Intel Haswell-EP Processors Come in 2014

World’s greatest semiconductor company has been historically working against the interests of early adopters and enthusiasts, so we’re happy to find out that users that invested hundreds of dollars in their LGA2011 motherboards will stand a chance to get an Ivy Bridge upgrade.

We only need to remember how they changed from LGA1156 to LGA1155 just to get people to spend money for new motherboards alongside new CPUs and how they left LGA1366 adopters with no upgrade option, despite the fact that Intel actually manufactures Xeon processors using the LGA1356 format. It’s quite upsetting to see that exactly the ones that spent almost $1000 for their motherboard and CPU are the ones left without an upgrade option. We reported here that, despite the fact that Intel’s Haswell will also come in a LGA2011 variant, it will not be compatible with current LGA2011 motherboards. Part of the good news today is that this version of high-end processor from Intel will not be available until 2014.

Many of our readers might ask how this is good news. Well, the thing is that despite the Haswell architecture coming to the market in early 2013, the high-end will still be powered by Sandy Bridge E processors. On the other hand, Intel will eventually have to upgrade its top line and if LGA2011 Haswell is only coming in 2014, the top Intel desktop processor for the summer and autumn of next year will be an Ivy Bridge-E. This is the good news revealed in a recently unveiled Intel roadmap, VR-Zone reported. The roadmap shows that the high-end desktop platform will be powered by an Ivy Bridge-E processor, and there is a strong possibility that these new processors will actually be compatible with today’s LGA2011 motherboards.

Therefore, after the bad news that there’s still no Ivy Bridge upgrade option for the LGA2011 adopters and that Haswell will actually not be compatible with the current boards, LGA2011 owners might find some little relief that an upgrade might actually be coming. It’s better late than never and at least it’s something and it’s definitely better than nothing. Not exactly the way an enthusiast expects to be treated after spending many hundreds of dollars for a company’s processors and chipsets.

Intel Current LGA2011 Processor Socket
Image credits to AnandTech

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