Intel Skylake CPU and GPU architecture

[jos]

 

 

 

 

 

Now for Graphics

 

Gen9 Memory Hierarchy Refinements

Coherent SVM write performance is significantly improved via new LLC cache management policies.

The available L3 cache capacity has been increased to 768 Kbytes per slice (512 Kbytes for application data).

The sizes of both L3 and LLC request queues have been increased. This improves latency hiding to achieve better effective bandwidth against the architecture peak theoretical.

In Gen9 EDRAM now acts as a memory-side cache between LLC and DRAM. Also, the EDRAM memory controller has moved into the system agent, adjacent to the display controller, to support power efficient and low latency display refresh.

Texture samplers now natively support an NV12 YUV format for improved surface sharing between compute APIs and media fixed function units.

Gen9 Compute Capability Refinements

Preemption of compute applications is now supported at a thread level, meaning that compute threads can be preempted (and later resumed) midway through their execution.

Round robin scheduling of threads within an execution unit.

Gen9 adds new native support for the 32-bit float atomics operations of min, max, and compare/exchange. Also the performance of all 32-bit atomics is improved for kernel scenarios that issued multiple atomics back to back.

16-bit floating point capability is improved with native support for denormals and gradual underflow.

 

Gen9 Product Configuration Flexibility Refinements

Gen9 has been designed to enable products with 1, 2, or 3 slices.

Gen9 adds new power gating and clock domains for more efficient dynamic power management. This can particularly improve low power media playback modes.

 

 

I hope they release a datasheet

Source: http://hothardware.com/reviews/intel-skylake-architecture-preview-quick-take-from-idf-2015

http://hothardware.com/news/intel-skylake-gen9-series-graphics-architecture-unveiled

[Manny Calavera]

"Wait till Zen"

[AlwaysFSX]

So other than "bigger is better," how is all of this beneficial and how much does it improve performance..?

[DarkBlade2117]

"Wait till Zen"

People,also said wait for Skylake and guess what? The 4790k and 4690k are still better options

[Kurosaki Isshin]

"Wait till Zen"

[jos]

So other than "bigger is better," how is all of this beneficial and how much does it improve performance..?

Virtually every aspect of Skylake has been improved versus the previous-gen Haswell microarchitecture. I/O, Ring Bus, and LLC Throughput has been increased, the graphics architecture has been updated to support DX12 and new eDRAM configurations, it has an integrated camera ISP, support for faster DDR4 memory, and more flexible overclocking features. All of these things culminate in a processor that offers higher IPC performance and improved power efficiency.

[Interfectorem]

People,also said wait for Skylake and guess what? The 4790k and 4690k are still better options

In what way(s)?

[AlwaysFSX]

Virtually every aspect of Skylake has been improved versus the previous-gen Haswell microarchitecture. I/O, Ring Bus, and LLC Throughput has been increased, the graphics architecture has been updated to support DX12 and new eDRAM configurations, it has an integrated camera ISP, support for faster DDR4 memory, and more flexible overclocking features. All of these things culminate in a processor that offers higher IPC performance and improved power efficiency.

So this is just a "bigger is better" improvement, eh?

[typographie]

"Wait till Zen"

 

AMD themselves are only claiming up to 40% IPC improvement with Zen, and 40% approximately gets them to competitive levels with Haswell. Haswell will be over three years old by the time Zen is expected to be out. I'm not sure I'd be holding my breath, personally.

[DarkBlade2117]

In what way(s)?

You are paying more money for a very small improvement. Until the prices of the mobo drop and DDR4 is a bit cheaper I wouldn't get skylake

[CTR640]

"Wait till Zen"

Sure...

 

[jos]

So this is just a "bigger is better" improvement, eh?

It is not just bigger.. with same amount of transistor.. there s architectural improvements...

[AlwaysFSX]

It is not just bigger.. with same amount of transistor.. there s architectural improvements...

Numberwise, more things/more performance of the same things for improvements.

[Bob Jim]

You are paying more money for a very small improvement. Until the prices of the mobo drop and DDR4 is a bit cheaper I wouldn't get skylake

That won't take too long. Myself, I am waiting for Black Friday to pick up a 6600k or r9 380 or both, depending on deals.

[Interfectorem]

You are paying more money for a very small improvement. Until the prices of the mobo drop and DDR4 is a bit cheaper I wouldn't get skylake

Besides price, in what other way(s) is Haswell better than Skylake.

[Tomsen]

Biggest improvement would be in I/O limited applications, and hyper-threading.

No new big implementation, just a sequal to haswell really.

[Hunter7263]

People,also said wait for Skylake and guess what? The 4790k and 4690k are still better options

I don't know about better options. It about 10% more expensive and skylake has about a 10% improvement.To be honest the best option right now maybe the 5820k if you aren't pure gaming. Honestly even if you are pure gaming the future looks like its pushing more and more cores so the 6 cores on the 5820k maybe the way to go for more future-resistant builds. The is especially true now with DDR4 coming down so far in price and X99's as well. Its not a big leap over z97 with an i7 in price. In fact the difference is very small now.

[Stomplar]

Besides price, in what other way(s) is Haswell better than Skylake.

none

[DarkBlade2117]

Besides price, in what other way(s) is Haswell better than Skylake.

You are paying MORE for what? An extra 2 FPS in games? This is why Intel needs competition. AMD needs to pull something fast because until then we will see 5-10% improvements.

[Interfectorem]

none

Bingo!

 

You are paying MORE for what? An extra 2 FPS in games? This is why Intel needs competition. AMD needs to pull something fast because until then we will see 5-10% improvements.

Does not answer my question.

[Bob Jim]

Besides price, in what other way(s) is Haswell better than Skylake.

None. Skylake has slightly better performance, rumoured MUCH better in Single Threaded Tasks, DDR4 memory for faster speeds, supposedly less of a silicon lottery, USB 3.1 and Type-C on most mobos, extra PCIe lanes on the chipset allowing for SLI and M.2 drives, and the ability to at some point wake up a sleeping PC by talking to it, via Cortana. Oh and a better integrated GPU, if anyone actually cares. Lol.

[Stomplar]

You are paying MORE for what? An extra 2 FPS in games? This is why Intel needs competition. AMD needs to pull something fast because until then we will see 5-10% improvements.

CPU's are not only for gaming.

[DarkBlade2117]

I don't know about better options. It about 10% more expensive and skylake has about a 10% improvement.To be honest the best option right now maybe the 5820k if you aren't pure gaming. Honestly even if you are pure gaming the future looks like its pushing more and more cores so the 6 cores on the 5820k maybe the way to go for more future-resistant builds. The is especially true now with DDR4 coming down so far in price and X99's as well. Its not a big leap over z97 with an i7 in price. In fact the difference is very small now.

Z97- Better cheaper option

x99 Better for the same price option. I agree a 5820k and 16gbs of DDR4 is $120 ( maybe cheaper ) and a decent board is around $200.

[jos]

I cant wait for Skylake E... multiprocessing is a drastic improvement

Anyone have any idea why they are not using Self-timed, packet-switched SOC interconnect or am i missing something..

[Sakkura]

Z97- Better cheaper option

 

Same price, less performance, inferior IO.