Intel Releases New Sandy Bridge Processors
by Andrew Cunningham on September 6, 2011 12:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Intel
- CPUs
- Sandy Bridge
Intel has announced a total of 16 new Sandy Bridge processors today, augmenting its lineup in the mid and low-end markets on the desktop and in the high and low-end markets on laptops.
On the desktop side, we have four new Core-series processors, one i5 (the 2320) along with three i3s (the 2130, 2125, and 2120T. Along with these comes three new Pentium processors (the G860, G630, and G630T) and four low-end Celerons (the G540, G530, G530T, and G440). The G440 has the dubious honor of being the only single-core Sandy Bridge of which I am aware.
| New Sandy Bridge Desktop CPUs | |||||||
| Name | Cores/Threads | CPU Clock | L3 Cache | GPU | GPU Clock | TDP | Price |
| i5-2320 | 4/4 | 3.0 GHz (3.3GHz Turbo) | 6MB | HD 2000 | 850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo) | 95W | $177 |
| i3-2130 | 2/4 | 3.4 GHz | 3MB | HD 2000 | 850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo) | 65W | $138 |
| i3-2125 | 2/4 | 3.3GHz | 3MB | HD 3000 | 850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo) | 65W | $134 |
| i3-2120T | 2/4 | 2.6GHz | 3MB | HD 2000 | 650 MHz (1100 MHz turbo) | 35W | $127 |
| Pentium G860 | 2/2 | 3.0GHz | 3MB | HD | 850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo) | 65W | $86 |
| Pentium G630 | 2/2 | 2.7GHz | 3MB | HD | 850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo) | 65W | $75 |
| Pentium G630T | 2/2 | 2.3GHz | 3MB | HD | 650 MHz (1100 MHz turbo) | 35W | $70 |
| Celeron G540 | 2/2 | 2.5GHz | 2MB | HD | 850 MHz (1000 MHz turbo) | 65W | $52 |
| Celeron G530 | 2/2 | 2.4GHz | 2MB | HD | 850 MHz (1000 MHz turbo) | 65W | $42 |
| Celeron G530T | 2/2 | 2.0GHz | 2MB | HD | 650 MHz (1100 MHz turbo) | 35W | $47 |
| Celeron G440 | 1/1 | 1.6GHz | 1MB | HD | 650 MHz (1000 MHz turbo) | 35W | $37 |
Most of these processors are simple clock bumps of existing processors and their energy-effecient T-series counterparts. What's new here is the Celeron series of processors, most of which sacrifice 100 MHz of GPU Turbo speed and another MB of L3 cache compared to their Pentium counterparts (according to CPU World's listings, VT-x and EM64T remain available on all models). It's also important to remember here that the HD-series graphics has nothing to do with Intel's last-gen IGP - in Sandy Bridge models, the HD graphics series is basically the HD 2000 series with QuickSync and a few other video features disabled - see our Sandy Bridge Pentium review for more information on this.
The new laptop CPUs are fewer in number, and aimed at both the high-end and very low-end of the market.
| New Sandy Bridge Laptop CPUs | |||||||
| Name | Cores/Threads | CPU Clock | L3 Cache | GPU Clock | TDP | Price | |
| i7-2960XM | 4/8 | 2.7 GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) | 8MB | 650 MHz (1300 MHz turbo) | 55W | $1096 | |
| i7-2860QM | 4/8 | 2.5 GHz (3.6 GHz Turbo) | 8MB | 650 MHz (1300 MHz turbo) | 45W | $568 | |
| i7-2760QM | 4/8 | 2.4GHz (3.5 GHz Turbo) | 6MB | 650 MHz (1300 MHz turbo) | 45W | $378 | |
| i7-2640M | 2/4 | 2.8GHz (3.5 GHz Turbo) | 4MB | 650 MHz (1300 MHz turbo) | 35W | $346 | |
| Celeron B840 | 2/2 | 1.9GHz | 2MB | 650 MHz (950 MHz turbo) | 35W | $86 | |
The Core i7-2960XM is an Extreme Edition processor and is the fastest quad-core chip that Intel currently offers, and it has a pricetag to match. On the other end of the spectrum, the Celeron B840 is a dual-core processor that loses L3 cache and some GPU Turbo speed, though it retains VT-x and the same HD 3000-series GPU that all mobile Sandy Bridge CPUs possess.
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Zak - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Geez... why so many CPU models?!?Roland00Address - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
The only one that looks interesting is the i7-2760QM, which is about 20% faster than the i7-2630QM. What is the bulk 1000 price for the i7-2630QM, I am curious what form of premium intel is charging between these cpus.bennyg - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link
Less than $378 though, that's exactly what the 2720qm 1k bulk price is, and the 2760qm seems ~10% faster than that as well.Just like Clarksfield "refresh"... same damn CPUs just with different binning. Intel is so far out ahead they can play with the market like this and withhold peak performance. Goddamn we need AMD to challenge in the big time again to force some honesty out of this monopoly.
VoraciousGorak - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Here I was hoping we were finally finished with single core desktop CPUs. I can't think of any reason - none - to cut $5 off the overall price of a computer for barely a third the CPU power of the next model up.Taft12 - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Appliances with minimal processing needs.VoraciousGorak - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
Which would seem to be the market for an Atom combo, no?Taft12 - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
Not if there's esoteric I/O needs requiring a PCI card or 2, HDMI port, you name it. Trust me, there's a call for this in my industry.ezinner - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - link
I am tired of all thse crippled processors. I wish either AMD or Intel would pair down their processor lines to just mobile and desktop with a few different flavors of each. Why underclock, disable cores or hyperthreading and do other foolish things so you can lower the price?