Intel’s Second-Gen Core CPUs: The Sandy Bridge Review

[baracubra]

A Radeon HD 6970 turns back lower utilization numbers and betterperformance results.

On page 5 last paragraph, the text reads 6970 while the attached image is using a 6870... just saying
Otherwise great review, this is why we keep coming to Tom's

 

[kartu]

Goodbye overclocking, and nobody cares, eh?

 

[cmartin011]

Another Rhode islander disappointed

 

[obarthelemy]

no video transcode quality check ? do you REALLY think anyone cares how fast a transcode is, if it sucks ?

 

[jj463rd]

Would love to have seen a Microsoft Flight Simulator X Benchmark with those new i7-2600K,2500K against the i7-950 and the i7-980X.In addition some more multi core gaming benchmarks as well.
That Quick Sync does look awesomely good though.

 

[Aionism]

Ignoring 1680x1050 (nobody with high-end graphics and a respectable processor is gaming on a 17” display, right?)

My monitor is 19" and 1440x900. Where do you find these strange monitors?

 

[arkadi]

I guess we will see the full picture as soon as MB vendors will promote the new MB's line's. UEFI, USB3, SATA3...is something wrath talking about. For now i don't see many reasons to upgrade my two years old x58 based rig, and i have mixed fillings about that...
Thanks for the review.

 

[Tamz_msc]

no video transcode quality check ? do you REALLY think anyone cares how fast a transcode is, if it sucks ?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i5-2600k-i5-2500k-and-core-i3-2100-tested/9#

Apparently, NVIDIA produces the worst image quality, now that's a surprise.

 

[Godhatesusall]

release date is still 9th of january right?

 

[rpgplayer]

no need in a random drawing, just send it to me already!!

 

[Scanlia]

"Contest is limited to residents of the USA (excluding Rhode Island) 18 years of age and older."

Gee, don't a hate that line...

 

[englandr753]

[citation][nom]Tamz_msc[/nom]Just looked at the AnandTech review and here is their opinion -These things are as fast as the i7 980X and in some cases they're even faster![/citation]

I wonder if that means we will soon be able to pick up an i7 980x on the cheap/cheaper?!?!

I hope AMD isn't hearing this about right now...

http://www.rosswalker.co.uk/movie_sounds/sounds_files_20100522_76672091/deliverance/duel.wav

 

[Proximon]

I knew the numbers would be good, but didn't know they would be this good. Seems like "tick-tock" just went boom. Might as well discontinue i7 980x right now.

 

[nebun]

[citation][nom]DjEaZy[/nom]... will wait til 'buldozer'... and two things may happen... the buldozer at the price point will kick ass... or the sandy bridge parts will get cheaper...[/citation]
compared to past prices, this is already cheap

 

[aaron88_7]

Thank you Tom's Hardware!! I've been eagerly awaiting reports comparing the new 2600k SB chip to the i7 950 for a new build I plan to do very soon. It looks like Sandy Bridge is the way to go!

One question though, in this article, (sorry I forgot where), you mentioned these chips are being released today....was that a typo? I thought they weren't being released until Jan 9th, last day of CES.

Can somebody get back to me as to when exactly these chips are being released.....or more importantly, when NewEgg will let me order one lol

 

[hixbot]

Great review! It would be nice to see a follow up showing clock-for-clock performance with turbo boost shut off, memory bandwidths all the same, just to see if the cores are more efficient.

 

[rhino13]

Sooo...
You used a 580 on all these setups.
Does that disable the onboard graphics?

 

[davewolfgang]

This brings me good vibes about the LGA 2011 offerings later this year. Where are those Turbo and Unlocked top ends going to be?

I would also like to see what the MB manufacturers offer with this platform, and how THEY play with the options available.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

Intel wasted a large amount chip area for the integrated graphics.They should have used it for additional cache.

 

[winner4455]

"But after running the the numbers I’ve run on Sandy Bridge,"

Page 1, under road map.

 

[ilikegirls]

You said you used a radeon HD6870 and a GTX 570 as graphsics cards but in the hardware list it says you used a 5550 and a 4550 ...

 

[haplo602]

one thing I do not get is the QuickSync hype ... I hope somebody explains this to me.

Intel basicaly added a few features to their already existing video decode/encode engine used in integrated graphics and integrated this with the GPU. Won't the same happen when ATI/AMD releases Fusion parts ? UVD3+CPU integration basicaly. There might be slight feature differencies, but that's what I see it as.

So again why the hype ? It's nothing ground-breaking, just further level of integration.

 

[aaron88_7]

[citation][nom]rhino13[/nom]Sooo...You used a 580 on all these setups.Does that disable the onboard graphics?

I am pretty certain it does. I doubt the onboard GPU can be used simultaneously with another GPU.
[citation][nom]ilikegirls[/nom]You said you used a radeon HD6870 and a GTX 570 as graphsics cards but in the hardware list it says you used a 5550 and a 4550 ...[/citation]

Those were for comparing the onboard GPU's performance for the 1 person reading this that actually intends to use the onboard GPU and may be curious as to what performance levels it offers.[/citation]

 

[gamerk316]

Wow, AMD chips get CLOBBERED.

SB is looking like a winner!

 

[aaron88_7]

[citation][nom]ilikegirls[/nom]You said you used a radeon HD6870 and a GTX 570 as graphsics cards but in the hardware list it says you used a 5550 and a 4550 ...[/citation]

Those were for comparing the onboard GPU's performance for the 1 person reading this that actually intends to use the onboard GPU and may be curious as to what performance levels it offers.