Ivy Bridge or Sandy?

[Guest jahman]

Hi - ...I believe that the PCIE2 specification still gives more than enough bandwidth for the current generation of GPUs....

Well, no, that's exactly what PT is saying: For FSX with sliders to the right PCIe 2 is the bottleneck just on trees alone. Cheers, - jahman.

[cmeeks 8]

None of this matters once we have real world performance figures, but until then we can continue talking about theory. Regarding 3D transistors, Intel has claimed 37% more performance than planar transistors at equal power OR 50% less power at equal performance. Obviously, you don't get to have both 37% more performance AND 50% less less power, but certainly a blend of more performance and still less power is possible. Keep in mind these numbers apply to the transistors themselves, not to the CPU as a whole. Regardless of what this means for overall CPU performance, the fact that Intel has increased the max ratio from 57 (w/ SB) to 63 is promising. I think there's plenty of evidence here to suggest that Ivy Bridge will offer more performance than Sandy Bridge. We just don't know how much.

[cmeeks 8]

Between IB transitioning to 22nm and Kepler bringing 28nm, these power consumption reductions make it really tempting to build a beastly small form factor (mATX or ITX) system. Of course by the time I do that, things are going to become so multi-cored that we end up at 1366 heat output levels again.

[Guest jahman]

What benefot do you see in a smaller size factor? Me, I'm waiting for LightPeak (optical version of Thunderbolt) so I can remote my PC into an air-conditioned closet somewhere far away... Cheers, - jahman.

[cmeeks 8]

Same reason you want your PC in an air conditioned closet - If I could, my computer would be nothing more than a monitor, speakers, mouse, and keyboard (notice those are all output devices). My case is pretty by computer standards, but its still a massive hunk of metal taking up valuable work/play space.