Sandy Bridge vs. Previous Gen.?

[ElectroGoofy]

Hello, all.

Ok, I have been looking around for the answer to this but can't seem to find it.... (not sure if I'm not looking enough, or if there just aren't many topics about it....)

Anyway, I would like to know, what are the differences between the Sandy Bridge series and the previous generation? (It would be nice to know about all differences, but I am mainly focused on i7s... also, am wanting to know mainly about the laptop side of things)

I have heard that there has been some decrease in power consumption.... aprox. how much is this, and roughly how much of a difference does it really make when speaking in terms of battery life in laptops?

Any other information about what makes them better than the original series are welcome as well 😀

Thanks!

 

[enzo matrix]

Well, if I don't specify numbers then what I say about desktop will apply to notebooks about the processors.

Sandy bridge is a die shrink with minor improvements over the previous versions. This means:
-more aggressive turbo boost
-lower power consumption
-better performing integrated GPU (on models that have it)
-debatable better performance per clock
-higher clockspeeds at lower power consumption

I think that covers the significant improvements. It's probably nice to have in the high performance mobile segment due to power consumption.

 

[cjl]

Oh, and as far as how much of a difference it makes for laptop battery life? Enormous.

Enzo: Sandy isn't a die shrink. It's a new architecture. It's on 32nm, just like Arrandale/Gulftown. Ivy is the 22nm die shrink to Sandy.

 

[cjl]

Intel make the cpus. They have less voltage leaks which means they run cooler uses less power but a laptops battery depends aswell as the vendor or OEM selling it. A laptop battery got cycles. Now everytime when you use it it runs thru that cycles. When its thru all those thousands of hours it greets the world. you will not the battery life start to get less and less. Now that's mainly due to poor battery maintenance. Some laptops allow you to remove the battery when you got the power source plugged in. By doing that your laptop battery don't run through its cycles as quick. What happens when you leave the battery in the laptop will still run of the battery while it gets charged constantly which means it runs through its cycles.

That has very little to do with the OPs question. It answers almost nothing, and it has a decent amount of stuff that's just flat out wrong.

 

[enzo matrix]

Enzo: Sandy isn't a die shrink. It's a new architecture. It's on 32nm, just like Arrandale/Gulftown. Ivy is the 22nm die shrink to Sandy.

Wrong. It's a die shrink from 45nm to 32nm. Only 3 processor lines were given a shrink from 45nm to 32nm in the old icore line:
-i3
-dual core i5
-6 core i7

All other processors in the old icore line were 45nm.

That has very little to do with the OPs question. It answers almost nothing, and it has a decent amount of stuff that's just flat out wrong.

Care to be useful and actually tell us what is wrong as opposed to just spouting out "omg there is so much wrong with that but I'm not going to enlighten the op as to what is true and what isn't"

 

[cjl]

Wrong. It's a die shrink from 45nm to 32nm. Only 3 processor lines were given a shrink from 45nm to 32nm in the old icore line:
-i3
-dual core i5
-6 core i7

All other processors in the old icore line were 45nm.

Nope. Sandy Bridge is a new architecture on 32nm. Westmere (Arrandale, Clarkdale, and Gulftown) was the Nehalem die shrink to 32nm (as well as Sandy's predecessor), and Sandy is the new architecture at 32nm. Similarly, Ivy Bridge will be the 22nm die shrink of Sandy. This information is pretty freely available on Intel's website...

Care to be useful and actually tell us what is wrong as opposed to just spouting out "omg there is so much wrong with that but I'm not going to enlighten the op as to what is true and what isn't"

Certainly.

1) The transistors in Sandy are the same as those in Westmere. The voltage leaks are the same in both - the improvements in power have to do with the new architecture more then the process, since it's on exactly the same process as Westmere.

2) Removing a laptop's battery when plugged in doesn't really affect the number of cycles it goes through. Once it is fully charged, the only difference between leaving it plugged in and taking it out is a tiny bit of leakage current. It doesn't really make a difference unless it's going to be off for a substantial amount of time.

3) Details of laptop batteries have nothing to do with whether Sandy has a better battery life than Westmere. That's why I said that it was kind of unrelated to the OP's question.

 

[enzo matrix]

Nope. Sandy Bridge is a new architecture on 32nm. Westmere (Arrandale, Clarkdale, and Gulftown) was the Nehalem die shrink to 32nm (as well as Sandy's predecessor), and Sandy is the new architecture at 32nm. Similarly, Ivy Bridge will be the 22nm die shrink of Sandy. This information is pretty freely available on Intel's website...
Enzo: Sandy isn't a die shrink. It's a new architecture. It's on 32nm, just like Arrandale/Gulftown. Ivy is the 22nm die shrink to Sandy.

I see what you are getting at but this is not my point. I am trying to point out the differences between the processors from a practical perspective.

I did not mean that the new i7's were a die shrink of the previous i7's. I meant that the new i7's are on a smaller process. I suppose I did word it wrong. Let me correct myself. I misunderstood you because I didn't write what I meant.
Sandy bridge is made on a smaller process with the architecture having minor improvements over the previous versions.
The 4 core i7's and i5's never received a die shrink. So I also wrote as if talking about that. But I forgot that the mobile variants did receive a die shrink.
Sorry about the misunderstanding.

 

[oby20]

Hello, all.

Ok, I have been looking around for the answer to this but can't seem to find it.... (not sure if I'm not looking enough, or if there just aren't many topics about it....)

Anyway, I would like to know, what are the differences between the Sandy Bridge series and the previous generation? (It would be nice to know about all differences, but I am mainly focused on i7s... also, am wanting to know mainly about the laptop side of things)

I have heard that there has been some decrease in power consumption.... aprox. how much is this, and roughly how much of a difference does it really make when speaking in terms of battery life in laptops?

Any other information about what makes them better than the original series are welcome as well 😀

Thanks!

everything has been said, to be much simpler, after those comments and explanation you just read,
the deal is their only advantage is SPEED period
they are much faster clock per clock, better in overclocking thats why SPEED is their only advantage.
they have socket 1155, and their counterpart is the 1156 series sockets, they are the turbo version of the 1156 series.
they will smash the 1156 in everything. but compared to 1366 series, its a different story,
they will be faster also but the 1366 has more pcie lane so it will be better in video editing, and 1366 has triple channel compared to sandy bridge dual channel, so it means more ram support for the 1366. the thing in sandy bridge is it will be faster in an average user, what does an average user usually do? browse the net, check emails, watch movies, edit photos play games, but when you use heavily threaded programs that require memory, like video editing, animations, 3d image rendering the 1366 will be much stable in running those programs. it depends on how will you use it, if you are a gamer and an ave user sandy bridge is better choice, but like me as a professional 3d renderer and animator, 1366 series serves me better. sandy bridge is all about hype, dont be too complicated, its just faster for most people period, nothing more, but i dont think your pc is better when it loads 5-10 sec faster. :lol:

 

[cjl]

What has the voltage leaks got to do with the battery? Voltage leak is the cpu using less power and running cooler. that's why they can be oc so high on air. It has nothing to do with the battery.

You're the one who talked about the battery, and I'm completely familiar with voltage leaks. That's why my first point was talking about the transistors.

 

[cjl]

You know the OP are talking about a laptop.
Westmere is a DTR
DTR = desktop replacement. Its a class where u lump those 45min laptop's in, meaning they only last 45min on the battery. Power consumption wasn't in mind when they were made and they go for wot? 6 grand.

No. Westmere is an architecture. My i7-ULV powered M11x with a 5-6 hour battery life is powered by Westmere.

Similarly, the i7-990x is Westmere.

It covers the whole spectrum - every 32nm Nehalem shrink from the lowest power notebook duals to the desktop and server hex cores is a Westmere.