Launched earlier this year, Intel has focused its 14nm Broadwell architecture chiefly on the mobile and low power desktop space. Today, at Computex 2015, Intel are announcing ten new SKUs with high performance Iris Pro graphics including the flagship i7-5950HQ as well as two unlocked desktop SKUs. This marks the debut of Iris Pro graphics on a socketable LGA package, and the first time Iris Pro graphics have been available on a mobile Core i5 model.



Desktop Broadwell with Iris Pro Graphics

Starring on Intel's Wildcat Point platform, exclusive to the 9-series motherboard lineup, are the Core i7-5775C and i5-5675C. Whilst both are high-end quad-core desktop models the i7-5775C is certainly the bigger brother, boasting Hyperthreading support and 6MB L3 Cache compared with 4MB on the i5-5675C. The models nonetheless feature Intel Iris Pro 6200 graphics, packing twice the gaming potential and 20% higher compute performance than the HD 4600 graphics found on flagship Haswell CPUs, yet remain within a 65W TDP envelope. The Core i7-5775C and i5-5675C are unlocked CPUs and thus can be overclocked with little artificial impediment.

As both Core i7-5775C and i5-5675C have relatively modest core clock speeds starting from 3.3/3.1GHz respectively, and boosting to 3.6/3.7GHz, it's not clear if either will assume the crown of highest performing CPU from the Haswell Refresh Devil's Canyon flagship released last year. Although an improvement over Haswell, Broadwell isn't known to exhibit a high double-digit IPC necessary to overhaul the i7-4790K, however the new SKUs do bring far more graphics potential to SFF designs lacking a discrete GPU.

Following a motherboard BIOS update Z97 and H97 motherboards should be compatible with these new 5th Generation Core models on an LGA package.

Mobile Broadwell with Iris Pro Graphics

Also announced today are generational improvements in Intel's mobile lineup featuring Iris Pro graphics 6200, headlined by the 47W i7-5950HQ. Superseding the i7-4950HQ, which featured Iris Pro graphics 5200 and was based on Haswell microarchitecture, the new CPU offers 20% better graphics and video convert performance in addition to 15% raw compute improvements.



As a whole the new 47W mobile 5th Generation SKUs bring significant new performance to the mobile-space dwarfing earlier 15W and 28W Broadwell models. Whether it be gaming in Heroes of the Storm or World of Warcraft, now possible at 1080p resolutions and medium quality settings averaging over 60fps, or general media playback and productivity applications, Broadwell now encompasses a broad ecosystem which is tough to match.

Only one real question remains: it's this the last hurrah for Broadwell? Time will tell on that score, but it's not yet clear when the new Intel models will be available in the channel or as part of partner system designs.