Storm Clouds Over Sandy Bridge

[ares1214]

I have read and received some very frightening news about Sandy Bridge, especially for those excited about Quick Sync. Quick Sync is what is like CUDA, or APP, just WAY better :lol: . We already knew it would not run with a dedicated GPU, although Lucid is working on a fix for that:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4113/lucid-enables-quick-sync-with-discrete-graphics-on-sandy-bridge

However, it also appears Quick Sync will only work on H67, not P67. This makes some sense technically speaking, but none for the consumer. This is hinted at in several articles, and more bluntly in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQPPDbR4a5E

Furthermore, theres this from AT:

Motherboard manufacturers could bundle Lucid’s solution with their boards to avoid upsetting end users thanks to Intel’s Quick Sync oversight. There’s still no getting around the fact that you can’t overclock your CPU on H67 motherboards. You’ll still have to wait for Z68 to fix that problem.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4113/lucid-enables-quick-sync-with-discrete-graphics-on-sandy-bridge

Put the puzzle pieces together, and this is what you come up with. P67 cant use Quick Sync, an extremely important features. It has been shown to improve image quality:

As well as handle video rendering and that general field in a matter 3-4 times better than no acceleration:

Then on the flip side, with H67 you get Quick Sync, however you can NOT OC your CPU no matter if its K series or not. Z68 is already being called "what P67 should have been", given its ability to run QS.

This is a complete bummer to be honest. Right now, best bet seems like a MSI or ECS board that is using Lucid.

http://www.techpowerup.com/131688/ECS-Readies-LGA1155-Motherboard-with-Lucid-Hydra.html

This not only should allow P67 to run QS, but also run it simultaneously with a dedicated GPU. But its very disappointing to have to wait till atleast Q2 2011 for Z68 to get the full experience of SB, when SB has so much potential right now.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Well to be honest, I understand. I mean P55 had no support for the IGP as well. the P series has always been more of a enthusiast chipset while the X was of course the high end. Most people who will buy a P67 chipset will probably have a discrete GPU.

Quick Sync will be a great addition for HTPCs, low end OEM PCs and as well probably people who mainly encode video. But for most enthusiasts, we tend to focus on gaming.

I for one am waiting for the high end SB chipset specs. Its supposed to integrate PCIe 3.0. Useless for now but might help in quad CF / Tri SLi situations.

 

[hogan773]

I have read and received some very frightening news about Sandy Bridge, especially for those excited about Quick Sync. Quick Sync is what is like CUDA, or APP, just WAY better :lol: . We already knew it would not run with a dedicated GPU, although Lucid is working on a fix for that:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4113/lucid-enables-quick-sync-with-discrete-graphics-on-sandy-bridge

However, it also appears Quick Sync will only work on H67, not P67. This makes some sense technically speaking, but none for the consumer. This is hinted at in several articles, and more bluntly in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQPPDbR4a5E

Furthermore, theres this from AT:

Motherboard manufacturers could bundle Lucid’s solution with their boards to avoid upsetting end users thanks to Intel’s Quick Sync oversight. There’s still no getting around the fact that you can’t overclock your CPU on H67 motherboards. You’ll still have to wait for Z68 to fix that problem.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4113/lucid-enables-quick-sync-with-discrete-graphics-on-sandy-bridge

Put the puzzle pieces together, and this is what you come up with. P67 cant use Quick Sync, an extremely important features. It has been shown to improve image quality:

http://i.imgur.com/wQw7C.jpg

As well as handle video rendering and that general field in a matter 3-4 times better than no acceleration:

http://i.imgur.com/O9n54.png

Then on the flip side, with H67 you get Quick Sync, however you can NOT OC your CPU no matter if its K series or not. Z68 is already being called "what P67 should have been", given its ability to run QS.

http://i.imgur.com/CXx2L.jpg

This is a complete bummer to be honest. Right now, best bet seems like a MSI or ECS board that is using Lucid.

http://www.techpowerup.com/131688/ECS-Readies-LGA1155-Motherboard-with-Lucid-Hydra.html

This not only should allow P67 to run QS, but also run it simultaneously with a dedicated GPU. But its very disappointing to have to wait till atleast Q2 2011 for Z68 to get the full experience of SB, when SB has so much potential right now.

Yeah - sux

WHEN will Z68 come out?

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

If its gonna cost $250 for a mobo then forget QS - I'll just wait an extra few minutes when I run a transcode.

And BTW I'm not sure QS makes for BETTER image quality than a CPU solution does it? Faster yes, and better than CUDA and others. Maybe I missed something.

 

[ares1214]

Well to be honest, I understand. I mean P55 had no support for the IGP as well. the P series has always been more of a enthusiast chipset while the X was of course the high end. Most people who will buy a P67 chipset will probably have a discrete GPU.

Quick Sync will be a great addition for HTPCs, low end OEM PCs and as well probably people who mainly encode video. But for most enthusiasts, we tend to focus on gaming.

I for one am waiting for the high end SB chipset specs. Its supposed to integrate PCIe 3.0. Useless for now but might help in quad CF / Tri SLi situations.

Yes, I understand technically speaking why this is, but i mean, Intel has put a hard choice on the consumer. First the dont allow QS with a dedicated GPU. Thats not good, but very understandable. Then they dont allow QS on their feature performance socket. Thats just plain dumb, if they all have an IGP, why would Intel waste the silicon and not even use it! THEN, Intel makes it so that if you want to use QS, you cant OC your CPU. They have basically made it a no win. Unless Lucid pulls threw

 

[ares1214]

Yeah - sux

WHEN will Z68 come out?

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

If its gonna cost $250 for a mobo then forget QS - I'll just wait an extra few minutes when I run a transcode.

And BTW I'm not sure QS makes for BETTER image quality than a CPU solution does it? Faster yes, and better than CUDA and others. Maybe I missed something.

Did you see the picture? Id call that better IQ. Z68 is scheduled for some time in Q2, my guess is late spring, maybe early summer. No idea on the cost.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Yes, I understand technically speaking why this is, but i mean, Intel has put a hard choice on the consumer. First the dont allow QS with a dedicated GPU. Thats not good, but very understandable. Then they dont allow QS on their feature performance socket. Thats just plain dumb, if they all have an IGP, why would Intel waste the silicon and not even use it! THEN, Intel makes it so that if you want to use QS, you cant OC your CPU. They have basically made it a no win. Unless Lucid pulls threw

Quick Sync not working with a dedicated GPU was probably due to licensing issues and working it so it works with both ATI/nVidia. probably a lot of extra traces and programming required.

Maybe it will in the future maybe not.

Not being able to OC in a H chipset, meh. I would love a HTPC built out of SB but I don't think I need 5GHz to play Blu-Ray or stream video.

 

[ares1214]

Quick Sync not working with a dedicated GPU was probably due to licensing issues and working it so it works with both ATI/nVidia. probably a lot of extra traces and programming required.

Maybe it will in the future maybe not.

Not being able to OC in a H chipset, meh. I would love a HTPC built out of SB but I don't think I need 5GHz to play Blu-Ray or stream video.

But you see, the "H" series isnt as much of an HTPC thing anymore. All the video editors will flock to it due to QS making everything 3 times faster. And the video editors WILL want/need their CPU at 5 GHz.