newimacs - Gizmodo

posts about #newimacs more →
New iMacs Get Core i7 Chips, But What Does That Mean?

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

ID Ron Burgundy
10/20/09

In reply to New iMacs Get Core i7 Chips, But What Does That Mean?
Thanks for the previous article, Giz. I read through it when it came out, but I was just looking for it.

i7 sounds good. Anyone have any idea of the difficulty level to transfer an Adobe CS3 license to a new computer?

Thanks #newimacs
Reply

ID Ron Burgundy was starred ID Ron Burgundy was unstarred

J2M3
10/20/09

In reply to New iMacs Get Core i7 Chips, But What Does That Mean?
Will this help the hackintosh movement at all? #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume approved this comment J2M3 was starred J2M3 was unstarred

anexanhume
10/20/09

@J2M3: Neutral. Nehalem was already used in the Pros, so the support was there. I'm not big on hackintoshing, but there may be some particulars to the P55 motherboards that it helps because of the new i5/i7's being used. #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume was starred anexanhume was unstarred

TJ
10/20/09

In reply to New iMacs Get Core i7 Chips, But What Does That Mean?
So I'm guessing the i7s in the iMac are going to be the Clarksfield variant? #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume promoted this comment TJ was starred TJ was unstarred

anexanhume
10/20/09

@TJ: Actually no, they look to be desktop Lynnfield cores. The 95W TDP is helped by the 27 inch enclosure, presumably. #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume was starred anexanhume was unstarred

TJ
10/20/09

@anexanhume: Thanks! #newimacs
Reply

TJ was starred TJ was unstarred

anexanhume
10/20/09

In reply to New iMacs Get Core i7 Chips, But What Does That Mean?
One should also note that the high end 27" has the 2.8 Ghz core i7 option. What you gain from this is a virtual 8 cores, due to hyper-threading being enabled. The core i5 does not feature hyper-threading, but is still a quad-core processor. #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume was starred anexanhume was unstarred

Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
10/20/09

@anexanhume: More like pseudo 8 cores. Have people really been writing apps that take advantage of hyper-threading lately?

I mean, Intel hasn't had a ht capable CPU for over 4 years between it's Core Duo and Core 2 Duo cpus... #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume
10/20/09

@Lite: hates Illinois Nazis: If it takes advantage of multiple cores, it takes advantage of hyper-threading. People were coding programs with independent threads even before we had dual cores. The advantage of having hyper-threading is the Turbo Boost. If you use 2 threads in one core as opposed to 1 thread in 2 cores, that 1st core can be OC'ed more than those two, yielding higher performance. #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume was starred anexanhume was unstarred

dave005
10/20/09

@Lite: hates Illinois Nazis: All you need to take advantage of it is more threads running concurrently. Even if NONE of your apps take advantage of HyperThreading directly, you will benefit from it.

Hyperthreading wasn't absent from Intel's newer chips because it was inherently bad -- it was absent because it was first baked into the Pentium 4 architecture, which as you may recall, was a steaming pile. They have in recent years ported HT to the Atom and i7 architectures.

HT was a MUST-HAVE for the P4 because it's obscenely-long pipeline made cache misses too expensive. In a CPU with an architecture as short as a Core2Duo it's not nearly as beneficial.
Reply

anexanhume approved this comment dave005 was starred dave005 was unstarred

Unsolicited Advice
10/20/09

In reply to New iMacs Get Core i7 Chips, But What Does That Mean?
God damn it, where are the i7-based MacBook Pros? That's the only thing preventing me from throwing more dollars at Steve Jobs. #newimacs
Reply

Wilson Rothman promoted this comment Unsolicited Advice was starred

Wilson Rothman
10/20/09

@Unsolicited Advice: My guess is that they'll be i5 when they come, not i7. #newimacs
Reply

Wilson Rothman was starred Wilson Rothman was unstarred

anexanhume
10/20/09

@Wilson Rothman: Arrandale was her name-o. #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume was starred anexanhume was unstarred

Unsolicited Advice
10/20/09

@Wilson Rothman:

So help me understand, because obviously 7 is moar better then 5, but it's not clear from your prior article what I'm missing out on:

The new Core i7 chips, launched last month, are for desktop and mobile. The desktop variant is codenamed Lynnfield, and it more closely resembles its mobile equivalent, codenamed Clarksfield, than it does the Bloomfield monster—dual-channel memory, not triple, for instance.

...

Core i5 is going to be Intel's more mainstream Nehalem-microarchitecture chip brand, and as a broader brand, the chip differentiation gets a little more confusing. Core i5 actually includes some, but not all, of the desktop Lynnfield processors. For now, the only Core i5 chip is quad-core, but you're going to start seeing dual-core Core i5 chips, and soon enough they will make up the bulk of Intel's mainstream processors. In English: Unless you're looking for a crazyfast new computer, your next machine will probably run an Intel Core i5 CPU.

Is i5 not as "crazyfast" as i7? Am I being crazy to hold out? I run an i7 on my desktop and the system screams - but I crave the design sensibility/form factor/software suite of the MB Pro. Help me understand more clearly the i5/i7 tradeoffs, wise one. #newimacs
Reply

Unsolicited Advice was starred

anexanhume
10/20/09

@Unsolicited Advice: The core i7 features hyper-threading (allow a second thread to be run on each core for a total of 8), and Intel has also hamstringed the motherboards for i5 by limiting the number of PCI express channels (as well as three down to two memory channels). Turns out, game benchmarks don't give a shit. So, gamers are starting to migrate to the i5 cores now. #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume was starred anexanhume was unstarred

Unsolicited Advice
10/20/09

@anexanhume:

So there's a requirement for software support that's likely to be some time coming. Hyperthreading has been in and out of Intel's product lines IIRC because utilization has been low. An i5 will still scream, but processing-intensive tasks like encoding and the like have untapped potential in an i7 that might be incorporated by developers into apps like ProTools, etc. - processors where you're encoding or crunching a lot of data. Sounds safe enough to me.

So then, Steve, my business proposition is clear - shove an i5 or better into the MacBook Pro and you will receive $2K-$3K. But I'm not buying a C2D in late 2009. #newimacs
Reply

Unsolicited Advice was starred

Wilson Rothman
10/20/09

@Unsolicited Advice: Yeah, you got it right, now. I am sure that dual-core i5s will show up in MacBook Pros soon. And thanks Anexanhume—you must be related to Matt Buchanan! #newimacs
Reply

Wilson Rothman was starred Wilson Rothman was unstarred

anexanhume
10/20/09

@Unsolicited Advice: Expect MBP updates in Early 2010 (perhaps February to April) with core i5 branded parts. They will be 32 nm dual core parts with IGP and hyper-threading. #newimacs
Reply

anexanhume was starred anexanhume was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

#newimacs

Gizmodo

Gizmodo Team

SUBSCRIBE TO Gizmodo

New iMacs Get Core i7 Chips, But What Does That Mean?

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment