Intel postpones IB, we all heard this. Whats really going on behind the tightly sealed doors? Are Intel's world class fabs godly? always completely smooth, buttery perfection? One that can execute node shrinks and complex designs without ever a single hitch? Is there any reason to suspect that there might be issues going to 22nm? What about 3d? I think this deserves a discussion.

What do we expect from IB?

Lets analyze the stink! smell that smell......

Pre-Dict-Ions.....

I believe intel is not without issues. I expect IB to increase intels IGP capabilities. But my feeling is we will not see much more performance from the CPU side. I predict that their 3D 22nm node will not raise the bar for higher max clocks. Overclocking capabilities will not be improved over the older Sandy. We may see slightly higher stock clocked IB models but i dont expect to see anything significant. This could let stock IB win in some benchmarks, but i expect this to be a small amount. When overclocked, IB wont have the advantage.

IB may use less power, it could be more efficient, but it wont be much of an upgrade for current SB k owners as far as CPU performance goes.

My predictions.

stab at it!

Ivory Bridge?

Anyway, Intel has no competitor in the CPU market for IB. Not Piledriver with a 15% increase over BD. The postponement seems logically to get rid of mobile SB in the channel - which means it might be a good time to buy SB notebooks.

Intel is not without issues in transitioning. We saw their chipset issues last year with SB. What i expect from IB solidly over SB is better overclocking headroom (besides improved graphics).

i am looking to upgrade my Core i7-920 which at 4.0GHz probably sits very close to a stock 2700K in gaming performance. i would naturally be looking for 5+GHz which would at least solid +25% improvement over what i have now. And i already have the MB for it.

From what I've been reading, Ivy Bridge will definitely be able to hit 5ghz with ease.

A 25% improvement seems to be the norm these days with new CPU releases.

I'm more interested in Intel dropping their prices at this point. If I could get something like the 2500K for $100 I would do it.

So sick beast & apoppin think it will overclock well beyond Sandy bridge levels?

You think the stock models will be a large improvement over their current SB?

It should overclock better.

Large improvement, no. Incremental except for the graphics which will be better.

Are you advising me to keep my i7-920? i was thinking of upgrading from a 3-year old processor .. well, just for the reason that it is 3 years old. If it was just me, i think i could get by fine with Q9550S at 4.0GHz and HD 6970 TriFire or GTX 580 SLi? But i got a tech site to review for.

I don't expect the IPC to be any better than 5% faster overall (in games especially) than SB clock-for-clock.

About the overclockability.. hmm! Ocre, are you really saying that it won't be able to o/c any higher than 5GHz?

I guess the 2500K is about as good a bargain as you can have for maybe a year, if that holds to be true. Just slap a mega heatsink (Thermalright Silver Arrow) on it and enjoy the 5GHz with that cheap mobo, $100 cheaper than LGA2011 mobos. That's what I'd do TODAY if I were to upgrade or build a new rig.

What are the 2500K and 2600K going for at MicroCenter?

If i were forced to upgrade now, i'd get a 2600K just so that i could test HT.
--hopefully there will still be good deals if Intel doesn't send me IB

Ocre, it's Ivy Bridge, not Ivory Bridge.

$179 and $279 (if I remember correctly), for February (plus $50 off any 1155 motherboard with the purchase).

Very reasonable! If IB is disappointing, i can always get a 2500K and OC it sky-high - i got the coolers now