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Post your comments for Intel Ivy Bridge Chips Launch Dates Leaked here

[JimH443]

I'm relatively new to laptops. My current laptop has an i7 2630QM Sandy Bridge. Are these Ivy Bridge CPUs pin & voltage compatible? If so, is it likely that I'd be able to just swap out the CPU?

[actionjksn]

JimH443, on 31 March 2012 - 11:53 AM, said:

I'm relatively new to laptops. My current laptop has an i7 2630QM Sandy Bridge. Are these Ivy Bridge CPUs pin & voltage compatible? If so, is it likely that I'd be able to just swap out the CPU?

They are supposed to be compatible on the desktops so I'm pretty sure they will be compatible on the laptop side too. This new processor is more of a die shrink and integrated graphics upgrade rather than being an entirely new chip design/architecture. That's why the new processors don't provide radically improved performance. The biggest difference besides the die shrink is the "Tri Gate' Technology. You will have to Google that to find out what it means. Here is a good place to start, http://www.pcmag.com...,2384909,00.asp It's really interesting and worth looking at. This new Technology will provide I think a lot of benefit on on future chip designs.

[fstaff]

actionjksn, on 31 March 2012 - 03:04 PM, said:

JimH443, on 31 March 2012 - 11:53 AM, said:

I'm relatively new to laptops. My current laptop has an i7 2630QM Sandy Bridge. Are these Ivy Bridge CPUs pin & voltage compatible? If so, is it likely that I'd be able to just swap out the CPU?

They are supposed to be compatible on the desktops so I'm pretty sure they will be compatible on the laptop side too. This new processor is more of a die shrink and integrated graphics upgrade rather than being an entirely new chip design/architecture. That's why the new processors don't provide radically improved performance. The biggest difference besides the die shrink is the "Tri Gate' Technology. You will have to Google that to find out what it means. Here is a good place to start, http://www.pcmag.com...,2384909,00.asp It's really interesting and worth looking at. This new Technology will provide I think a lot of benefit on on future chip designs.

The smaller die also means improvements in battery life. Probably nothing earth shattering though.

[JimH443]

fstaff, on 31 March 2012 - 04:57 PM, said:

actionjksn, on 31 March 2012 - 03:04 PM, said:

JimH443, on 31 March 2012 - 11:53 AM, said:

I'm relatively new to laptops. My current laptop has an i7 2630QM Sandy Bridge. Are these Ivy Bridge CPUs pin & voltage compatible? If so, is it likely that I'd be able to just swap out the CPU?

They are supposed to be compatible on the desktops so I'm pretty sure they will be compatible on the laptop side too. This new processor is more of a die shrink and integrated graphics upgrade rather than being an entirely new chip design/architecture. That's why the new processors don't provide radically improved performance. The biggest difference besides the die shrink is the "Tri Gate' Technology. You will have to Google that to find out what it means. Here is a good place to start, http://www.pcmag.com...,2384909,00.asp It's really interesting and worth looking at. This new Technology will provide I think a lot of benefit on on future chip designs.

The smaller die also means improvements in battery life. Probably nothing earth shattering though.

While improved battery life is always a plus with laptops, I'm mainly interested in the graphics. While mine does have additional graphics hardward (to support DirectX11), I'm hoping the Ivy Bridge does more than this.

[sean9ine]

JimH443, on 31 March 2012 - 11:53 AM, said:

I'm relatively new to laptops. My current laptop has an i7 2630QM Sandy Bridge. Are these Ivy Bridge CPUs pin & voltage compatible? If so, is it likely that I'd be able to just swap out the CPU?

If this is a store bought laptop the answer is no to extremely not likely. Although you will might be able to find an Ivy Bridge processor with the same pinset (G2 - i believe), the manufacturer (Dell, HP, Lenovo/IBM...) who all use Intel motherboards (vs a company taking an Intel board and tweaking it - like desktop motherboards) will not have written the bios to support the new 22nm architecture (nor will they write one, because they want you to buy their new laptop) and there would not be support for the new graphics driver for your laptop (the main benefit other than power consumption for Ivy). Also mobile Intel motherboards are not physically designed to support the new architecture. You would definitely be voiding any sort of warranty left on your Sandy Bridge laptop if you tried to swap in a Ivy Bridge if it was possible. If you're interested, take a sniff at Intel's Roadmap and about page 10 you see no hopes of Ivy Bridge processor support which is a 3000 number (for example, yours is 2630QM) and on 17 or 18 you get an idea of their plans with Ivy Bridge support - mainly servers and business hardware stuff.


On an off note, some desktop motherboard manufactures like ASUS and MSI and some others have gone through the Intel spec team's hoops and ladders to make their motherboards qualified and ready to native-ly support 22nm Ivy Bridge along with the new PCI-Express 3.0 interface. This is exactly what you were hoping for except this is for desktops. These companies care about quality over quantity because they are trying to appeal to builders.

Expect to see some sick laptops released in May/June.

Hopefully this clears up this upgrade question.

-Sean

This post has been edited by sean9ine: 02 April 2012 - 07:00 AM

[actionjksn]

JimH443, on 01 April 2012 - 02:08 AM, said:

fstaff, on 31 March 2012 - 04:57 PM, said:

actionjksn, on 31 March 2012 - 03:04 PM, said:

JimH443, on 31 March 2012 - 11:53 AM, said:

I'm relatively new to laptops. My current laptop has an i7 2630QM Sandy Bridge. Are these Ivy Bridge CPUs pin & voltage compatible? If so, is it likely that I'd be able to just swap out the CPU?

They are supposed to be compatible on the desktops so I'm pretty sure they will be compatible on the laptop side too. This new processor is more of a die shrink and integrated graphics upgrade rather than being an entirely new chip design/architecture. That's why the new processors don't provide radically improved performance. The biggest difference besides the die shrink is the "Tri Gate' Technology. You will have to Google that to find out what it means. Here is a good place to start, http://www.pcmag.com...,2384909,00.asp It's really interesting and worth looking at. This new Technology will provide I think a lot of benefit on on future chip designs.

The smaller die also means improvements in battery life. Probably nothing earth shattering though.

While improved battery life is always a plus with laptops, I'm mainly interested in the graphics. While mine does have additional graphics hardward (to support DirectX11), I'm hoping the Ivy Bridge does more than this.

The graphics are supposed to be a pretty substantial upgrade, and it is DX11. I'm pretty sure Sandy Bridge is only DX10.1

- DirectX 11 Support
- More execution units (16 vs 12) for GT2 graphics (Intel HD 4000)
- 2x MADs per clock
- EUs can now co-issue more operations
- GPU specific on-die L3 cache
- Faster QuickSync performance
- Lower power consumption due to 22nm

It also ads support for shader model 5.0 [New DX11 instructions]

The CPU is a tock but the GPU is more of a tick. In regards to Intel's Tick Tock strategy.

http://www.anandtech...ore-i7-3770k/11