Intel's Refresh Re-badge to Devil's Canyon

Wire

Intel’s Refresh Re-badge to Devil’s Canyon

Article by Din

It’s big news! Just when everyone expected Broadwell to make an appearance at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2014, like some had predicted, the Haswell refresh showed up first. Instead of carrying on the current naming convention, Intel decided to do away it as it slapped on a new badge and name for the new CPU – Devil’s Canyon.

The idea had always been – how can you fix something that is not broken? Of course, this is what Intel has been asking themselves for years. Since the introduction of their Core architecture, Intel has produced some of the best processors on the market, especially ones that skewed towards performance. Indeed, there are still people who would not move up from the Intel 2700K, a processor that had been introduced three years ago – proof of Intel’s awesome engineering.

However, it now needs entice the same people that are still clinging to these old processors. This is where Devil’s Canyon comes in. Being Intel’s latest, and most definitely fastest and most powerful processor ever, the new CPU, of which the fastest is the Intel i7-4790K model, is truly in a class of its own. A four core, eight thread processor, it has a base clock of 4Ghz – on ALL cores! Yes folks, Intel has finally managed to create something that is not only fast but also thermal efficient enough to maintain a new record high-speed in all of its cores on a single die. On Turbo Mode, it can reach 4.4Ghz EACH.

Of course, being a ‘K’ processor, it’s fully unlocked. Indeed, Intel has hyped that the Intel i7-4790K could easily be overclocked to 5Ghz using only the stock fan – talk about blazing speeds.

Beyond the new clock speed, the new CPU now sports an 8MB Intel Smart Cache, enhanced Turbo Boost technology with the 2.0 moniker, supports advanced Hyper Threading as well as rocking an all-new Intel HD Graphics 4600. While you won’t be getting Iris on this processor, this processor is powerful enough that users won’t be bothering with that as they opt for a third party solutions instead. Even if one wants to stick with the onboard graphics, this baby can easily power up to three separate 4K monitors without much fuss.

As with the first-gen Haswell, the Devil’s Canyon supports dual channel DDR3 up to 1600Mhz as well as 16 PCI express 3.0 lanes. It also has Intel’s AVX and AES, and something else – added SSE4.1 and SSE4.2 instructions support. The processor also features the same LGA 1150 contacts as the previous Haswell and is using a Next Generation Polymer Thermal Interface Material (NGPTIM) to address the previous TIM issues present on Haswell. This is expected to offer better cooling, leading to higher performance.

For owners of the Z87 motherboard, they don’t even have to change their systems! Intel has made sure that the Devil’s Canyon is supported on the Z87 chipset. All you need is just a BIOS update. This is a good idea, especially if one is holding out to buy the latest Z97 chipset until the price stabilises. As for the new chipset, it is compatible with current Haswell CPUs and the upcoming Brodwell Core as well.

Intel has thrown everything they have to entice high performance junkies to upgrade their existing system, and honestly we feel that they have shown a strong hand with the Devil’s Canyon. It has much promise, and should lead to interesting times in personal computing.