Having seen some stuff running in GDC on a core i9, I was wondering if anyone knew when it was inteded to market? Any specs/stats?
I found some stuff on google about a Polish site having one for a bit, but that was in 2009, so it seems likely that the processor they had was just renamed to i7 2600K.
I guess the i9 would also solve what that processor competition is about too.
Assuming GDC was recent and they were talking about a future product, it will be the socket 2011 stuff, out Q4 most likely, maybe not "that" late in Q4.
Basically you've got octo and hexcores with Sandybridge architecture in terms of cpu core, but with no intergrated gpu, so Sandybridge speed, minus quicksync(as its on the IGP), more cores and quad channel memory, hence the almost doubling of socket pin count(the vast majority of pins for any socket are connections to the memory).
It will have silly bandwidth, somewhere around double the performance in perfect scaling programs, probably a little less, but also likely reduced clocks(stock, oc'd we'll see) so stock performance top current Sandybridge vs top 2011 version will be 70-80% faster, but SLOWER in transcoding as quicksync is unbeatable.
Look at current hexcore Intel pricing, and have a guess what costs will be for that platform, not pretty, but very fast. If you work on your comp as in, work in 3d rendering or anything heavily cpu limited the cost shouldn't matter if time literally = money. In terms of value for money and usable performance, its going to be a bit overkill and insanely expensive.
Q1 2012 will see the 22nm Sandybridge refresh so new quad cores Jan/feb next year lower process, lower power, higher clock speeds and a few architecture updates.
AMD have Bulldozer in seemingly June, maybe a touch earlier, after that sub £400 cpu's won't see another refresh till early next year.
do we know when the Ivy Bridge is due for release or is it going to be next year before they come out?