Intel Unveils Sandy Bridge: Core i7 2600K, i5 2500K, i5 2400, i3 2100 CPUs

SiSoft Sandra 2011b

A year ago, SiSoftware released Sandra 2010 with full support for Windows 7; in the 18 months since the launch of Windows 7, more than ever before we have seen the line blur between PC and entertainment hubs. Two months ago we released a Blu-Ray benchmark, now we have added a brand-new Media Transcoding benchmark using the new Media Foundation of Windows 7. We have also added yet another benchmark (GPGPU Cryptography) which allows direct comparison of CPU performance (using crypto instruction sets) and GPGPU performance.

The available memory bandwidth in Sandy Bridge has been improved over Lynnfield, where it sees a little over 1GB/s increase. Notice how clock speed has very little to do with bandwidth on Sandy Bridge. The Core i7 2600K at 4.9GHz enjoys a 3GB/s lead thanks to running the memory at 1600MHz.