• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

i7 new stepping

ev0styLe

ev0styLe

ev0styLe

Associate
Joined
7 Dec 2008
Posts
144
Location
Brighton
Hey guys for people who want to jump on the i7 platform do u think its better for them to hang on for the new stepping? Its meant to be released March 2nd and will require a BIOS update.

"Description of Change to the Customer:
Intel is initiating a C-0 to D-0 stepping conversion for the Intel® Core™ i7-920 processor where it will undergo the following changes:
• New S-spec and Material Master numbers for the converting products.
• CPUID will change from 0x000106A4 to 0x000106A5.
• The electrical, mechanical and thermal specifications remain within the current specifications. Intel anticipates no changes to customer platforms designed to previous Intel guidelines.
• Readable serial number will be removed from the package ink swatch to fully mitigate the potential risk of the IHS cosmetically overlapping a marked serial number. There is no change to the ULT matrix content which continues to contain the serial number."

Chris
 
Or if your synical. And read the tech stuff.

It mainly shows 920 chip to o/c to similar levels as the 965 o/c to. Hence there is no real difference as long as you get fast memory.

Intel may have under-estimated memory manufacturers speed to produce ddr3 that exceeds what is required for i7. Helping the o/c community to jump all over 920. gimping sales of 940,965.

And as such may be changing/gimping the 920 in march.

Its all speculation i guess. but at the end of the day you can get 920 and clock it for +40% now on air.
Or wait and hope they dont gimp 920 :)

Ask yourself.. Why are they only changing the 920?.. Chukkle
 
Last edited:
They will most probably use cheaper material and gimp it. Reducing price to spoil AMD's launch and introduce an incentive towards the 940 and beyond.


In my book, when you have something "better" you want people to be aware of the fact and buy into.

Statements like "We decided to change the serial number!" either mean the current stepping has a major flaw which is best to be kept secret, or is being downgraded and again not a wise thing to announce.


Ofcourse all this are my own thoughts/speculation.

Feel free to have your say :)
 
So u guys reckon now that AMD have revealed that their new chips dont compete with i7, Intel are going to cut costs with their best selling chip and let the profits roll?

Id hate to go out there and buy into the C0 stepping only to find out that D0 is better :eek:

Its also annoying that I may have to put my already delayed build on hold :(
 
ev0styLe said:
So u guys reckon now that AMD have revealed that their new chips dont compete with i7, Intel are going to cut costs with their best selling chip and let the profits roll?

Id hate to go out there and buy into the C0 stepping only to find out that D0 is better :eek:

Its also annoying that I may have to put my already delayed build on hold :(
Click to expand...

Best selling ?
 
No I think the logic is. all the i7 are produced the same.

Then Intel limit them as per usuall. only this time they have built in some static memory that holds all the settings. (next gen golden gate style. now the top cpu pins are for programming)

So its no real surprise " if " they all made the same. they all max out around the same speed. regardless of multiplyer.

Imagine you have the best cost efficient Fab tech in the world.
And you just dropped your weaker links(old fabs). would you produce your i7 using your best Fabs onry?

Sht yes. So the question is. what is the variance on yields from your fabs. If your all conservative and say..965 speed. then rest of the production is same/close to that; yes?

nvm.. think as you will. but I am from the old days of breaking resistors from 2x drives to free them into 4x drives with double the cache.. I guess(after beer) its more Philosophical, we are all created equal.

So if the world knows you sell £240 part that can perform as £900 part.

What would "you" do to protect your profit?
 
I'm hoping its better and would probably buy one to see if it clocks any better than my current chip which needs lots of juice over 3.6Ghz and I can't get stable at 4Ghz.
 
deffo this is reason enough to change ;)

CPUID will change from 0x000106A4 to 0x000106A5.
 
Was that sarcasm? Lol I still dont know whether to buy C0 now or wait for D0. Worst case scenario I wait for D0, its worse than C0 and im stuck with a worse off chip. My question is, will there be reviews out in time so that if the chip was worse, C0 stock will still be floating around?
 
I would and am getting mine this weekend. Been holding off on upgrading for 6 months and hearing this, has tempted me to get it before the new stepping comes into play.

This is purely because the current stepping seem to (except a few) clock very nicely, and that's all I need. If the new stepping clock even better, then thats, great I might be tempted to get another if its a massive improvement.

But if it turns out to be the case that they are gimping it, then I'll be glad I got a chip that does everything I need it to and more (bar make tea ;))
 
I got my i7 parts this week, went with 920. 42% overclock with all 8 threads still running will do me fine.

seen a few curious things overclocking it though. makes me think the 100w limit kicks in and locks it to 20x multi way before the heat gimps it.

Will be intereasting to see if they lower the 100w setting on the new steppings. that would mess things up a little.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom