The word Sandy Bridge is what we have been hearing for the past 3 months. In forums, on different

– Great performance; – 1.2GHz overclock; – Overclocking is made easy with a P67 motherboard; – 95W TDP and low CPU temperatures

– Cannot be overclocked on a H67 motherboard; – Consumers need to buy a new motherboard on top of purchasing the CPU

This true quad-core processor offers a lot of performance for the money, but gamers may want to spend the savings on a dedicated 3D card to pair with it.

Very fast performance for the price; Unlocked multiplier for easy overclocking

New chipset requirements mean you'll need a new Socket 1155 motherboard; Integrated graphics performance still slow compared to cheap dedicated 3D cards

One of the processors in Intel's Sandy Bridge line-up that is being released in early January 2011 is the Intel Core i5-2500K. Intel is calling Sandy Bridge the 2nd Generation of Intel Core Processors. That also happens to be the significance of the 2 in the name of the Core i5-2500K.

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Intel's new Core processors based on the Sandy Bridge Architecture have been released. They bring a new integrated graphics core that effectively doubles rendering power compared to the last generation. It also includes numerous new features geared to both the gamer and consumer.

GPU performance greatly improved compared to last generationUp to 4x AA support32 nm CPU; plenty of computation powerGPU fully integrated in the CPU dieSupport for DirectX 10.1Turbo Boost increases GPU clockHDMI Audio bitstreaming supportedHDMI 1.4 & 3D supportDedicated transcoding hardware

No support for DirectX 11Limited GPU performanceDrivers not as mature as the ones from ATI or NVIDIANo support for CUDA; PhysX; OpenCL

Lastly, with the usual Apache web-server benchmark, the Core i5 2500K performance was in front of the Core i7 970 by 36%. There is no doubt about it: Intel's Sandy Bridge is fast. In fact, it is damn fast.

Is Sandy Bridge a new "super chip?" Yes and no. This Intel launch very much reminds me of AMD's 6800 series GPU launch , which was misunderstood by many. AMD introduced the 6800 series, which was a mainstream part, very much like Sandy Bridge 2500K and 2600K.

Note: This Intel Core i5-2500K review also reviews the Sandy Bridge architecture as a whole, as well as the high-end Intel Core i7-2600K processor. Ready or not, here they come. Intel is rolling out a thoroughly overhauled range of PC processors based on its new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture.

Introduction Well folks, we might be a little late to the party, but we can't have the CPU section of this site looking as light as it does, so it's time to add another to that small collective.

Sandy Bridge is Intel's latest microarchitecture, and although CPUs built to this new design still use the familiar Core i3, i5 and i7 brand names, they bring some major advances over the previous generation.

Intel's latest processor microarchitecture, Sandy Bridge, is finally here. The processor promises greater performance, and we put it to the test.

Much improved power efficiency over last generation and competitor's processor; Runs really cool; Improvements over previous generation; Improved integrated graphics; Overclocks really easily with K models; Full hardware transcoding support; Cost-efficient

Must be paired with P67 chipset for best overclocking result