Manufacturer: Intel Price: $ US Author: Steve Date: 01/02/2011

[ Introduction ]

Today Intel is launching their 2nd generation Core processor series which has become well known as Sandy Bridge, the architectures codename. This new architecture is exciting because it takes the Core design to the next level, providing a level of performance and efficiency previously unseen. Intel has supplied us with samples of the Core i5 2500K and Core i7 2600K, which we put through a battery of tests... The Sandy Bridge architecture features a completely new 32nm design that includes not just the processor cores, memory controller and north bridge functions, but it also adopts a graphics processing engine as well. The Westmere architectures, such as Clarkdale which was used by the Core i5 6xx and Core i3 5xx desktop processor series, also featured a CPU and GPU in the same package. However the Westmere architectures were quite different, as they merely took a 45nm Intel HD Graphics engine and a 32nm Core processor. They then stuck them on the same package and not on the same piece of silicon, creating a multi-chip package interface. The problem with the chips being separate is that it creates a latency issue as they must communicate using a QPI-like bus. This becomes even more problematic once you consider the fact that the memory controller, which was once on-die, is now housed in the larger 45nm silicon designed for the GPU. By designing everything on a single piece of silicon the more refined Sandy Bridge architecture will provide better performance and efficiency. Additionally the new Sandy Bridge architecture also features a shared L3 cache, which is not only shared across all cores but also the processor graphics as well. Intel claims that this new shared cache design delivers more performance and greater energy efficiency. The problem with the Nehalem/Westmere architectures was that regardless of how many cores the processor had, whether it is two, four or six, each individual core had its own private path to the L3 cache. This makes the processor considerably more complex and it starts to become a real problem when adding even more cores. It is said that each core required around 1000 wires and when adding a GPU to the equation even more wires are required. Keep in mind that Sandy Bridge not only includes a GPU that is sharing the L3 cache, but also a video transcoding engine which would require around 2000 more wires had they kept the old design. Sandy Bridge adds a GPU and video transcoding engine on-die that share the L3 cache. Rather than laying out another 2000 wires to the L3 cache Intel introduced a ring bus. The ring features four separate rings, being the data ring, request ring, acknowledge ring and snoop ring. Each core, the graphics processor, video transcoding engine and System Agent (aka North Bridge) all have their own stop on the ring bus. For those of you who are wondering what the System Agent is, a component that we just mentioned, it is essentially the on-die North Bridge. Previously Intel has coined this as the un-core, but for some reason it is now titled System Agent. Nevertheless everything is much the same here in terms of features, as you get a single PCIe 2.0 x16 lane which can be split into dual x8 lanes when using multi-GPU technology.

Table of Contents >>> Introduction <<< Meet the Sandy Bridge Gang Under New Instructions Intel HD Graphics 2000/3000 New Chipsets for LGA1155 Unlocked Overclocking Test System Specs Memory Bandwidth Performance Synthetic Performance Application Performance Encoding Performance Gaming Performance IGP Performance Power Consumption Conclusion Next Page ->

ProX	Posted on: 01/03/2011 06:45 AM Awesome review well done. Plenty of good info and testing there. I have to say after reading the review I fail to see what the point of the LGA1366 platform is now? These are awesome for anyone looking to upgrade from a Core 2 Dup/Quad system or older.

Crelm

Posted on: 01/03/2011 06:22 PM I've read half a dozen reviews on these chips today, and I must say, this is the best written of the lot. Fine review. Good work, author and editor.

Stuart

Posted on: 01/03/2011 07:52 PM What's up with the Ks lacking VT-d et al? I'm actually not going to OC the thing but I'd buy the K just for the heatsink. However, I use virtual machines pretty constantly, occasionally needing to get to the USB ports etc.

Stuart

Posted on: 01/03/2011 08:21 PM After further review, I don't have the usage requirements to want VT-d enabled anyway. (USB was a bad example anyway, but first that came to fingers). Basically, it looks like they turned off everything that would make the Ks serverroom/business friendly. All the remote management and imaging standardizations. Businesses aren't going to overclock anyway, but it kinda looks like protection for the future Xeons. A down clocked K might be interesting to compare to an S if it had the business stuff.

poldo

Posted on: 01/03/2011 11:06 PM Nice work LH guys. The application and IGP results are impressive. The best thing about these is the fact that you get $1000 CPU performance for $300 or less.

Minx	Posted on: 01/05/2011 02:35 AM Yeah these new Intel processors are putting the hurt on AMD. So when exactly is Bulldozer rolling into town?

Venom

Posted on: 01/06/2011 04:38 PM How about killswitch?

Steve Posts: 80 Joined: 2010-02-08

Posted on: 01/13/2011 08:43 AM Thanks for all the feedback guys. I will be sure to keep you up to date with AMD releases this year

Haiq	Posted on: 01/18/2011 06:35 AM A friend received his i5 2500k today. I thought the CPU box would look a little bigger cuz I heard there was a new heatsink inside the box, but it turned out it's the same old-lower-design heatsink from INTEL.

RaiDeR

Posted on: 01/29/2011 07:26 PM The 2600K is the only one right now that has the taller heat sink.For this series of cpu/gpus.