
I want to recommend a good overview article about new Intel's
Sandy Bridge processors . Impressive. I think those who are planning an upgrade should wait. And, wait, it seems, not at all for long.
Briefly pluses:
- integrated graphics performance has increased significantly
- a separate block of hardware video codec acceleration appeared
- the graphics core is now on a single chip with a processor (Nehalem still had 2 chips in one package)
- 32 nm process technology for CPU and GPU
- heat dissipation is reduced - notebooks will become even more economical
- increased overall speed compared to Nehalem at the same frequencies
- Added new very interesting instructions AVX (Advanced Vector Extensions)
- the price should remain about the same as that of the current Nehalem (Core i3-5-7)
The most significant advantage I see is greatly accelerated graphics. Buying a discrete video card for non-players is now even less justified. In this case, video encoding promises to be very fast.
Well, for lovers of silence - if you don’t install a discrete video card, then you can safely do it with a single fan in the case that will blow the entire system. I, generally speaking, and now I
manage them. But the video card under load still remains quite hot. At Sandy Bridge, this problem should completely disappear.
Of the minuses, I see only a change of socket for LGA 1155, which will lead to the need to replace the motherboard for those who hurried and bought 1156. But, nevertheless, the upgrade is more interesting for owners of the already completely outdated Core2Duo / Quad.
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I think that the optimal price will be established by the spring, although the output is appointed almost for January. Well, the real tests should wait.