Intel launches Broadwell-H chips for desktops and laptops

Intel rolls out the latest members of its fifth-generation Core line-up – Broadwell-H

Intel has announced 10 new Broadwell-H chips, known as the Intel Core i7-5xxx family. Most include the new Intel Iris Pro graphics 6200 core, which the company claims offers graphics gains of up to twice those of the prior-generation Core i7-4790S chips.

In some sense, the Broadwell-H chips bridge the gap between the fifth-generation Core chips, whose manufacturing problems delayed them for months. That’s produced a traffic jam of sorts, with the next-generation Skylake chips due by the end of the year.

Intel’s Broadwell-H chips could prove to be interestingly timed for Intel, given that they’ll launch about the same time as Microsoft’s Windows 10. The problem is, they’re not the chips Intel wants to sell, because the Skylake processor embodies Intel’s next-generation future of wire-free computing. But it’s the chip that’s available now, and this the one that consumers and hardware makers will seek to alleviate months of pent-up demand, especially in the desktop market.

Ten new processors will be part of the Broadwell-H family, including both 47- and 65W chips. All are designed for use with over 100 Intel Z97-based motherboards on the market, Intel revealed.

The Core i7-5775C with the Iris Pro 6200 core will be twice as fast in 3D graphics as an i7-4790S, Intel said, and 35 percent faster in video conversion and 20 percent faster in general compute performance. In mobile, the improvements will be more modest; a Core i7-5950HQ will be 20 percent faster in 3D graphics than the prior i7-4950HQ, Intel said.