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New Intel roadmap reveals unlocked Broadwell due for Q2

by Ryan Martin on 2 February 2015, 15:45

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

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Intel has prolonged the life of its Haswell architecture surprisingly well - the first wave of Haswell CPUs arrived in mid-2013 and the second wave of Haswell-refresh CPUs arrived a year later. Close to two years of shelf-life for one microarchitecture is something we rarely see from Intel, a company that normally likes to abide by its fast-paced tick-tock development cycle.

The latest leak suggests Haswell will remain Intel's most current CPU until about April this year when the chip giant will be moving on to pastures new with the release of unlocked Broadwell-based CPUs, according to the latest roadmap. These CPUs advance power efficiency over current Haswell offerings by specifying 65W TDPs for unlocked quad-core models (QC). Intel then has another trick up its sleeve as it will release Skylake-S parts in the following quarter, Q3, just in time for Computex 2015.

The wave of new Broadwell CPUs in Q2 will be compatible with existing LGA1150 motherboards and are designed to prolong the life of the Z97 platform. The second release, Skylake-S in Q3, will introduce a new socket and chipset known as LGA1151 and 100-series, respectively. Interestingly, Skylake-S also includes fully-unlocked quad cores, but this time with the typical 95W TDP that we've come to expect from Intel enthusiast chips.

Both Broadwell and Skylake are fabricated from the same 14nm process node, although Skylake, obviously, is the most up-to-date CPU architecture of the duo. Both new CPUs being released in such a similar timeframe marks a new (enforced - ed) strategy from Intel, one where it will allow two different mainstream platforms to co-exist at the same time - LGA1150 with Haswell and Broadwell CPUs, LGA1151 with Skylake CPUs. That is in addition to its enthusiast platform, current based on the X99 chipset and Haswell-E CPUs, which is slated for an upgrade to Broadwell-E CPUs in Q1 of 2016.



HEXUS Forums :: 16 Comments

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Hmm, interesting stuff. Lets hope for more then 5% increase on the CPU cores this time, although I won't be holding my breath!
Only 65w parts and Skylake k a quarter later? sounds fishy to me?
Well, I have a Phenom x4 II 965 3,4 GHz for 5+ years now.
Whatever the speed of skylake, I'll be better off with it.
I've been pondering an upgrade for a while now. I've scrapped the thought of 4K gaming, which would have required a new mobo and CPU, mobo for PCIe 3.0 and CPU to go in it, most probably an i7. But after seeing 4K gaming in action, I just don't see it worth it (needing 2 980s just to get a decent FPS), not to mention a 28" 4K screen is too much for desktop use.

So I reckon I'll go with QHD 144hz instead, with a pair of 970s. Maybe drop in an i7 to replace the i5 but might not even do that. Intel are just too good, I've had this 2500 for 4 years and it still runs like a dream.
I am more worried about the price now that the 4690K is approaching Ā£200 at most retailers now. That is a ridiculous price for a i5 so just how much is the next gen going to be?