Intel’s next generation of its Haswell CPUs could be out as soon as next month, according to sources cited by TechPowerUp (via TonyMacx86).
According to sources in the IT retail, Intel could launch these new chips, led by the Core i7-4790K, on May 10th in most markets […]
Intel Core “Haswell” Refresh processors offer marginally better performance over current Core “Haswell” chips, at existing price points (i.e., they will displace existing chips from their current price-points).The 9-series chipset offers features such as M.2 SSD support, making you ready for a tidal wave of 1000 MB/s SSDs that will launch around Computex.
Apple now uses PCIe SSD interface even in its base model MacBook Air so the mSATA improvement will only benefit PC users and Hackintoshers but the mildly improved performance might find its way into updated iMac or MacBooks due ’round WWDC.
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Mac Mini. Please oh Please. Mac Mini.
Agreed. The little guy is long overdue for a refresh. It may not be a overly popular with consumers, but it’s very popular in enterprise.
I agree, I am definitely in the market for a mac mini. This news is promising, but the rumors of a cheaper version of the iMac being released mid-year is very concerning for the future of the mini.
I converted to a Mac mini as my primary work station. It does just fine since i put a high performance SSD and 16 GB of RAM in it….but I’m definitely game for trading it in for a quad core model with decent graphics.
Not that Intel HD 4000 aren’t decent….they do quite well, but Iris Pro or newer would be very welcome.
Oh, how I’d love to get a Mac mini with Haswell and Iris Pro.
Dude, Mac Mini NEEDS haswell, like NOW. I really hope they don’t abandon Mac Mini.
Since when is 100mhz “next gen”? No die shrink. No new micro architecture. Just clocking stuff faster. Intel have held back clocks speeds since 2006 when competition ended with AMD = press now reports next gen = 100mhz.
Whohoo! 2% more speed! Moore’s law.
And that have been Intels strategy. Even with die shrinks 32-22nm + 3Dgates we only get 5-7% more performance the last 3 years. At the same time Apple Application SoC have 300% increase.
No wonder Apple wants to switch to ARM. Not only 90% cheaper but fast enough. (A7 is faster per mhz than Intel i7ULV processors)
I wish Apple could buy AMD and make a great X86 chip, but Intel won’t allow a X86 license transfer.
Yea, the author probably added next-gen to the title but this isn’t a new generation or anything like that. it’s just a spec bump for this year since next gen would be Broadwell, and that has been postponed to 2015. Skylark (2016) would be a much bigger change than Broadwell for now.
Secondly, the MHZ race peaked or died several years ago, there is only so much it can go before it burns out. It has nothing to do with the lack of competition and more to do with the laws of physics. Just look at the over-clocking crowd, they’re using water to cool them down at higher clocks. The amount of power it requires is enough to push everybody away since electricity bills are increasing ever year. Why do you think folding is no longer cool to do.
The focus is on multiple cores and power efficiency, not MHz. Most folks want longer battery life than they do faster computers. Macbook Air wouldn’t be possible without Intel working on their innovations to do more work with less power.
Apple isn’t switching to ARM because of performance, it is using ARM because it is the most power efficient. It is very easy to go from 1GHz to 2Ghz (even more so on simpler CPU instruction set like ARM compared to Intel’s more complex beasts) than it is go from 2GHz to 4GHz.
I can assure you, ARM will peak within a few years, it will not be possible for Apple to keep maintaining the same rate of improvements ever year. It goes against every laws of physics there is.
And please provide references for your “A7 is faster per mhz than Intel i7ULV CPUs”. I never heard of this before. I know it is comparable to Core Duo from 2010 but not faster than that.
With the updates to Mac mini pretty infrequent – why would Apple do a Haswell bump then Broadwell vs just waiting a few months for Broadwell?
Broadwell has been postponed to 2015, there will be no Broadwell this year.
There are two ways of looking at the Mac mini delay.
1. Apple is trying to push iMacs by intentionally crippling the Mac mini with last year’s technology
2. Apple has recognized that most minis are used by enterprise and consumers with low expectations
I’m leaning toward #2. The Xeon family powering the Mac Pro is based on the Ivy Bridge architecture. It’s an optimized and bug fixed version of the chips that powered consumer PCs in 2012. If the most powerful work stations and servers run on generation old technology then it makes some sense for today’s miniature servers to also trail the consumer market. Stability favoured over raw power.
This is therefore a reasonable product cycle:
1. Intel ships a new chip architecture (Haswell)
2. MacBooks and iMacs adopt Haswell
3. 6 months later Intel issues a minor revision
4. Mac mini adopts Haswell v2
5. Another 6 months later Intel issues a Xeon version
6. Mac Pro adopts Haswell based Xeon
7. Intel ships Broadwell and the cycle repeats