A CPU Paradigm Shift
Tonight Intel has pulled off the wraps on their new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. The fact that they did so a few days ahead of schedule should tell you just how confident they are in what is the biggest CPU architecture change since the Pentium 4.
Officially branded “2nd Generation Core Processor Family”, SB follows Intel’s strict “Tick, Tock” design philosophy, where they alternate between microarchitecture changes, and die shrinks.
The leap from Nehalem to Sandy Bridge is a much bigger gap than we’ve previously seen however, as Intel have made major changes in just about every component that comprises a microprocessor. We are not going to go into every detail of these changes, as that particular information has been out for a while. What I will say is that every single change made to the design of the chip is meant to facilitate faster execution of concurrent data. The Out of Order Execution Engine in particular has been revamped, and the CPU does a better job of prediction than ever before.
Looking at the CPU itself, it looks similar to those we’ve seen recently from Intel. Four cores exist on the die with a shared L3 cache, alongside a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller. A striking difference though, is the GPU sitting right there next to the CPU cores. Intel has had GPUs and CPUs coexisting with Clarkdale, but in that case, the GPU was a on separate die that sat next to the CPU and communicated over an MCP interface.
This time, the GPU is right there on the same silicon, and has been completely revamped. It is the most powerful integrated GPU to date (although that is speaking relatively, of course), and has a host of new hardware video decoding and encoding features.
Another area of focus was power efficiency. Sandy Bridge is designed from the ground-up to be as energy-efficient as possible, without sacrificing speed. Along with designing the silicon to be more efficient than Nehalem, Intel has tweaked the way Turbo Boost works. The new version of Turbo Boost has a sort of “super boost” function, that pushes the CPU beyond its TDP rating when possible. For instance, if you have loaded an app like Photoshop CS5 or Excel 2010, it probably takes more than a few seconds even on a high end chip. The new Turbo Boost will ramp up the CPU higher during times like these, and it will do so more quickly.
This feature, along with the overall vastly improved design of Sandy Bridge makes overall desktop usage noticeably faster compared to every other chip I’ve ever used (and I already said that when Nehalem came out, so you can imagine how it feels now).
Answer to why i7-2500 can outperform i7-2600 in some tests is Hyperthreading because it can give negative performance in really heavy threaded cases.
very informative, nice benchmarking and with good visual graphics!
Thanks a ton for getting these results out quickly. I’ve been pondering a new computer for a couple of months. I’m glad I’ve put it off this long. I just ordered the a computer with the i7-2600. I was going to get the i7-870. I’m glad I waited.
WELL intel marketing is every where , I’ve tested a gaming ring with these cpu and i saw no difference comparing with i7 or amd x4 or x6, no difference remember no difference why you all use for bench software for benching we need to see real world performance not benchiiiezz optimized for those cpus,it’s really frustrating when you realy buy an i7 2600 and you see that has no real improvement over (if it indeed has +++ then is something like 5% not more) core i7 or amd x6 why rubish ????
@ mas yeah if you already had an i7 cpu you would not see a difference going to this cpu, however if your like me and going from a core 2 duo e8400 i expect to see a large difference? i just ordered mine and should be here tomorrow? i can’t wait to play crysis and force unleashed without hesitation! :o)
if i am going from my pentium 2 on 256MB RAM to one of these 2600s with 8GB RAM then I should see a slight difference? That’s what I’m doing at the moment.
however i heard these new boards are really picky when it comes to memory? i ordered a corsair 4gb stick and i pray to the computer gods that it is compatible! :o)
man e8400 it’s not great it’s expensive and you will see it,you will be disapointedddd for that money you can buy a quad intel or AMD then you will make the difference.
[...] if you are in the market for a full system upgrade including motherboard, then something based on Intel’s Sandy Bridge platform is the way to go. Build type will depend on your gaming needs. Since you are a non-gamer, I would [...]
[...] few benchmarks. On the Intel side, we are using the Core i5 2500K, which is based on the brand new Sandy Bridge platform. The graphics chip is integrated into the CPU rather than the Chipset, and there are actually [...]
“Settings: 1024×768, Rendering Quality: High, Performance: Very High, DX9″
Ummm … what year are we living in again? 1990 with XVGA resolution?
How about using some realistic, like 1920*1080 and DX10?
Are you afraid that integrated GPU falls into it it’s face when using real life resolutions and current drivers? Somehow that’s the feeling I get from this “test”.
First of all, I’m not “afraid” if a product I am testing “falls onto its face”. I have no investment in any product I test, I just want to get to the results. Secondly, this is a CPU test, not a GPU test, so lower graphics settings are used. If we used 1920×1080 and DX10, we would be testing the video card, not the CPU. This is a CPU review, so the video card must be removed from the equation as a limitation.
Great and very informative review i’ve been meaning to build a new rig for awhile now and that i5 2500 looks insane! i skipped the last generation chips as i didn’t think they were worth the exorbetant(sp?) price tag for the increase in performance but i can’t get over the i5 2500 for its price point is ridiculous definetly getting it very soon!
Great review! So last October 2010, I bought a machine with an AMD Phenom II x6 1075T chip. It is not worth it to buy a machine with the Core i7-2600 and sell the old machine? How much of performance gain is the i7-2600 going to give me realistically compared to the x6 1075T?
[...] Core i7 is faster than its Core i5 counterpart but not as much as you might expect. Hardcoreware have compared the performance of both cpus. The differences range from negligible when it comes to [...]
[...] is over, it’s almost a given that if you are building a new system, it should be based around Intel’s Sandy Bridge line of CPUs. They took a flying leap in performance over the previous generation, with little to no movement in [...]
[...] that going out and building a PC using a Phenom II CPU would be a bad idea today. As we saw in our Sandy Bridge Review, Intel pretty easily handles anything AMD can throw at them right now, with as good or better [...]
[...] were generally recommended as solutions within their respective price ranges.Then Intel unleashed Sandy Bridge. Suddenly, everything else looked slow. Nehalem looked slow, and Phenom II’s looked slow.AMD [...]
[...] to this 5400 RPM laptop drive in the best environment possible – attached to an Intel P67 Sandy Bridge chipset with AHCI SATA 6.0 Gbps connectivity:First up is the ATTO Sequential speed test, which [...]
AMD Phenom II X6 1075T is a mid-price six-core CPU which is less than a quarter as compared to the price of Intel’s high-end offering. Compared to its competitors, it is a good choice especially for those who are tight on budget. AMD Phenom II X6 1075T provides good performance in fully threaded applications. Its dynamic clock speed can accelerate programs that access a single-core. On the contrary, it cannot approach that of Intel’s counterpart; it is also not unlocked for overclocking. With the following key specifications, this product is indeed a good choice and also Very good for gaming.
Is it me, or i5 2500k sb is the best choice?
Scusatemi tutti dell’ignoranza.
Attualmente possiedo un core i7 950 con Mobo Gigabyte Ex58-UD5, voi che fate, mi consigliate di passare a Core i7 2600K?
Only a nerdy muppet boy would buy an i7 over AMD, save your cash get an AMD and spend the rest on some decent GPU, which after all do 80% of the work.