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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B166ER - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Exaggeration to emphasize a point..tipoo - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
What's the point if it doesn't remotely make sense? That's not an exaggeration, it's just not the truth, the dGPU is significantly better than any Intel iGPU.Cooe - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Umm. Lol can you read? Perhaps you need your eyes checked? Because I really can't fathom how you ended up at THAT conclusion. This is a near GTX 1060 level part we're talking about here (and well beyond the 1050Ti). As others have said, it'll fall right around the MaxQ version of the 1060. That's damn impressive considering the size & power envelope.OEMG - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
In page 4 ("Intel’s Performance Numbers") the last table's headers are wrong (should be GH vs 1060).I wonder how FreeSync would work if they're powering down the pGPU. One guess is some sort of mode switching to the iGPU's display engine as for light workloads the iGPU is more than capable to maintain max display frame rate. But then, there's some protocol stuff being done in FreeSync/G-Sync so it could also be that the pGPU's display engine would always be on with the iGPU feeding into it.
neblogai - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
On 4th page, last two charts (and also text between them) should have GH series part, instead of i7-8509G Vega M GL.StevoLincolnite - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
"Coffee Lake processors, using Intel’s latest 14++ process and running up to 8 cores."I could have sworn they only topped out at 6-cores.
nerd1 - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
I don't get it, AMD GPU has never been good for efficiency, but now they claim to beat NVdia 1050/1050 ti in terms of efficiency.... sounds too good to be true.tipoo - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
EMIB + HBM2 + a multichip module with Intel is what it takes apparently. With all those edges, I'm sure it can manage to edge out 1050 perf/watt like they say, it's not all in the architecture.tipoo - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Also states power sharing saves 18 watts, so that's a lot of handicaps for the more efficient Pascal to catch up with.Cooe - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
EMIB adds nothing performance or efficiency-wise over a regular interposer like AMD uses. It's simply thinner/cheaper. Also, people drastically undervalue how power efficient Vega is when clocked in it's efficiency "sweet spot". The reason it looks so bad in Vega 56/64 (the latter especially) is because the clocks have been pushed right up to the process' limits, and well, well beyond said "sweet spot". The clock's being used here, otoh, fall right within it (for obvious reasons). I think people are going to be very surprised by both the efficiency here, and in the Vega Mobile dGPU AMD announced today (which could very well be based off this graphics part, but we'll know soon enough. I'd bet my lunch it ends up in discrete desktop cards as well at some point to replace at-least the 560 & 570, and possibly 580).