So let me get this straight.. I can buy a quad core CPU with HT and 8MB L3 cache for $568, OR i can pay $1096 for the exact same CPU/GPU (i7-2860QM), with the only difference being it is clocked 200mhz slower @stock and 100mhz slower turbo??
I understand theirs always a premium for the flagship model for anything computer related, but 2x the price for 100-200mhz?!
Sad thing is many uninformed people or people with more dollars than sense will still buy it.
The real market for the Extreme processors is likely high-end mobile workstations. If you do a CPU intensive task for your work and the XE chip is on average 5% faster, over the years that will add up. Yes, it's a small increase, but then if an engineer is paid $75K, such an upgrade only needs to save 15 hours before it has paid for itself. This is also why things like Quadro 5010M GPUs can tack on nearly $2000 to the cost of a high-end notebook, because that's still only ~60 hours of time you need to save, and the difference in some applications is so great that someone working with a CAD program could likely make up for the increased cost in only a few months.
Gamers? Unless they're so wealthy that $500 just doesn't matter (e.g. professional athletes), most are unwilling to spend more than $1500 for a gaming notebook, and they'd prefer closer to $1000.
The continued existence of the extreme line indicates that there are enough people willing to pay a large price premium for a marginal increase in speed.
You could make a similar argument about any top end model sports car. You're spending $$lots over lesser models in the family for the ability to go from zero to speeding ticket in a fraction of a second less time.
For 99% of buyers neither offer any meaningful increase and are just about bragging rights; but those suckers subsidize the prices for the handful of people who need a portable workstation and who actually are CPU bound enough to justify the cost or who take their car to tracks to race on the weekends instead of just using it as a commuter/bar crawler vehicle.
Why bother coming out with anything less than HD3000 anyway? It's not like it makes a huge difference energy-wise, and when push comes to shove, a Llano, though not powerful, is still going to be a lot more tempting at the lower price points.
The Q in the part name implies a quad core part, but it's listed as a dual core processor. CPU world shows it as 4 core, 8 thread so I assume it's just a transcription error here.
I really don't know who at Intel decides how a SKU is defined. In the 'New Sandy Bridge Desktop CPUs' tablet above, the i3-2130 has a 3.4GHz clock paired with an HD 2000 GPU running at 850/1100 MHz, priced at $138. The i3-2125 on the other hand has a 3.3GHz clock paired with an HD3000 GPU also running at 850/1100 MHz, priced at $134 lower.
Firstly, for the general retail consumer market, I fail to understand the need for 2 SKU's separated by $4! To make matters worse, the --cheaper-- one supposedly has a GPU with --more-- features enabled. WHY?!?! 0_o
They're probably equal quality bin parts; one just uses more of it's TDP for the GPU than the other. I'm guessing the pricing reflects that most of the buyers of those systems will be sufficiently non-technical that they'll only look at the GHZ and not the GPU part number and not have the knowledge to realize that 2125 is the better part for probably 95% what the systems will be used for (most of the 5% being boxes with a discrete GPU).
The only one that looks interesting is the i7-2760QM, which is about 20% faster than the i7-2630QM. What is the bulk 1000 price for the i7-2630QM, I am curious what form of premium intel is charging between these cpus.
Less than $378 though, that's exactly what the 2720qm 1k bulk price is, and the 2760qm seems ~10% faster than that as well.
Just like Clarksfield "refresh"... same damn CPUs just with different binning. Intel is so far out ahead they can play with the market like this and withhold peak performance. Goddamn we need AMD to challenge in the big time again to force some honesty out of this monopoly.
Here I was hoping we were finally finished with single core desktop CPUs. I can't think of any reason - none - to cut $5 off the overall price of a computer for barely a third the CPU power of the next model up.
I am tired of all thse crippled processors. I wish either AMD or Intel would pair down their processor lines to just mobile and desktop with a few different flavors of each. Why underclock, disable cores or hyperthreading and do other foolish things so you can lower the price?
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karndog - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
So let me get this straight.. I can buy a quad core CPU with HT and 8MB L3 cache for $568, OR i can pay $1096 for the exact same CPU/GPU (i7-2860QM), with the only difference being it is clocked 200mhz slower @stock and 100mhz slower turbo??I understand theirs always a premium for the flagship model for anything computer related, but 2x the price for 100-200mhz?!
Sad thing is many uninformed people or people with more dollars than sense will still buy it.
Dorin Nicolaescu-Musteață - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
And also 10W hotter.XM's are also unlocked Though, I don't know who is going to overclock a notebook...
quiksilvr - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
You would figure at that price point they would give more Cache or a more impressive Turbo speed, but alas, tis a chip sold solely for idiots.bludragon - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Actually, it's a chip listed only to make the $568 i7-2860QM appear to be reasonably priced :-)Also, I've not been following the latest naming cyprography courses, but is i7-2760QM really a 2 core part?
A5 - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
All the QM parts are Quad-core.Kristian Vättö - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Extreme parts have never been worth buying.melgross - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Gamers buy that stuff. But then, they also decorate their memory with LEDs and neon, and buy cases that look like aliens.chinedooo - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
No self respecting gamer would buy an extreme edition processor. Usually the bottle neck comes from the GPU so they spend more money on that.JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
The real market for the Extreme processors is likely high-end mobile workstations. If you do a CPU intensive task for your work and the XE chip is on average 5% faster, over the years that will add up. Yes, it's a small increase, but then if an engineer is paid $75K, such an upgrade only needs to save 15 hours before it has paid for itself. This is also why things like Quadro 5010M GPUs can tack on nearly $2000 to the cost of a high-end notebook, because that's still only ~60 hours of time you need to save, and the difference in some applications is so great that someone working with a CAD program could likely make up for the increased cost in only a few months.Gamers? Unless they're so wealthy that $500 just doesn't matter (e.g. professional athletes), most are unwilling to spend more than $1500 for a gaming notebook, and they'd prefer closer to $1000.
DanNeely - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
The continued existence of the extreme line indicates that there are enough people willing to pay a large price premium for a marginal increase in speed.You could make a similar argument about any top end model sports car. You're spending $$lots over lesser models in the family for the ability to go from zero to speeding ticket in a fraction of a second less time.
For 99% of buyers neither offer any meaningful increase and are just about bragging rights; but those suckers subsidize the prices for the handful of people who need a portable workstation and who actually are CPU bound enough to justify the cost or who take their car to tracks to race on the weekends instead of just using it as a commuter/bar crawler vehicle.
SNORK - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
If the i7-2760 is a QM part, it is a quad core with 8 threads.mrscrib - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Why bother coming out with anything less than HD3000 anyway? It's not like it makes a huge difference energy-wise, and when push comes to shove, a Llano, though not powerful, is still going to be a lot more tempting at the lower price points.DanNeely - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
The Q in the part name implies a quad core part, but it's listed as a dual core processor. CPU world shows it as 4 core, 8 thread so I assume it's just a transcription error here.Kristian Vättö - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Seems to be a typo, I fixed it.z0mb13n3d - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
I really don't know who at Intel decides how a SKU is defined. In the 'New Sandy Bridge Desktop CPUs' tablet above, the i3-2130 has a 3.4GHz clock paired with an HD 2000 GPU running at 850/1100 MHz, priced at $138. The i3-2125 on the other hand has a 3.3GHz clock paired with an HD3000 GPU also running at 850/1100 MHz, priced at $134 lower.Firstly, for the general retail consumer market, I fail to understand the need for 2 SKU's separated by $4! To make matters worse, the --cheaper-- one supposedly has a GPU with --more-- features enabled. WHY?!?! 0_o
z0mb13n3d - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
table* and priced at a lower $134*DanNeely - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
They're probably equal quality bin parts; one just uses more of it's TDP for the GPU than the other. I'm guessing the pricing reflects that most of the buyers of those systems will be sufficiently non-technical that they'll only look at the GHZ and not the GPU part number and not have the knowledge to realize that 2125 is the better part for probably 95% what the systems will be used for (most of the 5% being boxes with a discrete GPU).Taft12 - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Buy the one with the HD2000 GPU if you have a discrete video card. May as well maximize the CPU TDP if you will never touch the GPU anyway.Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Celeron 787.Celeron 847.
Celeron 857.
Celeron B800?
Celeron B840?
Where are these parts? I havent seen anything for sale that uses any of these chips. Until I actually see something it is just vapor/paper.
You'd think these would be a major hit. Faster than brazos, for possibly even less money. (Due solely to economies of scale.) And longer battery life.
Taft12 - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Slower than Brazos for almost everything most users do with a PC (Flash games, Youtube, ...)Zak - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Geez... why so many CPU models?!?Roland00Address - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
The only one that looks interesting is the i7-2760QM, which is about 20% faster than the i7-2630QM. What is the bulk 1000 price for the i7-2630QM, I am curious what form of premium intel is charging between these cpus.bennyg - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
Less than $378 though, that's exactly what the 2720qm 1k bulk price is, and the 2760qm seems ~10% faster than that as well.Just like Clarksfield "refresh"... same damn CPUs just with different binning. Intel is so far out ahead they can play with the market like this and withhold peak performance. Goddamn we need AMD to challenge in the big time again to force some honesty out of this monopoly.
VoraciousGorak - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Here I was hoping we were finally finished with single core desktop CPUs. I can't think of any reason - none - to cut $5 off the overall price of a computer for barely a third the CPU power of the next model up.Taft12 - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Appliances with minimal processing needs.VoraciousGorak - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Which would seem to be the market for an Atom combo, no?Taft12 - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
Not if there's esoteric I/O needs requiring a PCI card or 2, HDMI port, you name it. Trust me, there's a call for this in my industry.ezinner - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
I am tired of all thse crippled processors. I wish either AMD or Intel would pair down their processor lines to just mobile and desktop with a few different flavors of each. Why underclock, disable cores or hyperthreading and do other foolish things so you can lower the price?