Haswell: Up to 128MB On-Package Cache, ULV GPU Performance Estimates
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 12, 2012 12:26 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Haswell
- Trade Shows
- IDF 2012
Intel was surprisingly quiet about the remaining details of Haswell at IDF this year. We know the rough CPU architecture details, some info at a high level about the GPU and of course the platform power improvements. There is a lot more however.
We already know that in its quad-core GT3 configuration, Haswell will offer 2x the GPU performance of Intel's HD 4000 (Ivy Bridge GT4). What Intel didn't say however is that Haswell's ULV GT3 parts will offer around 30% better GPU performance than Ivy Bridge ULV GT2.
The improved graphics performance comes both from an updated architecture and more EUs, but also an optional on-package cache of up to 128MB in size. It's too early to talk about SKUs and DRAM configurations, but 128MB is the upper bound. Expect to see tons of bandwidth available to this cache as well.
On the CPU side you can expect a ~10% increase in performance on average over Ivy Bridge. As always we'll see a range of performance gains, some benchmarks will show less and others will show more.
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CaptainDoug - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
I've never had a desktop. Still burning through my laptop as a poor college student. Have been thinking of getting the 1155 socket setup and start from scratch and build a pc. But this processor keeps sounding better and better. I think I'm going to just buy a cheapo 775 socket computer off ksl or craigslist and mess around with it, then once I get serious I'll invest in the 1150 setup. Sandy bridge and Ivy bridge are nice but might as well learn on a $50 setup.CaedenV - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
not a bad idea if you are just getting into things, just don't make the mistake of getting an old system and then adding upgrades to it that will not work with your future 'real' build.CaptainDoug - Thursday, September 13, 2012 - link
Yep. I have done pretty much everything but actually get my hands into it. Very bored with that too...dananski - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
I tend to find really old stuff isn't any cheaper (except sometimes on ebay, but I don't trust them). Get something newer but low end and you get some nice features and upgrade options. If you're really budget-constained, maybe just get some peripherals to make your laptop a temporary desktop, though then you miss out on the fun of building your own machine :)cyrusfox - Thursday, September 13, 2012 - link
Totally agree with dananski, don't waste your time with 775, you will be paying too much for junk, Only time I build with 775 is when I am salvaging one of the many fried dells out there for friends, a new mobo and they are back in business, but for the price of the new mobo, it almost makes more sense to buy a cheapo 1155 board($50 bucks) and the awesome Celeron G530, its painful how quick that chip is compared to all the 775 chips out there. and you can easily pick it up for around $40.That's my two cents, but in your area you will only find overpriced junk, especially on KSL.
CaptainDoug - Thursday, September 13, 2012 - link
I keep seeing 775 socket computers that have a passmark score at least 1.5X better than my old laptop for like $50. All I'd have to do is maybe add some ram or a small video card. I understand spending too much on a dead setup is quite foolish, but $50? Not a bad deal.holymoly cajole - Monday, April 8, 2013 - link
What are you smoking? Even the Q6600 which has been around for almost a decade still kills the Celeron G530 just look up the passmark score the Q6600 gets about 3k without overclocking while the G530 2.4k, again, what are you smoking pal?<Oh and the funny thing is the Q6600 isn't even the fastest 775 chip look at the Q9650 especially when that's overclocked it hangs with I-7's so please don't talk bad about the longest lasting socket Intel ever made, now THAT'S STAYING POWER!Ryan Smith - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
128MB isn't enough to store assets, but it's enough for buffers. Depending on how bottlenecked GT3 is by memory operations, this could be quite interesting. The only thing I'd be concerned about at this point is whether 128MB is enough; for forward rendering games I imagine it will be, but in deferred renderers that G-buffer can get pretty large.MrSpadge - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
It should be a massive benefit anyway, if it's enough or not. And mid-term such a "L4 cache" might be what's desperately needed to signficantly increase IGP performance, without driving the number of memory channels and cost up. Might even be enough to get ahead of AMDs Fusion chips, if they can't get around the bandwidth problem.Alexvrb - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
Not all models will be shipping with 128MB, either. That's the highest-end models only. Given the performance predictions, I'd say 128MB probably won't show up in their ULV models at all.