A collaboration between Intel and AMD in development and production on Core processors with Radeon graphics brings its first fruits: Intel announces a family of processors that combine 3 chips, Intel Core, connected to it via PCI Express AMD Vega, and 4GB HBM2 buffer.
The information released by Intel does not really shed much light on the architecture of the new processors. It does say it is 8th gen processors, but evidence suggests that it is only updated Kaby Lake (7th generation) chip. Firstly, all i7 Coffee lake operate 6 cores, while introduced processor has only 4 cores. Secondly, graphics module presented on slides is marked as HD Graphics 630, not UHD Graphics 630. Lastly, memory controller supports memory up to DDR4-2400, while the latest gen supports DDR4-2666. This is not the first time when Intel reuses the previous generation labeling it as the latest one. Kaby Lake architecture was used in economy 8th gen Cores in Kaby Lake Refresh-U and Kaby Lake-R.
Radeon graphics is connected to processors via 8 lines of PCI Express 3.0 interface, while HBM2 buffer uses Intel’s EMIB technology instead of AMD alternative. Kaby Lake Core i7-7920HQ and Core i7-7700T processors had 16 PCI Express lanes. We can assume, that only 8 lines are left to accommodate the of the system on the top level solution and even less on inferior.
Evidently, integration of Radeon graphics in Intel processors is quite perfunctory and serves mainly one purpose – saving space. Even heat emission and energy consumption stats do not meet the promises made earlier. Perhaps, it is better to skip purchasing a new laptop this year and consider upgrading an existing one. London IT service, Bits and PCs, is happy to assist you in upgrading your system.