Intel Launches its Most Power-efficient Processor Lineup Yet: 4th Gen Core is Here

Just in time for the warm weather, Intel has unveiled its long-awaited summer fashion line. Called “4th gen Core”, the company’s latest processors will fit you like a glove – or a CPU in a socket -, keep you cool on those hot summer nights, and naturally, help you be more efficient with your day-to-day activities. As always, no matter your needs – big or small – Intel has got you covered.

For a couple of reasons, our in-depth look at Haswell will come next week. For once, I can’t only blame a shipping company; rather, delays are due to a hilarious combination of things that have gone wrong. Nevertheless, once posted, our look will be worth a read (I mean, it goes without saying, right?).

As of today, Intel is only unveiling information about its quad-core parts; dual-core will come on Monday. With Ivy Bridge, Intel’s highest-end enthusiast offering was the Core i7-3770K; for Haswell, it’s the i7-4770K. Both models are spec’d with a 3.5GHz clock speed (and 3.9GHz Turbo) and have 8MB of L3 cache. Interestingly, the 4770K carries a TDP of 84W, while the 3770K is 77W.

We’re going to be talking a lot more about Haswell’s specific features in our forthcoming article, so here, we’ll just run-down a couple of important things. First: pricing. The Core i7-4770K carries a per/1,000 unit cost of $339, and is the only unlocked part of Haswell’s Core i7 lineup. That privilege for Core i5 comes to us from the i5-4670K, a 3.4GHz part w/ 6MB of L3 cache.

Those interested in specifics for each model, along with pricing, can check out these slides: 1, 2, 3.

With Haswell, Intel is aiming for its most scalable consumer part yet. It could effectively power everything from servers to tablets, and of course, our desktops and notebooks. Intel has always cared deeply about power efficiency, but it has taken things to a new level here. So much so, that some of the new power states require a compatible power supply – so it’s important to Google search for that before upgrading to Intel’s latest and greatest (motherboards generally will turn these states off by default, however).

As before, desktop parts could carry three different letters; K, for unlocked / overclocking; and then S and T for low-power (an example of the latter is the 35W i5-4570T). Mobile chips could be M for quad and dual-core 2-chip designs where H would be chips with Intel’s latest Iris Pro graphics.

As seen in the die shot below, Haswell’s design isn’t too dissimilar from Sandy / Ivy Bridge in terms of function arrangement. Somewhere in there is the brand-new FIVR, “Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator”. This is the key ingredient that allows Intel an unparalleled level of efficiency over its power delivery, as decisions on when to change the state of a core no longer has to happen outside of the CPU.

In terms of power, Intel claims that simply be changing from a Gen 3 to Gen 4 Core processor, notebook battery-life could potentially increase by 50%. An example using the i7-3667U and i7-4650U is given. HD video playback? An increase of 6 to 9 hours. MobileMark 2012? 6.1 hours to 8.3 hours. Standby? 4.5 days to 10 – 13 days. Seriously impressive stuff. And this, all while improving performance. As mentioned earlier this month, this launch also introduces Iris graphics – important to those using Ultrabooks or any other notebook without a discrete GPU.

We’ll save the bulk of the information surrounding Haswell for our launch article, but what we can tell you now is that it’s the most impressive microarchitecture to come out of Intel ever. Its improvements to power-efficiency alone are rather mind-blowing. For now, I’ll leave you with a wallpaper-ready shot of a Haswell wafer.

Intel Haswell Wafer (Click for 16:9 Wallpaper)