VR-zone has some info about Sandbridge platform

If all the info in that article is true then my interest in the Waimea Bay platform is piqued. Quad channel DDR3, elimination of separate platform clocks (only single base clock), PCI-e 3.0, 15MB (presumably L3). Sounds like a tasty sandwich. Throw in all the previously known information, 6-8 cores, new cache architecture which drastically lowers latency, AVX, etc and you've got the makings of a fantastic enthusiast platform which should last for years to come.
 
until intel presents a new architecture at least

I don't understand these sorts of replies. If you were an early adopter of the C2D series, say with an E6600, you had an upgrade path for almost four years. And a GOOD upgrade path at that.

If you bought an i7 920 when they first came out two years ago, you'd still be in good shape right now too. I mean really, what else is going to be two years old and still be at the top of the CPU pile? And if you needed more, go grab a Gulftown and a firmware update.

The socket 423 platform was a different story and it sucked, but socket 478 was around for a very long time. What about the Pentium Slot 1 architecture that spanned all the P2's and about half of the P3's? And even when the P3's went socketed, that wasn't insurmountable -- there were "slotkets" available.
 
With current triple channel designs barely offering a performance increase over dual configurations does it even make sense to go quad channel? (Aside from Servers that is)
 
With current triple channel designs barely offering a performance increase over dual configurations does it even make sense to go quad channel? (Aside from Servers that is)

It depends on the workload. I'm sure most common consumer workloads don't currently benefit from that much RAM bandwidth, but bandwidth needs are always increasing and there are scenarios which do benefit even now. Besides, better too much than too little, right?
 
It depends on the workload. I'm sure most common consumer workloads don't currently benefit from that much RAM bandwidth, but bandwidth needs are always increasing and there are scenarios which do benefit even now. Besides, better too much than too little, right?

True, but the difference between dual and triple channel is hardly of the order of 2-3% right now and even that is only in a few benchmarks. The added complexity of a quad channel design only adds to cost(which intel might pass on to us consumers) as well as the need for a new socket(tho this probably would have been needed anyway since they are going to integrate the pcie controller on die like lynnfield, its gonna have 2011 pads/pins)

Then again the advantage for intel is, since they use the same chip for Xeons, quad channel will help greatly since they get both higher B/W and the ability to use more RAM(This is one advantage Magny Cours has right now)
 
I'm not sure about this, but being that it's one module for channel, so max 4 modules, this not simplifies the tracing compared to 3 channels/2 modules?
or at least can be less dramatic than we tink
 
I'm not sure about this, but being that it's one module for channel, so max 4 modules, this not simplifies the tracing compared to 3 channels/2 modules?
or at least can be less dramatic than we tink

Nope you can run 2 DIMM's per channel, and i doubt it'll affect the tracing much.

Is Intel going to limit one module per channel for Sandy Bridge ?

I dont think theres any chance of intel doing that

I doubt Intel would do that, but we may see some Waimea Bay motherboards with only 4 DIMM slots.

Yea we might, i dont think there is enough space for 8 DIMM slots in an ATX motherboard. Or we might see them limit consumer chips to three channels and we'll see the same six DIMM slots as current X58 motherboards
 
Good to hear. Maybe some of the higher end mobo might use something bigger than ATX to accomodate those extra DIMM slots. Also what's the release schedule for Sandy Bridge like ? Will Intel release the 6-8 cores first or will the 4 cores + GPU come first ?

I am thinking that the one with GPU would benefit from quad channel more than the 6 cores.
 
Good to hear. Maybe some of the higher end mobo might use something bigger than ATX to accomodate those extra DIMM slots. Also what's the release schedule for Sandy Bridge like ? Will Intel release the 6-8 cores first or will the 4 cores + GPU come first ?

I am thinking that the one with GPU would benefit from quad channel more than the 6 cores.

Possibly, but some high end mobos are already bigger than standard ATX :p

The release schedule puts the release of dual and quad core parts on LGA 1155 first, in Q1 2011. And given that they've stayed with almost the same pin count as earlier it seems like they're sticking with dual channel. But with the change from LGA 1156 to 1155 seems like Intel's forcing motherboard upgrades on us

The 6-8 core parts are scheduled for Q3 2011. And Gulftown is already out so there's no urgency for higher end parts in that segment. They'll release gulftown at lower price points in the coming months though i dont think they'll reduce prices as low as AMD's six core parts
 
They'll release gulftown at lower price points in the coming months though i dont think they'll reduce prices as low as AMD's six core parts

I am sure they will price it accordingly to relative performance, so no, not as low as AMD's prices.
 
I am sure they will price it accordingly to relative performance, so no, not as low as AMD's prices.

Yep thats true, AMD's the one who's been forced to play the pricing game with intel. A Gulftown at say 2.66 Ghz would slot in just above the Phenom X6 at 3.2 Ghz, could be priced at say $316
 
Yep thats true, AMD's the one who's been forced to play the pricing game with intel. A Gulftown at say 2.66 Ghz would slot in just above the Phenom X6 at 3.2 Ghz, could be priced at say $316

That would erode prices on all 4-core i7s, I really doubt we'll see i7 970s sell for that low at launch. $500 is more like it, and even that will force prices to come down on some 4-core models.
 
That would erode prices on all 4-core i7s, I really doubt we'll see i7 970s sell for that low at launch. $500 is more like it, and even that will force prices to come down on some 4-core models.

Yep im not talking about the i7 970 at all, that was gonna be priced at $800+ according to the earlier reports. And they said it was gonna come out in Q3.

I was just suggesting a hypothetical scenario, in which if AMD's six core parts sell well, intel might be forced to counter with a lower priced gulftown
 
Intel's 4-core parts are competitive with AMD's 6-core parts. I don't think anything AMD does at this point will have much of an impact on Intel's product lineup, nor it's pricing.
 
Intel's 4-core parts are competitive with AMD's 6-core parts. I don't think anything AMD does at this point will have much of an impact on Intel's product lineup, nor it's pricing.

Agreed, Intel's 6-core part(s) are in a league of it's own, they can charge more, because they perform better.
Infact for mixed workloads, Intel's i5 hold up against PhII x6...
 
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