Broadwell U arrives: Faster laptop CPUs and GPUs from Core i7 to Celeron
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the consumer half of Intel's 14nm Broadwell rollout reaching laptops: the earlier Broadwell vPro announcement covered the business side with wireless docking, and today's U-series launch extends the same die down to Celeron, giving OEMs a single 14nm family spanning the whole notebook price ladder.
The low-end is being handled separately — Intel's 14nm Braswell launch as Bay Trail's successor keeps budget machines off Broadwell silicon — while Ars's later $500 Core i7 NUC review shows the same chips moving into desktop mini PCs, not just laptops.
First-order effects
- Laptop makers gain faster CPUs and integrated GPUs across every tier from Celeron to Core i7, letting them refresh thin-and-light lines without adding discrete graphics.
Second-order effects
- With Broadwell's integrated GPU carrying more of the graphics load, entry-level discrete GPUs lose their remaining justification in mainstream ultraportables, pressuring NVIDIA and AMD toward higher-performance segments.
Third-order effects
- The trajectory here — better graphics folded into each successive U-series generation — runs through Intel's 8th-gen U-Series chips with Iris Plus graphics at 28W, pointing to integrated graphics becoming good enough that discrete parts are reserved for gaming and workstation laptops.
The trend: Intel's 14nm cadence is folding progressively stronger graphics into every CPU tier, steadily displacing discrete GPUs from thin mainstream laptops.