Mobile versions of Intel’s upcoming Haswell microprocessor are expected to have TDPs as low as 10W, a substantial reduction from the 17W thermal envelope of current low-power Ivy Bridge chips. Desktop versions of Ivy top out at 77W, and according to VR-Zone’s Chinese-language site, their replacements could carry TDP ratings as high as 84W. That information comes from a table of purported specifications for Intel’s next-generation desktop processors.
According to the table, Haswell desktop CPUs will come in two flavors: standard power and low power. Only the standard-power chips will be rated for 84W, while the low-power group will have thermal envelopes in the 35-65W range. Enthusiasts will likely be most interested in the Core i7-4770K and i5-4670K, which will supposedly have fully unlocked multipliers and clock speeds identical to the existing i7-3770K and i5-3570K. The fastest low-power Haswell variant, the i7-4770S, will reportedly match the flagship’s 3.9GHz Turbo peak but have a base clock speed of only 3.1GHz, a 400MHz reduction from the i7-4770K.
Interestingly, VR-Zone’s information reveals only one dual-core model, the Core-i5-4570T. The table doesn’t include any Core i3 variants, though. I suspect the initial batch of Haswell duallies will be reserved largely for mobile use. We saw something similar with Ivy Bridge, whose Core i3 desktop models didn’t arrive until months after the first i5 and i7 CPUs.
Overall, the leaked Haswell specs don’t show many differences between the incoming chips and existing Ivy Bridge CPUs. I’m curious to see how the real-world performance and power consumption of the two generations will compare. So is everyone else, I’m sure, but we’ll probably have to wait until the spring for a definitive answer on that front.