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Intel finalising Ryzen spoiler Core i7 and i5 chip designs says report

by Mark Tyson on 7 February 2017, 10:01

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), AMD (NYSE:AMD)

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PC enthusiasts and gamers are getting pretty stoked up about the upcoming launch of AMD Ryzen processors, scheduled for 2nd March. Yesterday we looked over a leaked product matrix that contained a full range of 17 AMD Ryzen processors, with 8C/16T R7 chips at the high end through to 4C/4T chips at entry level. Of course pricing is key to how disruptive AMD's launch will be but it looks like Intel is pre-empting some trouble as rumours circulate about it implementing a "last-resort solution that represents a confession of indisputable weakness".

Intel Core i5 with Hyper-Threading?

French computer publication Canard PC is the source of the above quote. Its magazine editors have been informed that Intel is planning to adjust its Kaby Lake prices and introduce new chips to fend off the AMD challenge. For the scale of the price cuts to be seen I guess we will have to wait for AMD to show its hand, however insider sources have indicated to Canard PC that two new unlocked Kaby Lake chips have been designed to help fully answer AMD's new lineup. There will be a new unlocked Core i7 and Core i5 as outlined below, asserts the magazine.

  • Intel Core i7-7740K: Base frequency of 4.3GHz, Turbo of 4.6GHz. 8MB of L3 cache. TDP of 100W.
  • Intel Core i5-7640K: Base frequency of 4.0GHz. 6MB of L3 cache. TDP of 100W+. Plus last but not least - Hyper-Threading SMT support.

Above you will note that, if the rumours are correct, this will be the first modern Core i5 to have Hyper-Threading enabled. Indeed, as the source says, this feature is traditionally the dividing line between the i5 and i7 chip ranges. However, Intel has already shown that it is willing to blur boundaries in its seventh generation Core processor range with the unlocked Core i3-7350K and the Hyper-Threading enabled Pentium G4560.

Hyper-Threading on the Intel Core i5-7640K is not confirmed by all Canard PC sources but the magazine promises to clear up the uncertainty by the end of the week when it says one of these unannounced processors will arrive at its labs in France for testing.



HEXUS Forums :: 23 Comments

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this will be the first modern Core i5 to have Hyper-Threading enabled

this will be the first modern desktop Core i5 to have Hyper-Threading enabled
Pfft, if they cared they would have given us some fresh desktop Iris products where the nice big L4 cache would boost some game benchmarks rather nicely.

Instead they just overclock the existing chips? That seems lame, almost to the point of insulting to the consumer. Will be interesting to see where “100W+” ends up as a real measured power consumption.

Let's hope the lack of effort here means there is a team beavering away somewhere trying to come up with something new so no-one has time for refresh products like this.

shaithis
this will be the first modern desktop Core i5 to have Hyper-Threading enabled

Are you referring to the laptop chips which only have two cores so really just an i3 with an i5 label on it?
DanceswithUnix
Let's hope the lack of effort here means there is a team beavering away somewhere trying to come up with something new so no-one has time for refresh products like this.

You bet - these SMT enabled i5s will be interesting for a small number of people, but the real prize is the ground-breaking new architecture coming up that will change everything: by adding 2 more cores to each product level and matching AMD and returning status quo one more time.

You know it to be true.
In fairness Intel's mobile chip line up is insane. I have an i7 thats dual core and hyperthreaded at work.
DanceswithUnix
Are you referring to the laptop chips which only have two cores so really just an i3 with an i5 label on it?

Yup. Intels naming schemes are somewhat wacky already!