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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haukionkannel - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
This. Vega is very effisient in low clock rates!Yojimbo - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Where do they claim that it will beat the GTX 1050 in terms of power efficiency? They show some select benchmarks that imply a certain efficiency in those specific cases, but I didn't see that they mentioned general power efficiency or price at all.This package from Intel does have HBM, which is more power efficient than GDDR5. That will help. But overall, my expectation is that Intel's new chip will be less efficient in graphics intensive tasks than a system with a latest generation discrete NVIDIA GPU. The dynamic tuning should help in cases where both CPU and GPU need to draw significant power, though.
We probably know how Vega performs. Assuming that the chips aren't TDP constrained, the more powerful of the two variants should probably perform somewhere between a 560 and 570 in games. The lesser variant should perform around a 560, less or more depending on how memory bandwidth plays into things. We'll have to see how power constraints factor into to things though.
Another thing to keep in mind is that for most of its lifetime, this chip will probably be going up against NVIDIA's next generation of GPUs and not their current generation. Intel did benchmark it against a 950M, but I wouldn't put it past them to ignore price differences in a comparison they release. The new chips will probably be expensive enough that they will have to go up against the latest generation of their competitor's chips.
Kevin G - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
This does leave room for Intel produce a slimmer GT1 or even omitting a GPU entirely for mobile when the know that it will be paired with a Radeon Vega on package. That'd permit Intel to decrease costs on their end, though this would up to Intel to pass onward to OEMs.nico_mach - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
AMD wasn't good at efficiency mostly due to fabbing. That's easily fixable with a deep-pocketed and suddenly desperate partner like Intel.artk2219 - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link
Vega is actually pretty efficient, just not when they try to chase high performance, then the power requirements jump exponentially in response to the higher clocks and voltage. Also, AMD has had the fficiency crown multiple times, just not recently. The Radeon 9700 pro, 9800 pro, 4850, 4870, 5850, 5870, 7790, 7950, and 7970 all say hello when compared to their Nvidia counterparts of the time.jjj - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Ask AMD for a die shot so we can count CUs lolshabby - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
8th generation... kaby lake? Have i been sleeping under a rock?evilpaul666 - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Is there a difference between Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake that I'm unaware of?shabby - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
In mobile the only difference was the core count, it doubled when coffee lake was released, but this kaby lake has similar core counts for some reason.extide - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Yeah, for U/Y (and now G) series 8th gen is 'Kaby Lake refresh, not Coffee Lake)