Intel Sandy Bridge Desktop and Mobile CPUs

Vigile writes "The new Intel Sandy Bridge architecture is being launched at CES this week but the reviews and benchmarks are out today. PC Perspective took a look at both the desktop and mobile variants, the former of which turns out to be quite an impressive processor for both highly threaded and single threaded applications. With some tweaks to the execution unit, a new Turbo Boost mode that increases clock speeds dynamically and a vastly improved integrated graphics implementation, the Core i7-2600K improves in every aspect. Also interestingly, the most expensive desktop part will start at $317, putting the screws to AMD yet again. On the mobile side of things, PC Perspective tested the quad-core Core i7-2820QM and the benchmark results are equally impressive; especially when looking at the gaming performance using integrated graphics. Sandy Bridge will no doubt put quite a dent in the discrete notebook graphics market for NVIDIA and AMD."

Impressive graphics ?

[RedK]

What benchmarks is the poster reading exactly ? On the Mac side, the SB IGP barely beat out the current nVidia 320M in shipping MacBooks, at low settings (a CPU bound task) and couldn't match the performance at medium settings meaning the SB IGP is slower than nVidia's offering from 2009!

There's nothing impressive, this is standard Intel IGP fare.

Re:Goodbye LGA 1366 and 1156

[Anonymous Coward]

It's nice to see someone still looking out for the budget shopper.

Ah yes, the "budget shopper" that whines about having to replace a $500 mobo but not apparently about the $2000+ worth of Xeons (not to mention memory, etc) that go into it...

Seriously - unlike your mom, AMD won't make you breakfast no matter *how* much time you spend licking their asshole.

Re:Impressive graphics ?

[timeOday]

I disagree; if integrated graphics are now trailing discrete by only 12-16 months, then NVidia has a problem. Not many games require a graphics card less than a year old, and not many people bother to buy one that often. And the integrated solution will be overall cheaper, smaller, and more power efficient.

Price vs Performance

[cryptoluddite]

Also interestingly, the most expensive desktop part will start at $317, putting the screws to AMD yet again.

When has Intel ever lowered prices without needing to?

It's more likely that instead of putting the screws to AMD, Intel is worried about Bobcat and Bulldozer coming out pretty soon and factoring that into their prices (to gain market share before AMD chips get out). On merit Bobcat CPUs should dominate the low-end laptop/netbook market with low power use and real integrated graphics. Bulldozer should do well in the high-end server market again with low-power and more cores... basically where intel CPUs have hyperthreading, Bulldozer has another actual core (for integer instructions).

Re:Goodbye LGA 1366 and 1156

[Kjella]

Hint: Dropping $300 on every processor generation Intel makes is a waste of money. If you got that much to spend, buy a more expensive CPU and keep it a generation or two longer. It not like it goes broke just because it's not the newest toy anymore, you know.

So in order of why is this is mostly irrelevant to the market:
1) The majority is laptops now (since 2008) and nobody upgrades the CPU there
2) Most people will get their desktop from an OEM and never upgrade
3) If you assume a new Intel will require a new mobo, you buy accordingly

Ok, so maybe you made a smart upgrade investment. Hurray, you belong to 1% of the market. Intel is still laughing all the way to the bank...