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Intel launches Haswell refresh in a boring year for desktop CPUs
Basically, take last year's Haswell, add 100 MHz or so, and you have Haswell Refresh. Aren't you thrilled? And for good measure, there isn't a new unlocked K version, as that would basically be the same as last year's but with a different "stock" clock speed.
Later this year, AMD will counter this by refreshing Vishera. The new CPU will be to Vishera roughly as Richland is to Trinity. So basically, add 200 MHz or so and call it a day. AMD has already launched Kaveri, and it isn't a terribly exciting desktop chip.
Intel may or may not launch Broadwell this year, and even if they do, it may or may not have a desktop version, and even if it does, it's not likely to be faster than Haswell. Intel does have Haswell-E coming this year, which will be the super expensive 6- and 8-core versions of Haswell.
And that's about it for desktop CPUs this year, unless you count nettops. But never fear, next year will probably be more exciting. It could hardly be less. AMD may offer a new high-performance CPU architecture next year that is not a derivative of Bulldozer, though it could easily get pushed back to 2016.
Comments
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Honestly, I haven't been excited about CPU's in a long time. This year seems par for the course. Same thing with GPU's.
Even server environments have felt kind of stale. I setup a new SAN array for a client and for the first time in years, the process wasn't very fun. Just kind of mundane. Some new stuff in the industry is still exciting, especially with virtualization and the use of SSD's in servers. CPU just isn't one of them these days.
You make me like charity
I have not felt a need to replace my 2600k that I picked up a good few years ago now.. Games are not currently using all the processing power that is currently available. So i guess there has not been that much reason to spend tons of cash rushing out a new processor that is not really needed yet
Still have a Intell 2500K O.C. to 4500 and can let it run on 5000ghz if needed.
havent felt the need to upgrade as its still kicking ass to this day...
No need to buy upgrades if its just slightly better....
Not to menion you basicly need a new MoBo + Mem + Cooler to go with it.
It seems tech is in a stalement and that improvements are getting much harder to push out.
The company that is going to make a world discovery and pushes the tech forward might be getting a lead in the next years.
Still i think AMD lost a gigantic momentum compared to intell in the year 2000 / 2010.
As a hardcore AMD fan i just coulnt buy their products anymore as Intell was just much better at price performance.
Hope to see some major new advancement soon :P
I think you nailed it. Process nodes can only get so much smaller and we're seeing less benefit for increasingly-expensive decreases in size. If the Sandy Bridge to Haswell process shrink is any indication of the future, we won't see much faster processors than what we have with current technology.
Good news is not hard to find, though. Graphene, quantum processing, and brain-inspired processors are probably ten to twenty years away from being commercially-available in products. With three technologies offering the potential to improve our computing power, at least one of them is likely to succeed soon.