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P · Mar 14, 2010, 06:05 PM

The mobile focus is not a surprise, no, and I always thought that Lynnfield would be a solid chip for a long time (part of the reason I bought one), but I'm slighly surprised at the rumors that Gulftown might hang around all the way to Ivy Bridge. I thought we'd see a Sandy Bridge 8 core model with DDR3-1600 and VMX, but I guess AMD isn't pushing them hard enough to bother.

solofx7 · Mar 14, 2010, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

Before I purchased this 27" iMac i7 was never a real fan of the iMac. I like the Mac Pro, Mac Mini and the Mac Book Pro. I just prefer the option to hook up the monitor that I prefer to my computer. Anyhow this thing is awesome. I read somewhere that this machine's in some instances is faster that the Mac Pro 8 processor. I finally had to give up my Mac Mini's because of the slow graphics capability.

Yeah, my iMac i7 8gb was showing faster than everything Apple made other than the 16 core chips on geek bench.
I am still impressed with the multitasking.
I think for the money it is the best desktop out there.
That is given 3 facts, I am not a big fan of Windows, I have not used a newer Windows desktop machine and everything I "need" to do in Windows, I can do in boot camp

Yes, I am biased.

solofx7 · Mar 14, 2010, 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by P

The mobile focus is not a surprise, no, and I always thought that Lynnfield would be a solid chip for a long time (part of the reason I bought one), but I'm slighly surprised at the rumors that Gulftown might hang around all the way to Ivy Bridge. I thought we'd see a Sandy Bridge 8 core model with DDR3-1600 and VMX, but I guess AMD isn't pushing them hard enough to bother.

Intel with all of these code names, I need raw specs

Simon · Mar 15, 2010, 04:06 AM

Originally Posted by P

I thought we'd see a Sandy Bridge 8 core model with DDR3-1600 and VMX...

That used to be the plan.

But with the present situation on the market there's simply no need for Intel to push really hard on the desktop. So they slow down development and spread out the products. Nehalem will be sticking around next to Gulftown. Gulftown will be staying around with Ivy Bridge. Etc. You get the idea.

Simon · 04:38 AM

Originally Posted by solofx7

Intel with all of these code names, I need raw specs

By now it's all on WP if you're curious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_codenames

It's just Intel's tick-tock. Nehalem is 45 nm. The 32 nm shrink is Westmere. The native 32 nm platform is Sandy Bridge. The 22 nm shrink is Ivy Bridge. The native 22 nm is Haswell.

Intel Sandy Bridge
Intel Ivy Bridge
Intel Haswell

P · Mar 15, 2010, 05:47 AM

I'm telling you, not even the Intel folks can keep up with the names anymore...

There are codenames in two levels: the generation codenames and the individual chip codenames. Simon is correct with regards to the generation codenames. What is confusing now is that not all chips get updated with each generation. The 32nm shrink, Westmere, includes only three chips: Clarkdale (desktop dualcore), Arrandale (mobile dualcore) and Gulftown (high-end desktop/midrange server hexacore). This means that the performance segment, desktop and laptop midrange, is still filled with chips from the 45nm generation Nehalem, called Lynnfield and Clarksfield.

The rumors now are that Sandy Bridge will not update Gulftown at all. The Sandy Bridge performance chip, meanwhile, will basically be Lynnfield at 32nm with VMX and a faster memory interface. Maybe it will include the GPU on the chip there as well - we'll see. This means that if you buy a Lynnfield today - or even better, Fall 2009 - you'd have a chip that would still be very up to date until at least the launch of Ivy Bridge in 2012. That's a long time. In the same way, if you buy a Gulftown in late March, you'd also have a chip that was very up to date for a long time.

Sandy Bridge will bring down the TDP, which will help mobiles, and the low-end chips will finally get the integrated memory controller + GPU access to the L3 cache, but other than that, Sandy Bridge is basically VMX. VMX is Altivec for x86, more or less. That's a big letdown compared to Conroe and Nehalem.

solofx7 · Mar 17, 2010, 09:52 PM

wow, now i have to go process that info.

khaavren · Feb 24, 2011, 01:16 AM

Hi,

I didn't see anyone mention this. I have the 27" iMac with the stock 4GB of ram. So this will have 2x2GB sticks in the first two slots.

My question is, can i add 2x4GB of ram in the 2 available slots giving me 12GB of RAM total, or should i do another 2x2GB for a total of 8GB of ram?

Thanks

K
-----------------------
On a side note, someone mentioned the screen problem. I have had my LCD changed twice now because these giant dark smudges or stains grew across the entire screen. A plausible reasoning is that the computer was getting too hot from gaming. I do play WoW on this machine. I've now installed SMC fan controller to see if this will keep the LCD from having issues again.

kamina · Feb 24, 2011, 04:09 AM

Originally Posted by solofx7

I just ordered my i7 iMac with 4gb of ram.
After going back and forth about the ram and where to get it, I decided that I could and might get an extra 4gb of ram from amazon as it appears to be the cheapest for crucial ram @ 111 for 4gb with no tax and free shipping.

My question is, where would I see a difference in the ram, and with such a fast processor, is it worth it for the ram now?
Thanks for your thoughts and I am really looking forward to this monster of a computer

I noticed a huge difference with Adobe CS5 suite, Intellij idea and virtual machines when going from 4 to 8GB. I would guess the bottom line is that if you use the ram the difference will be huge, if not then there will be absolutely no difference. You can check how much swap you have in use / how much page outs from activity monitor -> memory.

kamina · Feb 24, 2011, 04:09 AM

Originally Posted by khaavren

Hi,

I didn't see anyone mention this. I have the 27" iMac with the stock 4GB of ram. So this will have 2x2GB sticks in the first two slots.

My question is, can i add 2x4GB of ram in the 2 available slots giving me 12GB of RAM total, or should i do another 2x2GB for a total of 8GB of ram?

Thanks

Either will work.

P · Feb 24, 2011, 05:12 AM

Originally Posted by P

Sandy Bridge will bring down the TDP, which will help mobiles, and the low-end chips will finally get the integrated memory controller + GPU access to the L3 cache, but other than that, Sandy Bridge is basically VMX. VMX is Altivec for x86, more or less. That's a big letdown compared to Conroe and Nehalem.

Sometimes it's fun to run across your own old posts... It didn't exactly work out this way: Sandy Bridge turns out to be a big boost for the quadcores as well.