Core i7-2820QM: Sandy Bridge Shines In Notebooks

[silverblue]

[citation][nom]acku[/nom]That Enhanced Bobcat will be a 2012 move. And that would be "some modern games." CodBO isn't DX11. And I doubt anyone wants to attempt to play Crysis on a Brazos system even at 1024x768http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 790-7.htmlYou will be wanting to look toward Krishna. Ontario and Wichita will still be ala Atom flavors.AMD's mobile plans hang on Llano and the Sabine platform. I'm teething to see them in action.[/citation]

Sorry... when I say "modern" I'm meaning stuff released quite recently as opposed to how close to the bleeding edge they are. You're so right about Crysis, I wouldn't subject a poor little 80SP chip to it whether it was strapped to one or two Bobcat cores or all four cores of a Phenom II X4 975. It'd be funny for all the wrong reasons.

Krishna sounds like the next big step in this market space. Llano and its revised Stars cores will be interesting but I'm expecting bandwidth issues unless AMD have enhanced the memory controller, and even then, this could mean the difference between a smooth game without anti-aliasing and a complete dog once you enable 4xAA.

 

[silverblue]

One thing in Brazos' defence is that, on a small screen, the graphics quality doesn't matter so much. Ramp this up to a decently sized TV on HDMI and the flaws will be apparent, but at that point, the machine is using the same power as a fraction of the TV screen itself even when at full pelt so it'd make more sense to play older titles if you were to do that.

As a result, I'd like to see how titles such as Battlefield 2, UT2004, HL2, CoD etc. perform (yes, they're all FPS titles... my bad). If they perform well enough, ramp the resolution/detail up.

 

[jimmysmitty]

After the DT review, this was not unexpected. Considering that a 2600K was pushing roughly the same or less power usage as a dual core Core i5 this all makes sense and of course will make laptops even better for those consumers. I personally dislike laptops due to their ability to not be as upgrade friendly and of course hard to take apart but tis will lessen the need for that since its got an amazing CPU paired with a decent IGP.

As for Brazos, it will do what it needs to do but in the netbook market I don't see much for 3D gaming. More lik Plants vs Zombies and such type of games which even a GMA 3150 can easily handle. In the netbook/nettop market powerconsumption is the biggest factor which goes hand in hand with battery life. Same with smartphones and tablets. The first oaktrail tablet using Windows 7 was giving a 8 hour battery life which pretty much smashes anything else out there considering its a full blown DT OS vs UMID optimized OSes.

It makes me anxious to see Ivy Bridge. Its just been getting better and better since Core 2 and its put the excitement back into new PCs. I am also highly interested in Intels 32nm Atom based chips that are supposed to be out this September.

 

[agnickolov]

I'm curious how does nVidia's Optimus play with QuickSync? Say you have a notebook with Core i7 2820QM and a discrete GeForce 540M using Optimus (like the models listed on avadirect.com). Does that enable QuickSync when the discrete GPU is dormant and the integrated GPU is running? Also, a set of tests would be nice, including actual game scores at more natural resolutions up to 1920x1080.

 

[Guest]

A comparison with AMD's top mobile quad would've been nice. Then you could see if Intel's mobile quad justifies the $700 premium, or if it's only going to win the non-synthetic benchmarks by 20% at most, much like the desktop platform does.

*insert Intel fanboys harping about how "there is no comparison, so AMD should be grateful they didn't include it, blatant Intel superiority, etc..."*

 

[silverblue]

It's not fair though as the currently available AMD mobile offerings, aside of Brazos, are a generation behind in terms of technology and manufacturing process. A P920, for example, may not perform massively different, but with an equal battery, it'll run it down noticeably quicker.

 

[gsnorby]

The chart on the first page of this review indicates that the i7-2630QM does support AES-NI, while the chart from Intel at http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=52219,52227,50067 indicates that it's not available on the entry model. Can you verify that it's there on the i7-2630QM?
Might save me $378 if it is.

As an aside to those wondering about high-end CPUs being used strictlly with discrete graphics: Following a lot f discussions on forums with new owners of high-end gaming laptops, it seems that the Optimus is disabled in the Nvidia chips; some are saying that using a function key combo to manually switch graphics chips to the integrated... brings up a "This doesn't do anything" message from the BIOS of one manufacturer.

 

[freshnbaked]

To the morons complaining about "whats the battery life" go buy a net book if you want to surf the web. Its a I7....4 cores/HT this is for computing things that require alot of processing power...

Its like buying a ferrari and complaining about the gas mileage and noise.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Frankly, I can't recall using a notebook that has a native resolution of 1680x1050. It is a fairly uncommon resolution for a mobile system. Even most 17.3" desktop replacements top out at 1600x900 and most 15.6" notebook top out at 1366x768.

I haven't use a notebook with less than 1920 x 1200 in at least 5-6 years. My Windows 2000 IBM was 1650 x 1050, geez ..... 10 years ago. Anyone heard of Asus, Alienware, Clevo ? Anyone doing mobile GFX work, AutoCAD, gaming etc not using 1920 x 1080 or better ?

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]JackNaylorPE[/nom]I haven't use a notebook with less than 1920 x 1200 in at least 5-6 years. My Windows 2000 IBM was 1650 x 1050, geez ..... 10 years ago. Anyone heard of Asus, Alienware, Clevo ? Anyone doing mobile GFX work, AutoCAD, gaming etc not using 1920 x 1080 or better ?[/citation]

yes, most of our autocad systems do just fine @ 1680

 

[kwgm]

To the right of this article is a frame that displays Best Offers (which have nothing to do with the i7 chip, incidentally.) When I click link to the Dell website, to look at the Inspiron, I see marketing, but no link on their marketing pages to anything else, like the "buy now" page that would allow me to see exactly what I get for $549. Whoever designs and approves sites like this seems at odds with marketing and making a sale. Perhaps it's an inner, psychological struggle from which all marketers suffer? I wonder -- are we supposed to phone Lahore to get the real story on Dell's configurations?

 

[kwgm]

To the right of this article is a frame that displays Best Offers (which have nothing to do with the i7 chip, incidentally.) When I click link to the Dell website, to look at the Inspiron, I see marketing, but no link on their marketing pages to anything else, like the "buy now" page that would allow me to see exactly what I get for $549. Whoever designs and approves sites like this seems at odds with marketing and making a sale. Perhaps it's an inner, psychological struggle from which all marketers suffer? I wonder -- are we supposed to phone Lahore to get the real story on Dell's configurations?

 

[neiroatopelcc]

I suppose the banner just links to the wrong page. I'm sure a company the size of Dell has issues with communication like any other reasonably big company.

 

[kartu]

[citation][nom]cmartin011[/nom]Second!!! really a thousand dollars for a mobile cpu[/citation]
Yeah, 50+ watts, go go go... Sigh.

 

[adamcom25334]

What happende to the printer icon that would bring up the printer friendly version of the entire article (with one click of your mouse)?? Please, please Tom's, bring this feature back!!

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]adamcom25334[/nom]What happende to the printer icon that would bring up the printer friendly version of the entire article (with one click of your mouse)?? Please, please Tom's, bring this feature back!![/citation]
Mouse over the More next to the share link, and you'll find a print feature hidden among a ton of crap

 

[adamcom25334]

Thanks, but (unless I'm missing something) the printer friendly icon in the share link will only bring up a single page. The former printer icon brought up the entire article in a printer friendly format. It would be my guess that Tom's did away with that feature to allow for more advertising exposure.

 

[f-14]

"- If you're thinking about a Sandy Bridge system, you will have to wait until at least April.

Clearly, buying a Sandy Bridge system isn't what anyone should be doing at this moment

 

[f-14]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sandy-bridge-sata-error-pentium-fdiv-bug,12115.html

 

[f-14]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sandy-bridge-sata-error-pentium-fdiv-bug,12115.html

 

[rootheday]

for everyone who is thinking that a high end quad core processor is too pricey... remember that there will be lots of laptops with Sandy Bridge dual core processor at lower price points and they include the same HD 3000 graphics, same Quick Sync transcoding, even better battery life.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

got a dualcore i5 of the 'old type' right now, and it really isn't fast enough for my usage