Intel to Cut 12,000 Jobs, Forecast Misses Amid PC Blight

> They're also trying hard to make Windows 10 run on the widest range of machines possible.

Why do you say so? Do you work at Microsoft?

Anecdotally: I upgraded a somewhat older laptop to Windows 10 and found that the screen brightness was locked to full. Called up support and was told that no, there's no fix and no, there won't be one for the foreseeable future - mine isn't a "supported system", so it has to stay on Windows 7. Looked up the issue online and found many others with the same problem going back to release day.

Even so the current Apple SoCs are phone/tablet parts which cannot match broadwell IPC or clock frequency, except maybe on the lowest-end mobile parts. You can be sure that they're working on that, but my guess is it's at least two years away from being on a retail shelf.

And on the desktop and server side, even longer. I doubt we will ever see a 64-bit ARM part that turbos up to 4GHz+ with haswell/broadwell-like IPC. You can say it's because the desktop market is dead/declining/unnecessary now/etc, but it's also because nobody else is able & willing to match Intel's superb physical design. It's a shame that Intel management has failed to monetize that more effectively.

I think the point went over your head. It is not the systems fault that a person that chooses to graduate in a non marketable field does not have a job, e.g. a person who graduates in Romantic Literature. Everyone who graduated cs that I know has no trouble finding a job. One that is not at McBurger.

>Besides, NVMe SSDs are expensive

Yes. If you're bargain hunting for gaming hardware you should just buy a console. Or, if you're seriously suggesting to put an Intel 750 into some old system like SandyBridge.. no comment. I would never recommend someone bother doing that.

Step up to an NVME setup, Skylake and do it right. Skylake i5 setups can be had for cheap. You're just arguing to argue on that point. Whether or not you have anything useful to add. The SB argument is common knowledge, an age old argument at that with no new information or insight.

>Name me an M.2 NVMe SSD that is more cost effective than a Mushkin Reactor (1TB, MLC, maxes out the SATA6gbps bus, $200), or has faster I/O speeds than a 750.

I'm not into cost-effective bargain hunting. Anyone who would gimp a nice Intel 750 SSD on a non-NVME system is a fool and you've suggested it.

>The cheapest of GPUs are significantly better than IGP.

No they aren't. The point about DX12_1 IGPs is that it's there, it's modern and it has already sucked the life out of the low end space and moving into the midrange with Iris Pro. Your stance is the 2010-era view on computers. Same era as Sandybridge TBH.

>I also care about adaptive sync / GSync technology, which isn't supported by Intel Iris.

This demonstrates how much you know, and why people shouldn't listen to what you're saying. Which can be heard on any PC gaming forum a thousand times over. This is HN though and it won't fly.

Intel has already committed to FreeSync. It's incoming with KabyLake rumor is that it may be enabled for Skylake.

>Intel's IGP doesn't even come close to a $100 GPU, let alone the midrange GPUs.

Wrong on its face. You just haven't cared to investigate recently.

>NOT on the desktop. Crystalwell is laptop-only, and 45W to boot.

Nope. The Crystalwell chips are going into NUCs from here on out. There's a 128MB L4 NUC coming in 2 1/2 weeks and a 256MB NUC coming in 12 months.

The fact you're talking about gaming and recommending an ES-2670 for that is just silly. That might be a good machine for compiling code. If that's your goal, it's still a bad idea when distcc can utterly embarrass that old power hungry chip.

For gaming, Broadwell already demonstrated what Crystalwell adds for gaming performance with a standalone GPU. And it's a game-changer, it's faster than the i7-6700K. Yes, it is. And it definitely mops up where it counts (99th percentile frame times) on SandyBridge too.

In 2 1/2 weeks you'll see Skylake with Crystalwell and Thunderbolt 3 absolutely delete any SandyBridge gaming rig you may have (even with an Intel 750, if you made the ridiculous decision to actually put one in SB). There might be more cost-effective ways to build a gaming rig, but if you're into saving money on hardware and gaming, buy a PS4.

I understand it's the prevailing thought among PC gaming kiddies, but holding your grip tighter on some old SandyBridge system won't change that in reality it's fallen pretty far behind in both overall platform performance and power efficiency.

There is no way in hell I would prefer that AMD chip in my system over an all-Intel system. AMD are just terrible to use in Linux and most people around here want the ability to run that natively without issue. Not to mention the added complication of tacking that AMD chip onto the laptop both from an engineering / reliability stance and software complication.

You missed the irony of your 45watts as a heavy burden. A R9 370X adds about 50watts to your TDP by itself. Along with its needless complexity. If someone wanted to reduce TDP and that complexity you could step down to the base Intel IGP. But if stepping up, Intel's solution makes a lot more sense.