New Intel "Sandy Bridge" Mobile Processors Now Official Discussion

Intel has officially announced its second-generation of Core-series processors, otherwise known as "Sandy Bridge".

Read the full content of this Article: New Intel "Sandy Bridge" Mobile Processors Now Official

Related Articles:

• Upcoming ASUS Notebooks with Intel Sandy Bridge Leaked
• AMD "Zacate" APU First Look: Hands On with the Brazos Platform
• AMD Unveils "Brazos" Platform for Notebooks and Netbooks

 

I posted this in the Hardware forum, but this is probably a better place for it. Here is the most comprehensive review (from AnandTech) I could find of the mobile Sandy Bridge and here are some more reviews ( PC Perspective, Hot Hardware).

They are all reviewing a proof-of-concept notebook from Compal with the 2820QM. Here are some of my impressions:

1) The LV and ULV CPUs will be out earlier than expected. Given the battery life of the 2820QM, these will actually be competitive with Atom (and probably Brazos) in battery life, but with several times more performance.

2) The Sandy Bridge processors are fast. The 2820QM is much faster than the 920XM and it's usually faster than the desktop i7-920.

3) The integrated graphics are very good for video and adequate for low end gaming. Mid-range gaming requires some more driver work on Intel's part and even then it won't be too great. I wouldn't personally use these for gaming, but Intel is definitely making progress.

4) IMHO, the most impressive accomplishment here is the battery life. With a 17" notebook and the second to most powerful quad-core, the 71Wh battery gets almost 8 hours when idle and 7 hours when surfing flash heavy web pages. In a best case scenario, Clarksfield managed what? 3 hours? Maybe 4 with an oversized battery? Sandy Bridge is a dramatic improvement and finally makes quad-cores viable for machines that are not desktop replacements.

 

I read ulv will be out in 2nd half of the year like always...

 

Where did you read this?

 

OK I think maybe I read Q2 2011 and not H2 2011 since the Lenovo E220s has ulv's and will be available from April.

 

I'm not suprised the sandy bridge mobile quad 2920XM beats the i7-920.. after all , it is new architecture and is almost clock for clock so it should be faster... However , the inability to overclock the new sandy bridge processors even the extreme ones much , makes neehlam processors still better options.

Panther214

 

2011 CES: Exhibitor Press Event Schedule

 

Let's just hope that companies have better cooperation for switchable graphics.

 

If discrete graphics=yes
then Sandy Bridge IGP=disabled...

 

In desktops, yes (at least until Q2 2011), but not necessarily in laptops. Nvidia has a switching technology (Optimus) and AMD is working on one as well (though it may only work with their own CPUs).

 

My IGP is disabled.

 

I wouldn't put it past Intel to try and put the screws to Nvidia by blocking Optimus in this way. Going back to what we talked about the other day, Nvidia's dependency on Intel playing nice would be another reason why Optimus is a less than ideal switchable graphics solution.

 

Where's HP at the event? I want to see them announce a refresh of the Envy 15!!

 

Hmm...Another HP under < 12" netbook with a ULV i7-2657M processor and 60GB SSD doesn't sound to bad for a road warrior. I'm a little interested.

 

In the past, I would have agreed with you, but they appear to have canceled (or at least postponed) their trial and it looks like they're going to make a deal.

 

I doubt they would go back to the 15. Expect a 14 refresh and the 14 sold in higher numbers than the 15.

 

I hope HP refreshes the ENVY line with better screens for the 14... I want the radiance display back

 

7 hours? Bloody brilliant!

 

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right place, but I currently have a laptop on order with Kobalt computers (i7 640m, 460m gpu and 6 gig ram) but they have offered to hold this order for a few weeks until they get the new stuff in.

My question is should i wait?

Thanks

 

Is it a Clevo-based notebook?

If it's going to take a few weeks, I would probably cancel and wait for a Sandy Bridge model. Depends on when you need the notebook . . . the first-gen Core processors are more than fast enough for just about everything.

 

Yes Kobalt sell Clevo notebooks.

I am in no hurry for it and it would be used mainly for gameing and entertainment (blu rays etc)

 

I've just had a look at ARK but I couldn't find these 3 processors
i7-2715QE
i7-2630QM
i7-2635QM

Does anybody know why they are not listed?

 

Clevo has already released its Sandy Bridge-based notebooks -- I suggest canceling that order and waiting until Kobalt makes them available. Normally I tell people to just buy a computer when you need it, but since you're looking at a delay anyway, no reason to get older technology.

 

Does anyone know when these "sandy bridge" laptops will be available at retail stores in Fry's or Best Buy?

 

Without the slightest doubt I would say you should wait. Even if you think you don't need more, you have the potential of much better gaming performance, better battery life and more efficient CPU performance.

 

Noob question but when will these be available in most computers? Been holding off on buying a thin and light for months.

 

Some of them are available now, particularly the HP DV7-4290US (available at Walmart, Microcenter (sold out), Best Buy, Sears, etc.), Dell M17x-R3 (only available from Dell right now), and a few others. The rest will phase in over the next month or so, as they get announced and production really ramps up.

 

Thanks for the info.

Hoping to pick up an ASUS sometime soon.

 

Thin and light, unless you go with AMD's APU will probably take longer. Inital release right now is for the higher performance quad-core chips. I'm not sure when the dual cores and low-voltages are slated for release.

 

These are OEM only models and aren't available for retail.

 

But I still can buy laptops that contain one of those 3 (OEM) processors, right?

 

The most recent rumors say middle of February for the dual-cores. I have not heard about the low-voltage ones; they usually come out 3 months later. That said, given the battery life of the quad-cores, a thin and light will quite likely be able to do with a standard voltage dual core just as they did in the days of the Core 2 architecture.

Yes. In fact, the 2630QM is probably the most common processor in machines currently sold.

 

Do you have a list of those OEM processors?

 

i7-2715QE is on the Ark

 

it's just one of the three I asked about, I want to see a list of every single OEM processor and its specs!

 

I know of no other OEM processors, outside of the five I posted.

Can you see my thumbnail? Direct link.

 

Hope to see batterydrain difference between quad and duelcore soon

 

I can see only 4 processors in that pic, where is the fifth one?

 

The 5th is in the link he posted below the image (on Intel ARK).

 

Is it worth paying an inflamed price for a sandy bridge laptop?
I realize it depends on what your using the laptop for, but what is the recommendation if you had to choose.

 

You said it yourself, it depends on what you're using it for... if you aren't going to utilize the CPU power (which includes the majority of people), you don't need to spend the money. You can get a really cheap C2D and undervolt to get excellent battery life.

 

Could you help me with explaining "who" utilizes the CPU power? What things would you be doing/running? Is it the photoshop/move making/rendering people?

I am VERY confused about this. I don't do ANY of that, but then again i don't know if i utilize the CPU power or not.

I honestly think waiting for "sandy bridge" is just for bragging rights (which i don't care to do, or do)for me.

Please help

and i appreciate the post sgog

 

Some CPU intensive tasks include running mathematical calculations (such as MATLAB), audio/video encoding/rendering, and very few games (such as GTA IV) are some examples of things that will take advantage of a "faster" CPU. If you use your computer for email, Word, basic Excel, and even most "multitaskers" won't take advantage of Sandy Bridge. Photoshop is pretty memory intensive depending on what types of image sizes you're working with and most games are GPU limited. Hope that helps.

 

Since you mentioned "faster CPU" .. what is the fastest CPU (for notebooks) now?

 

Probably an i7-2920XM with a good cooling solution if Throttlestop can unlock its multiplers and keep it extremely overclocked semi-permanently. Noone has one yet, though, so we're not sure. Otherwise an i7-940XM with a good cooling solution on Throttlestop can easily go 3-4 GHz stably. If you just mean the fastest CPU you can cram into a notebook, there are the Sager monsters that use desktop CPUs... in that case an i7-980X is probably still the fastest and most powerful thing around...

 

No, I am not talking about desktop CPUs just the mobile.
Why did you say that the i7-940XM is the second best, Isn't the i7-2820QM faster?

 

Both the 2820 and the 2720 are faster than i7-940XM stock, but the latter has an unlocked multiplier so if you overclock it, it might be competitive with them (although the overclock has to be massive for that to work). It's possible with some i7-940XM CPUs, but it's not guaranteed and it will definitely use a whole lot more power when doing this.

 

If the overclocking is not that easy as you said, then you would recommend the i7-2820QM as a second best mobile processor, right?

 

Only a few laptops allow CPU overclocking, most do not. If you aren't overclocking, it's not worth spending the money for an extreme processor. The 2820QM is the 2nd best mobile CPU currently but it still costs quite a bit of money and for the slight increase in performance, IMO is not worth the cost.

 

What do you think of the Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM Processor
(6M Cache, 2.20 GHz) it costs $378.00 , does it worth the cost?