Originally posted by nils_
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System76 Galago UltraPro Haswell Ultrabook
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Originally posted by guido12 View PostCan the 128 MB eDRAM actually function as a regular L4 cache for the CPU or is it only used by the GPU? Not sure if the CPU benchmarks presented can actually show its effect if it really can be used as an L4 cache.
Unlike previous eDRAM implementations in game consoles, Crystalwell is true 4th level cache in the memory hierarchy. It acts as a victim buffer to the L3 cache, meaning anything evicted from L3 cache immediately goes into the L4 cache. Both CPU and GPU requests are cached. The cache can dynamically allocate its partitioning between CPU and GPU use. If you don?t use the GPU at all (e.g. discrete GPU installed), Crystalwell will still work on caching CPU requests. That?s right, Haswell CPUs equipped with Crystalwell effectively have a 128MB L4 cache.
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Originally posted by chrisb View Post
I'd be more interested in the Iris Pro based chips if it provides tangible benefits in CPU performance seeing as I don't play any PC games.
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Originally posted by hdas View PostIt baffles me that most laptops don't get these basics right, namely reliable keyboard and touchpad input, even in 2013 and instead go for fancy features like touchscreen which nobody asked for.
People also criticise the lack of vertical space on 16:9 screens. 16:9 is good for watching video, or playing video games, but not so great for web browsing or other vertical-document oriented tasks. The "but it allows you to run two web browsers side by side" argument isn't accurate when a) most people don't do that (~60% browse at full screen), and b) your screen is small, and non-mobile web sites are designed for desktops with 1000+ pixel width displays. Try putting two web sites side-by-side on an ultrabook with "standard" 1366x768 - after accounting for scroll bars you now have about 650 pixels width for each, and most desktop sites will not render well at that size. The screen height will be something like 14cm - less than a portrait iPad - but with the big difference that a laptop is designed to be used at arm's length, whilst an iPad is designed to be held in front of your face (most iPad/Kindle users I've seen browsing/reading seem to hold the screen about 25cm away, laptop would be double that distance). It's amazing that laptop makers don't try to optimise their devices for vertical-oriented tasks, and ignore the success of the 4:3 tablet (3:4 in portrait) in web/book reading (tasks that many users spend most of their time doing), and just stick to 16:9. You'd think there'd be some variation beyond wide screens - the Google's Chromebook Pixel's 3:2 seems to be the only example of a maker trying something new, and it was widely praised by reviewers for the extra screen height - why did no other laptop designers notice this?
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Originally posted by guido12 View PostThanks. I keep reading that but I haven't seen any CPU tests to show how much relevant tasks actually benefit from it. Not sure how one would test it though. Maybe use a comparably clocked non-Iris Pro Haswell chip or somehow disable/enable the CPU from using the eDRAM as a cache. Do you know of any benchmarks specifically exercising the the eDRAM as an L4 cache?
I'd be more interested in the Iris Pro based chips if it provides tangible benefits in CPU performance seeing as I don't play any PC games.
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Originally posted by chrisb View PostI've only read the Anandtech review, in particular look at p17 for OpenCL and p18 for generic CPU. Iris Pro beats the 4770k in OpenCL performance, sometimes doubling the performance, which is very good for a mobile part. For CPU see the graph with row Crystalwell Advantage - the estimated gain seems to be anywhere from -4.5 to 9.5 but he also says "Intel claims that with the right workload, you could see huge double digit gains". I haven't seen any benchmarks showing that, though, I'd be interested if there are any.
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Originally posted by guido12 View PostThose tests don't seem to be very promising. I'm far from an expert on how CPU cache works and which tasks highly benefit from them but I wonder if someone more knowledgeable can test and/or specify what kinds of tasks would highly benefit (ie. highly utilized file server, compression, signal processing like FFTs, convolution and other mathematical operations, etc.) from a large L4 cache.
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VT-D?
Does anyone know if the ultrapro supports VT-D?
I guess the CPU and chipset both support it, but the bios doesn't have the option I guess (I don't own this laptop yet). I opened the latest CLEVO W740SU bios file (since the galago ultrapro is a branded W740SU) with AMIBCP and under the menu option of "VT-D" it said enabled under "Optimal", not entirely sure if that is definitive. Yet after asking System76, they said it didn't support it, though I'm not sure if their answer is entirely correct because they said it doesn't have an iommu... So I've been looking around online getting mixed answers everywhere yet no answers from anyone who owns one. So, help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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