Do you think a K-series i3 would make sense?

[asim1999]

Do you think it would make sense?

If so, the lineus will probably look like this:

Pentium: G3258

i3:  4340K

i5:  4690K

I7: 4790K

I7 Enthusaist: 5820K

                       5930K

                       5960X 

 

[TheMcSame]

Seeing as we have an unlocked pentium I guess it makes sense to have an unlocked i3.

[GarnetDevil]

it makes a lot of sense to have K-i3

[TechCIDLC]

A budget hyper-threading processor that can overclock sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?

[Geekazoid]

Possibly, the i3 CPUs do have HT like their i7 counterparts.

[AlwaysFSX]

Yeah but then people would realize that'd put the i5 in an odd spot of not really being useful.

[DigitalHermit]

Why haven't they done this yet? I'd be all over an unlocked i3 as long as it's cheaper than the cheapest i5 in the same generation...

[ParticleAccaleration]

Yes I beg intel for this

[MuffinTopMike]

An unlocked i3 is an amazing idea!

[Lotus]

That would actually become the new go-to budget CPU instead of a locked i5, provided you can go nuts with overclocking even with the stock intel cooler because it'll only be a 2 core chip, and don't need a Z chipset motherboard (like the G3258). The problem with a K series i3 would be if you need a z chipset motherboard and an aftermarket cooler to overclock it, because by that point you could have stepped up to a locked i5 for better multi-threaded performance and still good single-threaded performance.

[Nup]

I'd love it. But I feel like it'd be harmful for their i5 sales.

[DirkW]

Seeing as we have an unlocked pentium I guess it makes sense to have an unlocked i3.

 

Remember, it was probably called an "anniversary edition" for a reason. I don't really expect any new unlocked Pentiums in the next years.

[Geekazoid]

Unfortunate I don't think it'd be too profitable for Intel to do this, but it definitely would be great if they did.

[007agentHP]

they need it, to have a hyper threaded cpu that can be overclocked for budget builders

 

Pentium: G3258

I3:  4370K They are missing this overclockable cpu price bracket, they would sell quite a bit if they did

i5: 4690k

i7: 4790k

enthusiast: i7 5820k and up

[Guest]

Yeah it would, because for gamers/users of professional apps, Pentiums don't make sense because they lack hyper-threading, but i3's can't overlock, so they're stuck at whatever they ship with.

[zappian]

I think it would see like hotcakes.

[Guest andyysplash]

Yeah but then people would realize that'd put the i5 in an odd spot of not really being useful.

 

Not really - it'll be exactly the same as for the locked processors. Would you rather buy an i5 4440 quadcore or an i3 4130? Obviously the CPU with 4 real cores will perform better, both in multitasking applications and in the more demanding games. I can't think of many games that don't use 4 cores when the load gets heavier, and at that point HT wouldn't cut it.

[AlwaysFSX]

Not really - it'll be exactly the same as for the locked processors. Would you rather buy an i5 4440 quadcore or an i3 4130? Obviously the CPU with 4 real cores will perform better, both in multitasking applications and in the more demanding games. I can't think of many games that don't use 4 cores when the load gets heavier, and at that point HT wouldn't cut it.

An i3 clocked at say 4 GHz will perform pretty much on par with an i5 for half the price.

[zappian]

Not really - it'll be exactly the same as for the locked processors. Would you rather buy an i5 4440 quadcore or an i3 4130? Obviously the CPU with 4 real cores will perform better, both in multitasking applications and in the more demanding games. I can't think of many games that don't use 4 cores when the load gets heavier, and at that point HT wouldn't cut it.

 

For games it would be useless imo.

 

Intel are not stupid , i would say my 4160 is gonna be pretty decent when i finally can fsb oc it to 3.7 ghz.

[Columbo]

You people should understand how easy it is to add bells and whistles to a CPU. The instruction set on the I7 could be upgraded and the I5 could have hyper threading adding minus a few of the bells and whistles to separate the I5 from the i7. A K series I3 is feasible.

[harrynowl]

Issue is they'd price it at the point where it'd barely make sense over the i5 4460.

 

In the UK the most expensive i3 is the 4370 or something IIRC, it can be had for £10 less than a i5 4460.

[Lotus]

You people should understand how easy it is to add bells and whistles to a CPU. The instruction set on the I7 could be upgraded and the I5 could have hyper threading adding minus a few of the bells and whistles to separate the I5 from the i7. A K series I3 is feasible.

You can't just add to the instruction set. It's way more complicated than that, and even if you did, you'd have to completely change the OS and how programs were written to make use of it.

[harrynowl]

You can't just add to the instruction set. It's way more complicated than that, and even if you did, you'd have to completely change the OS and how programs were written to make use of it.

He means instructions like AVX or TSX, not a fundamental re-write of the x86_64 architecture.

 

Either way I don't think instruction sets would be a good way of differentiating CPUs in the consumer market, a it's a lot harder to sell than cores/hyperthread/clockspeed and b most applications generally don't deviate from SSE and AVX. It'd have it's uses in professional use potentially but a lot of Pros buy Xeons etc anyway.

[david cassar]

It would probably be the go to processor for gaming. Sadly it would also take a chunk of sales from the locked i5s however which is probably why Intel haven't released an unlocked i3.

[zappian]

It would probably be the go to processor for gaming. Sadly it would also take a chunk of sales from the locked i5s however which is probably why Intel haven't released an unlocked i3.

 

People forget that we have had a unlocked i3 in the past and it didnt take a chuck of i5 sales.

 

The first i3 was unlocked.