Intel Core with Radeon RX Vega M Graphics Launched: HP, Dell, and Intel NUC
by Ian Cutress on January 7, 2018 9:02 PM EST8th Gen Gets More Complex: Confirmed Kaby Lake
The title of this page is a retrospect as to how Intel has literally thrown away the naming scheme that has driven its core product base for the last few years, confusing everyone (including high profile partners). The previous naming scheme was for the most part unambiguous – each processor ‘generation’ was one specific Core family or Core microarchitecture design. For an enthusiast, the 6th Generation Core family was based around Skylake, or 4th Generation Core family was Haswell. Not anymore.
When it was announced back at Intel's Manufacturing Day that Intel was going to be fluid on product line architecture and naming, it would appear that we (the technology press, the enthusiast community) severely under-estimated how fluid it would be. This is currently how history will see the 8th Generation:
| Intel's Core Architecture Cadence (1/7) | |||||
| Core Generation | Microarchitecture | Process Node | Release Year | ||
| 2nd | Sandy Bridge | 32nm | 2011 | ||
| 3rd | Ivy Bridge | 22nm | 2012 | ||
| 4th | Haswell | 22nm | 2013 | ||
| 5th | Broadwell | 14nm | 2014 | ||
| 6th | Skylake | 14nm | 2015 | ||
| 7th | Kaby Lake | 14nm+ | 2016 | ||
| 8th | Kaby Lake-R Coffee Lake-S Kaby Lake-G Cannon Lake-U |
14nm+ 14nm++ 14nm+ 10nm |
2017 2017 2018 2018? |
||
| 9th | Ice Lake ... |
10nm+ | 2018? | ||
| Unknown | Cascade Lake (Server) | ? | ? | ||
So far, Intel has launched three specific Core microarchitecture designs as ‘8th Generation’ products, and a fourth has been announced. At the high-end, we have the desktop class Coffee Lake processors, using Intel’s latest 14++ process and running up to 8 cores. For mobile, Intel has launched the 15W Kaby Lake Refresh processors, pushing quad-core Kaby Lake parts into where dual-core 7th Generation Kaby Lake hardware used to go. Then there is this new product, Kaby Lake-G, which is not explicitly a refresh, as it uses the same 7th Generation H-series cores as before. The fourth piece of the puzzle is Intel’s first crack at 10nm with Cannon Lake, which at CES 2017 was promised to be shipping by the end of the year in 2017, but unfortunately has missed the target.
Extrapolating this terminology, we can look forward (!) to similar naming in future generations. During 2018 we are expecting Intel to fill out the Coffee Lake processor line, perhaps even bringing it into the market where current 8th Generation parts already exist or perhaps even where 7th Generation parts are. Unfortunately, looking at the processor name and number will no-longer be an indication of the microarchitecture underneath.
Intel’s response to this, to be clear, is that they state that the 8th Generation product portfolio represents the best of what Intel has to offer in each of the respective product segments. Intel’s best will have the highest number, essentially. While this is probably not a bad position to take, it can leave customers in a situation where if the customer has a good last-generation product, but wants to ‘downgrade’ to a mid-range latest-generation product, the user could end up paying for getting the same hardware in return.
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mczak - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
FWIW apple has shipped plenty MBPs where the charger isn't quite sufficient. These will drain the battery a little even if plugged in when running at full tilt (and at least some of them also have the habit of running really really slow if the battery isn't just old but completely dead because they will be forced to low power states).Albeit I agree for a 89W charger a 100W cpu+gpu is probably too much, since together with the rest of the system that might amount to a sustained power draw of over 110W, which would drain the battery too fast. But if apple wants a 80W version of it, I'm pretty sure intel would just deliver that, those limits can be easily changed.
Kevin G - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
And MS SQL Server is available for Linux. I think hell has frozen over.tracker1 - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
For what it's worth, MS SQL Server on Linux/Docker is fairly limited, and the mgt software is still windows based, though you can do anything you need via sql execute statements... it's not the friendliest. I usually treat my database as mostly dumb anyway.Zingam - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
But does it melt down?haukionkannel - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Yes it does.B166ER - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
I just don't get this marriage. It seems the graphics power is juuust a wee bit over intels cores, so what graphics need would this push? "Oh look I get 5 more fps in Minecraft!"??schizoide - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
I thought it would be faster than that, so i did some back of the napkin math. 24 CUs = 43% of a Vega 56, but 19% slower on the GPU and 50% slower on the HBM. Seems reasonable to guess it will offer about 25% the performance of a Vega 56.Vega56 gets 20k in 3DMark, 25% of that is 5k. The fastest iGPU I could find on futuremark's site is the 6700HQ, which scored 7910. So... it's slower than the fastest intel GPU from 2 years ago. Is that right?
schizoide - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Yeah that wasn't right, futuremark switched it from GPU to CPU when I searched for Intel. The fastest GPU score I could find for an Intel iGPU was the Iris Pro 6200 from the Broadwell generation. It got 1630. Skylake improved the iGPU quite a lot but I can't find the benchmarks offhand.JohnPec - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Linus said it will be as good as 1060maxq or better.tipoo - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Hm? It's definitely a fair shot over the Iris Plus 650, and the Pro line seems dead after the Pro 580. This will absolutely be 3-4x over an Iris Plus 650, let alone the eDRAM-less Iris HD 630 thrown in there.What did you mean by barely above the Intel part? I see nothing close.