Clevo with SkyLake vs Clevo with Haswell

So there are Haswell models that are starting to get some discounts, while nearly exact model-matches with SkyLake are showing up. I wonder if there are any compatibility or technology drawbacks when picking Haswell? Skipping DDR4 or USB 3.1 there shouldn't be any right? Or SkyLake model is much better option in the long term?

 

I mean you won't have USB 3.1 or DDR4. Besides that the cpus are close enough to not really matter, and I don't think your gonna run into ram bottlenecks any time soon.

 

Does anyone think the battery life we will see with skylake will be measured in the single or double digit percentage improvements?

I think if we only see 5-10% battery life improvements, then it seems Haswell will be the better bang for the buck.

 

I think the big difference is the Skylake CPUs appear significantly more power efficient. Particularly for the Desktop CPU models (P7 ZM/DM series). At idle the Haswell chip draws as much as 20W more power (which is incredible given that the Skylake models idles around the 30W mark). The P771DM literally doubled in battery life according to NBCheck. This is desktop though.

The mobile chips (HQ) are pretty much the same at idle (they were already around the 1W mark). The PCH is a bit more efficient though (maybe .5-1W). Under load (average, not peak) they seem better as well which could have other side-effects such as more power budget available for GPU/overclocking or possibility to get a smaller and lower wattage power brick.

 

Besides all of these above, I guess another thing you might miss is G-Sync (some Haswell Clevos have them).

 

So far, since a majority of the skylake mobile models haven't shipped and aren't in peoples hands yet, you probably won't see anything for compatibility issues as of yet (if there are any). But if you don't think you will benefit from the improvements of skylake, then you might be able to still pick up a haswell model and either save some money, or maybe throw in an extra upgrade or two for the same price.

 

This sounds like the Skylake chips will be an amazing thing.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-XMG-U706-Clevo-P771DM-Notebook-Review.150989.0.html

Looking at the battery life there, it looks like even CPU's that are a 47xx or 57xx series can score within ~15% of the runtime of the skylake cpu, so while it's an improvement, it's not a massive one. I don't know if this makes the several hundred dollar price difference between haswell and skylake worth it for those that are not highly concerned about battery life.

 

It's worth noting, the other laptops they put in that table have higher capacity batteries and use the MQ/HQ mobile chips which have significantly different idle characteristics. Try and get your haswell desktop i7 to idle at <10W...it's impossible. The implication is the Skylake desktop chip now has very similar idle characteristics as the mobile chips which is a significant change.

If you compare the P770DM to the older P770ZM then battery life has doubled.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate it.

 

be aware that the skylake cpus only demolish the haswells in idle power consumption. at load they draw comparable or even higher wattages

aside from the stated idle times on battery, DDR4 and USB 3.1, there arent any actual performance differences between the haswell and skylake machines. the cpus are basically evenly matched and the gpus are still the same. so from a gamer´s / cpu-workload dependant professional´s point of view, there arent any differences. if u do, however, depend on high bandwidth external storage or are planning to do some eGPU modding in the long run, a skylake machine might be better suited for your needs