Forget Arrandale, SB Huron River Platform on the Way

CPU-wise, it's just the 32nm die shrink of AMD's current product mobile offerings. It'll be cheap and aimed at the people who don't really need a good processor, but it won't be anywhere near Westmere or Sandy Bridge. GPU-wise, AMD will have the edge, but that's been the case for a long time and it's never made much difference.

Bulldozer based CPUs will indeed be released in 2011, but they will initially be desktop-only and they won't have the GPU on-die like Sandy Bridge and Llano. The laptop versions won't come until later (it's hard to say when because we don't even know when in 2011 Bulldozer will be released).

 

oh, thanks for clearing that up, ill be looking forward to how bulldozer's desktop compares to sandy bridge desktop

 

Here is a full preview of a desktop Sandy Bridge -- it's not quite what will go into Huron River, but the architecture is similar (only the clock speeds and cache may be different).

The big surprise is that the performance of the integrated graphics literally more than doubles. It is on par with a desktop HD 5450 and this is with early drivers and the "1-core" version of the on-die GPU (there'll be a more powerful one). The CPU is also quite powerful -- it can't match the hexacore i7 980X, but the improvement over Lynnfield is massive (25% or so).

 

The IGP boost is nice and all for the mainstream market but the enthusiast market doesn't look like they'll get to use it.

The chipsets that support switchable graphics lose overclocking and dual GPU potential, and the chipset that supports dual GPUs and overclocking don't support the IGP.

 

Nvidia developing graphics for Sandy bridge, new 13.3" Macbook Pro coming soon...

 

what is it with this dispute between NVIDIA and intel? I was wondering as i haven't seen any new laptops with NVIDIA chipset.

 

It's because Nvidia got out of the chipset business. There's a lot of articles on the net about it.
Here's just one of many articles. End of the line for NVIDIA chipsets, and that's official | ZDNet

 

Third party chipsets don't really bring enough to the table anymore to be worth it anyway.

 

I think my next system will be a Sandy Bridge based tablet. I am looking forward to it's release. *ponders*

 

I kinda wish I hadn't read this thread!

Though it is incredibly useful and informative... on the other hand it's making me doubt more than ever my desire to buy a new laptop! I'm just wondering if this is going to be amazingly much better than the current i5s / i7s then why should I bother buying now. Or maybe it will also be amazingly much more expensive too... But that will probably lead in a drop in price for the old ones, and an old top end one eg 940xm will be much cheaper and rip the average new ones apart most likely, I guess...

I dunno, it all seems like swings and roundabouts to me. Edit: I've been told via skype by an American I know that this phrase is incomprehensible to non-brits. Basically it means "it doesn't matter because it all evens out in the end" kinda thing.

 

Dual Sandy Bridge won't bring much of an improvement compared with Arrandale besides more battery life & AVX, frequencies are more or less unchanged, should be a bit faster at the same speed. On the other hand it seems the 4 cores Sandy will beat the crap out of the current lineup, even the extreme i7s. Might be worth the wait if you plan on getting a laptop with a 4 cores cpu.

 

Yeah, I'm returning my Envy 14 and keeping my Sager, and waiting on Sandy Bridge now. Will proabbly get a quad i7 in my next laptop.

 

Huron River Mobile Platform to get USB 3.0?

We might see next week at IDF...

 

that would be a massive turnaround for intel.. considering they've been trying to kill USB3.0.. and replace with lightpeak which will take 10 years to properly come out..

 

How do you guys feel about getting something along the lines of an Acer 3820TG/4820TG or Asus N82JV now versus waiting for a SB laptop?

I'm looking for something durable, capable of moderate gaming, and somewhat "future-proof". I waited 5-6 months for Arrandales to show up and now feel like I can wait another 4-5 months, pending delays.

 

Since SB is basically debuting in the consumer space first, I would say you're crazy to not wait another few months. The increased battery life, better heat management, increased performance and possibly even USB 3.0 included in a new SB notebook is more than reason enough to wait.

When you also consider that the new parts will be priced equivalently as what you're considering now - it's a no-brainer. When they're available you will know/decide that the increased performance is worth it for you. Or, you will decide to take advantage of the 'clear the old stock sale' that is bound to happen.

Yeah, I feel that you should wait!

 

Haha I've been waiting for so long, but all these delays with Arrandale units exceeded anything we expected.

I'm almost ready to get an i5 4820TG, but it lacks USB 3.0, eSata, and Express card.

Sigh, endless laptop waiting purgatory.

 

u can't have everything.. i can tell u that with my own experience with the G73.. no e-SATA and expresscard.. but u have to deal with what u have... u still have a choice so just wait.

 

What to Expect at IDF 2010

This thread will have all the juicy details. Intel IDF website.

 

Nvidia deathwatch, Sandy Bridge graphics to kill off Nvidia?:

VentureBeat
UberGizmo

 

Nvidia and AMD better roll out their mobile 5xx series and 6xxx series by the time Sandy bridge arrives. I expect we will get 6xxx series first from AMD as the Nvidia 4xx series didn't even fully hit the market yet. Sandy bridge+new 6xxx sound very appealing!

 

nVidia saw this coming a long time ago, and implemented their Optimus strategy even with the current Arrendale line of Core i3/i5/i7 CPU's. Their strategy is to promote the use of hybrid graphics in laptops - use the integrated Intel HD GPU for light use and power savings, but have an automatically switched on/off nVidia GPU in there when you really need the power.

Most people are light laptop users, and will never need the nVidia GPU. But then again, I'd also argue that those people would be the ones that would be using Integrated graphics anyway, and would never be buying a laptop with an nVidia or GPU anyway, even if the Intel GPU wasn't integrated.

I think that this will really benefit power users like many of the people on this board, who want thin, light, battery-efficient laptops for daily/business use, but can crank out some high-performance gaming in the evenings.

 

Still it looks like we won't be seeing anymore of these crappy GT310/320M thats only purpose was to handle 1080p and that's about it. That should hurt nvidia a bit.

 

Yes, Sandy Bridge's hit to discreet graphics is on the low end. It's not yet powerful enough to compete with the mid-range, but starting in 2011, low end discreet GPUs will be basically irrelevant.

The real pain for Nvidia will come in 2012: Intel will come out with Ivy Bridge (even if it is a straight die shrink, they can make it twice as powerful) and AMD will hopefully come out with a CPU that's not a crippled K10. Since the new consoles aren't coming until at least 2013, game complexity is unlikely to increase much so even mid-range discreet graphics will become unnecessary. The only room for Nvidia will be towards the higher end and that's a pretty small market which is also being contested by AMD.

 

Sounds like a win-win for consumers to me!

 

Yum. The first keynote is happening now:

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sandy e...eye.....eyebrows....

 

Question:
Are there any reason to want Optimus if you have a laptop with Sandy Bridge? I mean, wont Intel make some sort of system that shuts of the GPU card and instead use the Intel GPU?

 

Read up on Sandy Bridge here:

PC Mag
Engadget
Gizmodo
SB GPU won't support DirectX 11
Anandtech

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From PCPro:

From Anadtech:


Sandy Bridge from Q1 2011-Q2 2012, Ivy Bridge from Q3 2012 on. So Ivy Bridge notebooks in time for back to school/holiday season?

 

Your link is correct, but your text is not: Ivy Bridge is from H2 2011, not Q2 2012. From the link:

If Intel continues its tradition, we'll probably see Ivy Bridge in January 2012. If not (and it might not given Bulldozer), we may even have it for the 2011 holiday season.

 

APCMag:

 

DirectX 10 graphics for SB? Not that anyone should be expecting great gaming performance, but AMD's Fusion will have DX11. How will SB's GPU compare to Fusion's in terms of pure performance?

 

DX11 is completely irrelevant for integrated graphics. First, it's mostly irrelevant in general (nearly all games are still DX9 and will continue to be so as long as the current generation of consoles is around) and second, neither AMD's nor Intel's integrated graphics will be powerful enough for enabling the bells and whistles that the games use DX11 use it for to make any sense. That said, I fully expect AMD's Llano graphics to be better than SB's (the only question is how they deal with the memory bandwidth).

However... in light of what has recently been revealed, it appears that Llano will be competing more with Ivy Bridge than with Sandy Bridge (the latter will overlap with it only for a few months). Llano will be available in Summer 2011 whereas Ivy Bridge will come begin production in H2 2011 so unless AMD also does a rapid refresh, it will be up against competition which we know little about.

 

Cnet

 

Sandy Bridge will be nice, but I'm still waiting for SoC.

 

I like that the Sandy bridge now have Turbo Boost on all 4 cores, although that means that the CPU will exceed its offical TDP. But on the other hand Intel says that the chip is intelligent enough so that the heat wont increase from the official TDP

Good news indeed

 

Which means a 2,2ghz i7-2720qm would be able to increase from more than a mere 133mhz when using 4 cores. That's awesome.

The more I learn about it the more desktop Sandy Bridge seems crippled by the lack of HT on most mainstream CPUs, possible OC issues and Intel making an unexpected announcement about Ivy Bridge, but most of that stuff is irrelevant with mobile CPU, so huron river ftw.

 

I don't know about that. I thought DirectX 11 was supposed to offer improved multi-threaded support, which could help boost performance even with a lackluster IGP, even if you don't utilize the tesselation effects for DX11.

 

Wonder if the laptop on the right is for sale

YouTube - sandybridge demo

 

Intel demos Light Peak -- its USB 3.0 killer
IDF PDF's, interesting to look through.

 

The problem with lightpeak is power. #1 weakness followed by time to market and infrastructure of receiving device availability. You will never see flash sticks using lightpeak, nor will you get a single cable attachment to external hardrives. This starts cutting the "potential" devices down and forces those devices to use an alternate standard or get a secondary power plug in, both of which would be clunky.

Mind you I like the concept because it could be used to run external video cards (finally) from a laptop, but the honest uses of the technology until they can add a "power feed" is going to be too limited to generate rapid adoption. By the time they manage to accomplish this, USB 3 will have gone to optical (already in the standard) and lightpeak will either merge with USB 3 optical or dwindle as a lone standard.

As for daisy chaining, that's a ridiculous boast. Add a hub to any USB port and you can attach multiple devices to that single port. It's a standard method of attaching multiple devices that's been in use a long time.

I like lightpeak. The bandwidth would be nice and I do appreciate optical cable systems. But it has some challenges ahead of it, and it won't be a rapid adoption technology by any means. Not even with Intel pushing it like crazy.

 

I remember I read Intel is working on it and acknowledged it shouldn't be a problem, light peak would use cable made from an optical fiber doubled with a standard cable for power, all in one.

 

Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics tech: How good is it?

Want:

 

Desktop Sandy Bridge i7 2600K 3.4 GHz overclocked to 4.9 GHz

YouTube - Intel demos Sandy Bridge at 4.9GHz

And APCMagazine is in big trouble

 

When do you guys speculate notebook with these new chips will actually start shipping?

 

Very short after their official launch at CES (january 5th) I expect we'll be seeing the first mobile sandy laptops.

 

Surprisingly there was no news about gen 3 ssd. I hope they are not delayed. It would be cool to buy a Sandy bridge laptop ( 2720m ) with 300GB ssd at reasonable price.

 

since sb requires a new motherboard, i'm wondering if manufacturers are able to design the new motherboards before they have the chips, or would they have to wait until they have the chips in order to design around it?

 

They can design the boards based on specifications provided by Intel, but to test anything you'd need the actual chip. This is not a problem though because the chips are already out there -- there was even a review of one a while back. The reason is that the chipmakers always make small batches of chips for testing long before full scale production and they can forward these samples to motherboard manufacturers.

 

Fudzilla is reporting that USB 3.0 support is official.
Sandy Bridge to get USB 3.0 support