m7-6Y75 Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)

Nice find. Is there a redesign in the books for the Macbook 12''? If not, I wonder why it took so long for this upgrade. By June/July we will be fairly close to Kabylake-Y launch.

 

[ShintaiDK]

That's some quite big changes for the 40-50$ segment.

Its really a shame we almost only see top bins on review sites. Specially when most of the advancements are made elsewhere.

 

[Eug]

Nice find. Is there a redesign in the books for the Macbook 12''? If not, I wonder why it took so long for this upgrade. By June/July we will be fairly close to Kabylake-Y launch.

When did the first Skylake Y laptops get released in stores in volume? Was it by Xmas? I can't remember.

There is no rumoured re-design for the 12", esp. since its current Broadwell version is only its first iteration. One might hope for another USB C port or something though.

Any redesign would be for the MacBook Pros, which use the U chips.

 

[exar333]

That's some quite big changes for the 40-50$ segment.

Its really a shame we almost only see top bins on review sites. Specially when most of the advancements are made elsewhere.

Definitely.

The performance improvement is substantial while using less power. Looks very solid.

 

[Sweepr]

Found another Celeron review, with more data.

Budget CPUs Shootout - 4 Generations of Intel Celeron Compared

- CPU

- iGPU

- Power Consumption

http://zigsow.jp/portal/own_item_detail/312610

Thank you japanese hardware websites.


Iris Pro Graphics 580 (Intel NUC6i7KYB - Skull Canyon NUC) shows up @ SiSoftware

Video Shader Compute:
- Iris Pro 580: 535.44 Mpix/s
- Iris Pro 6200 (average score): 326.74 Mpix/s

Listed here.


AnandTech - Best CPUs: Q1 2016

www.anandtech.com/show/10185/best-cpus-q1-2016

When did the first Skylake Y laptops get released in stores in volume? Was it by Xmas? I can't remember.

First retail availability back in late August. The most popular design win (Surface Pro 4, base model) was released on October 26th, 2015.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are the SKL Celerons finally coming out?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Are the SKL Celerons finally coming out?

They have been out for quite some time...

 

[VirtualLarry]

They have been out for quite some time...

Not at Newegg or Amazon...

 

[ShintaiDK]

Not at Newegg or Amazon...

You can buy them at amazon.
http://www.amazon.de/INTEL-Celeron-...&qid=1458854462&sr=8-1&keywords=celeron+G3900
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Celer...&qid=1458854541&sr=8-1&keywords=celeron+g3900

 

[PingSpike]

You can buy them at amazon.
http://www.amazon.de/INTEL-Celeron-...&qid=1458854462&sr=8-1&keywords=celeron+G3900
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Celer...&qid=1458854541&sr=8-1&keywords=celeron+g3900

I guess you can if you live in Europe.

 

[Ice_Dragon]

Early leaks showed that Skylake C is Iris Pro 580 on a desktop. Intel slides were talking about 50% improved performance of Skylake GT4e versus Broadwell GT3e, which is reasonable.

WCCFTech is inaccurately showing Skylake C as 256MB, when early Intel leaks showed that Skylake C is actually 64MB, and Kabylake GT4e has 2x128MB.

My impression is that 2x128MB is 2-Hi eDRAM stacks with 2x the bandwidth, and Kabylake GT4e may be the point where they start to need that kind of bandwidth. It's also possible that its for future-proofing, using the same eDRAM for Cannonlake and Icelake.

I mean I like the quad-core NUC so it's not like I'm going to pass up the Skylake NUC and wait until next year for the Kaby Lake NUC even with double the amount of eDRAM if one is possibly coming out.

I'm glad you corrected me and not that I doubted Shintai but I just wanted to be sure.

 

[ksec]

Finally a Skylake Celeron review, probably more to come:

Nice find. Is there a redesign in the books for the Macbook 12''? If not, I wonder why it took so long for this upgrade. By June/July we will be fairly close to Kabylake-Y launch.

Exactly my thoughts, yield wouldn't be a problem this time around so there shouldn't be any delay. Seems silly to be to launch now when kaby is just around the corner.

 

[jpiniero]

Exactly my thoughts, yield wouldn't be a problem this time around so there shouldn't be any delay. Seems silly to be to launch now when kaby is just around the corner.

Well the launch would make sense in early April... and Kabylake would still be another 3 months away if they do it then. That's too long to wait.

 

[ShintaiDK]

They can always sell a Kaby Lake refresh later

 

[Rngwn]

Some tests on Core M3 compute stick by linuxim.com.au.

http://linuxiumcomau.blogspot.com/2016/03/first-look-at-stk2m3w64cc.html

3DMark Firestrike: 599
PCMark8 Home: 2615
Passmark 8: 1563.8

 

[Sweepr]

PCLab tested CPU scaling of three DX12 titles: Gears of War Ultimate Edition, Hitman and Rise of the Tomb Raider with different Intel Skylake chips:

PCLab - DirectX 12 in three games: Gears of War Ultimate Edition, Hitman, Rise of the Tomb Raider

- Gears of War Ultimate Edition

- Hitman

Nice boost for Core i3-6100 and Core i5-6600K here, ~20-30% faster with DX12.

Some massive gains with Fury X, 60% boost for Core i5-6600K.

- Rise of the Tomb Raider

http://pclab.pl/art68785.html

Almost no change/regression for most chips here, except budget Pentium G4400 with Radeon VGAs (>30% faster @ DX12).

 

[frozentundra123456]

Yea, I have said it before. I think the benefits for DX12 will be inconsistent, especially early on. Just like mantle. Fans of the API could pick certain games/hardware combos that showed massive gains, while other games/combos showed very little gain. I think DX12 will be great overall, but not the panacea for old/slow cpus that some are proposing. For well rounded performance in all situations, I think you will still need fast single core performance, and at least 4 threads, probably 4 real cores.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Agree. Its not going to be the magic fix. And DX12 only games will just put even more load on the CPU as time goes. Nobody will leave it untapped.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Not at Newegg or Amazon...

Amazon is selling the Celeron G3900 for about $4 more than the Pentium G4400 at NewEgg. Pretty stupid pricing -- the Celeron should be a $50 chip, not a nearly $70 one.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Amazon.com without VAT cost more than UK or DE with VAT. Interesting. Not many sellers at amazon.com tho.