When is the drop date for the core i7 models...
- Thread starter manoroid
- Start date
The date Nov 20 FCS is based on availability of the i7-6650U CPU from Intel. Some other Skylake chips may not be available until Q1 2016. If you can't get them, you cant ship them. There are a lot of different Skylake models.
Products (Formerly Skylake)
Products (Formerly Skylake)
I have an i7 preordered at my local MS store. With some of the reviews of the i7 Surface book showing significant battery differences, I'm a little worried. The SP4 already is right on my line of minimum acceptable batter life for a portable. 
I suppose I would just get a new XPS 15 or an i5 SP4 if that proved true. I do hope they get really close to the same, or dare I say better??? I dare not!
I suppose I would just get a new XPS 15 or an i5 SP4 if that proved true. I do hope they get really close to the same, or dare I say better??? I dare not!
Every Skylake chip is 14nm. No exceptions. As far as the SP4 is concerned, only the i7 model (6650U) has any amount of eDRAM (aka L4 cache. 64MB in our case) which is there to power Iris integrated graphics. The CPU also gets a small boost from this cache when igpu is not working at full tilt.
The eDRAM yes will cause a tiny bit more power draw vs an i5 SP4, plus the i7 has higher peak "turbo" clocks which could indeed reduce battery life in some situations. I believe the difference will be small - at the end of the day the 6650U is simply better silicon, with the same 15W TDP as i5 6300U. But we'll see for sure in a week or two.
The eDRAM yes will cause a tiny bit more power draw vs an i5 SP4, plus the i7 has higher peak "turbo" clocks which could indeed reduce battery life in some situations. I believe the difference will be small - at the end of the day the 6650U is simply better silicon, with the same 15W TDP as i5 6300U. But we'll see for sure in a week or two.
did a little research myself and it looks like the 6650U has a lower low end speed too so that might compensate for the additional L4 cache (which is does have a tiny bit more than the 6300U) that might help to keep the battery life about the same. I hope anyway. If this little guy doesn't last for a work day's worth of normal use on a full charge, we're going to have a problem. I'll fiddle with the battery settings a bit to sneak a bit more life out of it but I should be able to watch a couple movies and read a couple comics without the thing crapping out on me. I'll obviously plug in for gaming. I'm no stranger to returning stuff that isn't working for me. The little guy will get a home that actually wants it and I'll get a different machine that better fits my needs. But to be clear, I'm stupid excited and cannot wait to get my hands on mine next week and I REALLY hope it meets my needs.
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Same here, I am going crazy waiting for my i7, MS shipped me the type cover 2 weeks ago, I look at it longingly as I walk past it every morning
The battery life will be fine, for usual tasks... when you are blasting GPU intensive tasks, that is when it will need the juice.
The battery life will be fine, for usual tasks... when you are blasting GPU intensive tasks, that is when it will need the juice.
Yeah. I got tired of my Macbook Air not being able to play the games I was looking to play during my work breaks and lunch, and I wanted my personal PC to get back into the MS ecosystem. I bought the air because I'm a film teacher at a public school. Some BS happened and I needed to buy some of my own equipment, but yeah...just wanna get back and hoping I haven't been spoiled by the class leading battery life. :/ Time will tell but patience is a heavenly virtue I might lack.
I haven't even received my type cover, dock or mouse!! Originally given 11/20 ship date for my SP4 i7/8/256, 10/26 for all other items. But every time I check the order page, there is no change and it shows the mouse on back order. Spoke to an employee who answered the phone and he told me a date 6-7 weeks later than 11/20 but people on this forum seem to think those employees don't know much about ship dates.
