Its being reported that Intel have started selling their Haswell stepping which will feature 17 New mobile variants and 27 new desktop processors ranging from the new high-end Core i7-4790 clocking in at 3.6ghz to less power-hungry version, the 65W TPD 4790S.
According to Techpowerup, there will be no new tech as such with this release of Haswell processors which means no Intel Iris, 14nm core architecture or 9 series chipsets (which will come with the ‘Broadwell’ stepping) these are just 4th generation Intel refresher processors however, we have been graced with a slight clock increases across the board which is great news for people with cash burning a hole in their pocket.
No unlocked devil’s canyon
While the tables below show a lot being added to the range, a majority of these Intel processors are mid to budget range ‘refresher’ cpus including some new Celeron variations, the unlocked ‘K’ variations will come at a later date – which is bad news for enthusiasts looking to get their hands on the new unlocked ‘Devil’s canyon’ versions, but this begs the question “is Intel stalling their release of their broad well CPU range because of a lack of competition?”
The new desktop Intel processors
The Mobile Intel CPU variations
Competition
You might be asking yourself if you don’t follow PC technology news, why would a company release a refresher set of processors, why not just invest the funds spent on marketing into improving their next generation of cpus?.
The answer I feel is because they can. Intel have never had any real competition when it comes to CPUs for a while now, they had a brief period of serious competition from AMD with their XP and 64bit CPUs that absolutely dominated the market with short pipeline architecture that really performed in games over ten years ago now, but since Intels early range of mobile Centrino CPUs which essentially lead to the i3, i5 and i7 modals, they have not seen any real competition.
with Apple adopting Intel CPUs in all of their new laptops and desktops that inevitably pushed a lot of extra revenue into Intel’s pocket which funds advancements in processors technologies and while that’s great news for us the consumer is not so great for AMD.
Should you buy now or wait for Broadwell?
If you have money to burn then sure go and upgrade for the sake of 100mhz (which is barely noticeable in terms of real world computing performance), however if you are like me, a more cash conscious buyer I would wait out for Intels Broadwell range of cpus which will bring with it a new chipset, Iris graphics and 14nm architecture which will undoubtedly lead to higher, chiller and more stable overclocks.