When will we see new 6 / 8 Core processors from Intel?

loafer87gt

Limp Gawd
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Feb 2, 2005
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I am still clinging onto my venerable QX6700 which has proven to be quite the workhorse. As I do primarily 3d rendering with my machine, as well as casual gaming, I am quite excited about the new 6 and 8 core processors from Intel. I was going to spring last fall for a 3930K setup, but then rumors started to materialize about the imminent release of Ivy Bridge E, so I decided to wait it out. Now it looks like it has been pushed back again, and I am now starting to wonder if it will ever materialize or if socket 2011 is a dead end. I guess I was wondering if I could get some advice from the Hard collective as to what would be the best gameplan for me. My current options are to go with a 3930k, or a i7 980. There were rumors of a 3980 8 core Sandry Bridge E processor, but all news for this processor have likewise dried up. There has been other discussion of mainstream 8 to 12 core Ivy Bridge E at the end of 2013 - but these keep getting pushed back. I am just wondering, should I just buy a darn 3930K setup, or is socket 2011 a dead end tech? Any upgrade advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
 
In the world of computing there is, and always will be, something new just around the corner. No sooner does the latest tech arrive then we are already hearing about the generation coming down the road. Intel seems to come out with a new line every two years. So ask yourself these questions:

1. Is what I have getting the job done to my satisfaction?
If the answer is yes then maybe I would wait
If no then I'd buy now.

2. Am I the kind of person who is going to be racked by buyers remorse if new Cpu's
come out six to 9 months after I laid my money down, or am I the kind of person who will be
happy to have had a better performing setup for the past 6 to 9 months when the new stuff
comes out?

Then again, what do I know?
 
Yeah, Ivy Bridge E. Which, you shouldn't bother waiting for. Just get a Sandy Bridge E.
 
Tell that to Sandy Bridge.

Tell that to LGA1366, 1056, 1055 too! :eek:

Long lasting sockets are dead.

Not like it really ever mattered, if it wasn't the socket, it was the chipset and/or BIOS holding back old boards from working with new chips. (LGA775)

My predictions:

IB-E will for sure happen on LGA2011 and be compatible with X79. Sounds like mobo makers will have a refresh of boards for these new CPUs. This might mean a new chipset including features that should've came out with X79. 6 cores is still going to be the max. New chipset & socket for Broadwell-E when Intel will probably release it Q4 2014 (lucky if it's Q3).
 
I am still clinging onto my venerable QX6700 which has proven to be quite the workhorse. As I do primarily 3d rendering with my machine, as well as casual gaming, I am quite excited about the new 6 and 8 core processors from Intel

As excited as you currently may be, if you have a perception that your current machine is too slow and is no longer really "fit for purpose" then I suggest you upgrade now. If it is more or less OK now and you can't really justify the upgrade then I suggest you wait.

I was going to spring last fall for a 3930K setup, but then rumors started to materialize about the imminent release of Ivy Bridge E, so I decided to wait it out. Now it looks like it has been pushed back again, and I am now starting to wonder if it will ever materialize or if socket 2011 is a dead end.

S1155 will be replaced with Haswell (Socket 1150?) and S2011 will be replaced by Haswell-E and will not use S2011 either. Have a read of this, this and this, this new technology looks interesting even if the information is not confirmed to be authentic.

Unlike users of consumer grade PC hardware who don't mind frequent upgrades and refreshes you generally find that users of server grade hardware are looking primarily for stabilty and having products tested and qualified over a year or two before they deploy similar hardware, therefore they probably wouldn't be too enthralled about swapping from SB-E to IB-E and then to Haswell-E in such a relatively short period of time. I suspect that IB-E will eventually be cancelled as this would then allow Intel to deploy resources to advance Haswell-EP and Haswell-EN sooner. If you can hold onto your rig for say another 6-12-18 months and wait for it then do so otherwise get a S2011 3930K now as you pretty much will have a CPU which won't be superseded by anything significantly faster for that socket, I mean 970X>980X and 2600K>2700K and 2700K>3770K were very small incremental improvements. A 3930K will be good enough for many years to come and a 3970X is extra expense for also a very marginal extra gain.

or a i7 980.

Ordinarily if you could get the CPU cheap I would say go for it, the fly in the ointment is the fact that existing boards are getting quite old and some are starting to become unreliable and new ones are very scarce, S2011 boards and 3930K's are reasonably priced and faster so I would say to give an X58 setup a miss unless you just pick both up to tide you over for a short period of time until you go to Haswell-E

There were rumors of a 3980 8 core Sandry Bridge E processor, but all news for this processor have likewise dried up.

Not likely as Intel have stated that due to TDP limits you can have either an overclockable 6 core S2011 X79 cpu or a non-overclockable 8 core S2011 Xeon and those are your only two choices your ever going to have, an 8 core overclockable X79 cpu is never going to fly.

There has been other discussion of mainstream 8 to 12 core Ivy Bridge E at the end of 2013 - but these keep getting pushed back.

Probably for the reasons I have previously stated. Haswell-E will have 8 to 12 cores (if not 16) so that makes IB-E somewhat redundant.

I am just wondering, should I just buy a darn 3930K setup, or is socket 2011 a dead end tech? Any upgrade advice would be much appreciated.

I'd say yes get a 3930K as you won't be unhappy with your purchase. I don't understand this pre-occupation with "dead end tech", if you bought a S1155 2600K you had the top CPU and a 2700K brought what 100Mhz extra to the table so its not something you would be opening up a bottle of champagne for. If you have a S1155 3770K now are you going to be waiting for a S1155 3870K cpu to come out for another extra 100Mhz? I don't think so.

Aa said in the OP, I use my machine primarily for 3d rendering and the programs that I use are multithreaded. The more cores, the better.

I suggest you get a 6 core 3930K and overclock it to 4.0 - 4.5 Ghz as this will be faster than an 8 core Xeon that can't be overclocked and is also very expensive. I can recommend this motherboard GA-X79S-UP5-WIFI as it replaces the X79 chipset with the Intel C606 chipset which allows you to run either a 3930K or an E5 8 core Xeon if you really want one of those, also has other improvements like letting you run ECC memory or connect 10K or 15K rpm SAS drives directly, also a maximum memory limit of 64GB is a nice thing to have if you need it as S1155 is restricted to 32GB.

Cheers
 
i will go with 3770k for cheap, and then save for a really high end end chip, like 12 core :D
 
Considering generally nothing is fast enough for 3D rendering, I'd probably look more into getting some cheap Core2Quad or older Core i-series stuff and running them as a render farm.
 
Maybe a Xeon 6+ core capable 2011 or 1155 MoBo would be the best option for your uses?
 
MP Ivy Bridge EN/EP/EX whatever for > 2 socket systems are due late 2013 or 2014. 1P/2P Ivy Bridge E should be released in the May/June time frame according to rumors earlier this year.

At interesting speeds, where there is some benefit in most apps vs a 3770, a 6 core LGA2011 Xeon will likely set you back around $1100. If you have some need for more than 4 cores, it may be worth it to you, but it's a very steep premium if 4 cores are sufficient. TBH, I'd rather have a LGA1150 Haswell.
 
S1155 will be replaced with Haswell (Socket 1150?) and S2011 will be replaced by Haswell-E and will not use S2011 either. Have a read of this, this and this, this new technology looks interesting even if the information is not confirmed to be authentic.

Unlike users of consumer grade PC hardware who don't mind frequent upgrades and refreshes you generally find that users of server grade hardware are looking primarily for stabilty and having products tested and qualified over a year or two before they deploy similar hardware, therefore they probably wouldn't be too enthralled about swapping from SB-E to IB-E and then to Haswell-E in such a relatively short period of time. I suspect that IB-E will eventually be cancelled as this would then allow Intel to deploy resources to advance Haswell-EP and Haswell-EN sooner. If you can hold onto your rig for say another 6-12-18 months and wait for it then do so otherwise get a S2011 3930K now as you pretty much will have a CPU which won't be superseded by anything significantly faster for that socket, I mean 970X>980X and 2600K>2700K and 2700K>3770K were very small incremental improvements. A 3930K will be good enough for many years to come and a 3970X is extra expense for also a very marginal extra gain.

Cheers

S2011 Xeon has been promised an upgrade path to Ivy, even if x79 is not now getting Ivy-E. The romley-EP/EN platform is still showing an upgrade later this year
 
mm, xeons.

if you're doing 3d rendering get a xeon with ecc, and a workstation card.
 
Aa said in the OP, I use my machine primarily for 3d rendering and the programs that I use are multithreaded. The more cores, the better.

Does the software not have CUDA support? I'd think software like that would be a perfect candidate.
 
As excited as you currently may be, if you have a perception that your current machine is too slow and is no longer really "fit for purpose" then I suggest you upgrade now. If it is more or less OK now and you can't really justify the upgrade then I suggest you wait.



S1155 will be replaced with Haswell (Socket 1150?) and S2011 will be replaced by Haswell-E and will not use S2011 either. Have a read of this, this and this, this new technology looks interesting even if the information is not confirmed to be authentic.

Unlike users of consumer grade PC hardware who don't mind frequent upgrades and refreshes you generally find that users of server grade hardware are looking primarily for stabilty and having products tested and qualified over a year or two before they deploy similar hardware, therefore they probably wouldn't be too enthralled about swapping from SB-E to IB-E and then to Haswell-E in such a relatively short period of time. I suspect that IB-E will eventually be cancelled as this would then allow Intel to deploy resources to advance Haswell-EP and Haswell-EN sooner. If you can hold onto your rig for say another 6-12-18 months and wait for it then do so otherwise get a S2011 3930K now as you pretty much will have a CPU which won't be superseded by anything significantly faster for that socket, I mean 970X>980X and 2600K>2700K and 2700K>3770K were very small incremental improvements. A 3930K will be good enough for many years to come and a 3970X is extra expense for also a very marginal extra gain.



Ordinarily if you could get the CPU cheap I would say go for it, the fly in the ointment is the fact that existing boards are getting quite old and some are starting to become unreliable and new ones are very scarce, S2011 boards and 3930K's are reasonably priced and faster so I would say to give an X58 setup a miss unless you just pick both up to tide you over for a short period of time until you go to Haswell-E



Not likely as Intel have stated that due to TDP limits you can have either an overclockable 6 core S2011 X79 cpu or a non-overclockable 8 core S2011 Xeon and those are your only two choices your ever going to have, an 8 core overclockable X79 cpu is never going to fly.



Probably for the reasons I have previously stated. Haswell-E will have 8 to 12 cores (if not 16) so that makes IB-E somewhat redundant.



I'd say yes get a 3930K as you won't be unhappy with your purchase. I don't understand this pre-occupation with "dead end tech", if you bought a S1155 2600K you had the top CPU and a 2700K brought what 100Mhz extra to the table so its not something you would be opening up a bottle of champagne for. If you have a S1155 3770K now are you going to be waiting for a S1155 3870K cpu to come out for another extra 100Mhz? I don't think so.



I suggest you get a 6 core 3930K and overclock it to 4.0 - 4.5 Ghz as this will be faster than an 8 core Xeon that can't be overclocked and is also very expensive. I can recommend this motherboard GA-X79S-UP5-WIFI as it replaces the X79 chipset with the Intel C606 chipset which allows you to run either a 3930K or an E5 8 core Xeon if you really want one of those, also has other improvements like letting you run ECC memory or connect 10K or 15K rpm SAS drives directly, also a maximum memory limit of 64GB is a nice thing to have if you need it as S1155 is restricted to 32GB.

Cheers

Thank you all for the great advice. I am going to go with a 3930K build. From all benchies I have seen, it should be almost twice as fast as my current rig which should be very noticeable. Besides the increased CPU power, I am also hoping the X79 chipset resolves some of the issues that I experience with my current Bad Axe 2 board, namely the noticeable CPU usages when one of my hard disk is being accessed. Hopefully this new machine will last me as long as my old QX6700 machine did, I can't stress enough how rock solid this machine has been. Three video cards later (8800 GTX, 470 GTX, to 670 GTX) and I can still play most games with all bells and whistles on. Just need some more ooph for my rendering work!

Cheers all!
 
Considering generally nothing is fast enough for 3D rendering, I'd probably look more into getting some cheap Core2Quad or older Core i-series stuff and running them as a render farm.

This used to be a great idea back in the day (I had a bunch of Celeron 266's overclocked to 450) now many of the 3rd party plugins require a separate license per additional workstation. For the hassle of trying to keep everything in synch between the render nodes, I would rather just try and get as much CPU muscle from one machine.
 
Does the software not have CUDA support? I'd think software like that would be a perfect candidate.

The VRay renderer I use does have CUDA support, but many advanced rendering features are not as of yet supported with the real time renderer. So while my GTX 670 is great for previews, you still need the CPU horsepower to crunch out animation frames and detailed stills.
 
mm, xeons.

if you're doing 3d rendering get a xeon with ecc, and a workstation card.

Surprisingly enough, the gains you used to see with a workstation card are not as much as you used to see now that a lot of the programs are optimized to use Direct 3D as their viewport renderer of choice. While I don't have much experience with the latest ATI cards in 3DSMax, the new Nvidia cards work amazing and even with million plus poly scenes the card rips through it.
 
Well titan does cost 1000$ per card, so... :)

There was a good article at Anandtech's about Rendering & Calculations :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6808/westmereep-to-sandy-bridgeep-the-scientist-potential-upgrade/6

While the numbers don't apply directly to your case, they do provide a perfect example of "case by case issue".

As Ivy Bridge E got delayed (again) if you feel you need "more power" get a 3930K
(3770K might be cheaper but you do lose 2+2 Cores for higher clockspeed & ipc).

How well does your rendering scale with cores or speed ? :)
4x2.66 vs 4+4 x3.5 you'll probably see a 50% increase in frames rendered per second.
4x2.66 vs 6+6 x3.2 you'll probably double your frames, maybe even a little bit more.
 
A 4770K wouldn't be a bad choice and its release is much more certain than any IB-E or Haswell-E at this point.
 
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