Intel’s Sandy Bridge i7-2820QM: Upheaval in the Mobile Landscape

You’re probably sick of me talking about Sandy Bridge in our notebook reviews, particularly since up to now I’ve been unable to provide any numbers for actual performance. Today, Intel takes the wraps off of Mobile Sandy Bridge and I can finally talk specifics. Notebooks have always been substantially slower than desktops, and prices for a set level of performance have been higher; that’s not going to change with the SNB launch, but the gap just got a lot narrower for a lot of users. The key ingredients consist of higher core clocks with substantially higher Turbo modes, an integrated graphics chip that more than doubles the previous generation (also with aggressive Turbo modes), and some additional architectural sauce to liven things up.
If you haven’t already done so, you’ll probably want to begin by reading Anand’s Sandy Bridge Architectural Overview, as well as our Desktop Sandy Bridge coverage. I’m not going to retread ground that he’s already covered, so the focus for this article is going to be solidly on the mobility aspects of Sandy Bridge. With notebooks now outselling desktops by almost two to one, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a greater emphasis is being placed on the new mobile offerings. For starters, most of the mobile SNB chips are getting the full 12EU graphics core, rather than a trimmed down 6EU variant. Toss in all of the improved power management features and what we end up with is a fast-when-needed, power-friendly, and efficient chip. We’ll get to the benchmarks in a moment, but let’s start with a recap of the mobile Sandy Bridge lineup.

Intel Mobile Sandy Bridge (Retail)
Model	i7-2920XM	i7-2820QM	i7-2720QM	i7-2620M	i5-2540M	i5-2520M
Cores/Threads	4/8	4/8	4/8	2/4	2/4	2/4
Base Frequency	2.5GHz	2.3GHz	2.2GHz	2.7GHz	2.6GHz	2.5GHz
Max SC Turbo	3.5GHz	3.4GHz	3.3GHz	3.4GHz	3.3GHz	3.2GHz
Max DC Turbo	3.4GHz	3.3GHz	3.2GHz	3.2GHz	3.1GHz	3.0GHz
Max QC Turbo	3.2GHz	3.1GHz	3.0GHz	N/A	N/A	N/A
Memory Speed	DDR3-1600	DDR3-1600	DDR3-1600	DDR3-1333	DDR3-1333	DDR3-1333
L3 Cache	8MB	8MB	6MB	4MB	3MB	3MB
Graphics Cores	12EUs	12EUs	12EUs	12EUs	12EUs	12EUs
Base GFX Freq.	650MHz	650MHz	650MHz	650MHz	650MHz	650MHz
Max GFX Freq.	1300MHz	1300MHz	1300MHz	1300MHz	1300MHz	1300MHz
Hyper-Threading	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TDP	55W	45W	45W	35W	35W	35W
Package	rPGA/BGA	rPGA/BGA-1244	rPGA/BGA-1244	rPGA/BGA	rPGA/BGA	rPGA/BGA
Estimated Price	$1096	$568	$378	$346	$266	$225

Up first, we have the retail SKUs for the quad-core and dual-core parts. Worth noting is that availability of the quad-core processors should start this week, but the dual-core and LV/ULV parts won’t show up for a few more weeks. The quad-core parts will also use a different BGA package than the dual-core parts. The above will be the most readily available Sandy Bridge parts, as well as the fastest offerings, but there are additional OEM and LV/ULV products as well.

Intel Mobile Sandy Bridge (OEM)
Model	i7-2635QM	i7-2630QM	i5-2410M	i3-2310M
Cores/Threads	4/8	4/8	2/4	2/4
Base Frequency	2.0GHz	2.0GHz	2.3GHz	2.1GHz
Max SC Turbo	2.9GHz	2.9GHz	2.9GHz	N/A
Max DC Turbo	2.8GHz	2.8GHz	2.6GHz	N/A
Max QC Turbo	2.6GHz	2.6GHz	N/A	N/A
Memory Speed	DDR3-1333	DDR3-1333	DDR3-1333	DDR3-1333
L3 Cache	6MB	6MB	3MB	3MB
Graphics Cores	12EUs	12EUs	12EUs	12EUs
Base GFX Freq.	650MHz	650MHz	650MHz	650MHz
Max GFX Freq.	1200MHz	1100MHz	1200MHz	1100MHz
Hyper-Threading	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TDP	45W	45W	35W	35W
Package	BGA	rPGA	rPGA/BGA	rPGA/BGA

We might get some of the above in OEM systems sent for review, and if so it will be interesting to see how much of an impact the trimmed clock speeds have on overall performance. The only mobile chip without support for Turbo Boost is the i3-2310M, so it will be interesting to see how that compares with current-generation i3 processors. Sandy Bridge should still be faster clock-for-clock than Arrandale/Clarksfield, and pricing on OEM parts might get these down into some very affordable notebooks and laptops. We’ll have to wait and see.

Intel Mobile Sandy Bridge (LV/ULV)
Model	i7-2649M	i7-2629M	i7-2657M	i7-2617M	i5-2537M
Cores/Threads	2/4	2/4	2/4	2/4	2/4
Base Frequency	2.3GHz	2.1GHz	1.6GHz	1.5GHz	1.4GHz
Max SC Turbo	3.2GHz	3.0GHz	2.7GHz	2.6GHz	2.3GHz
Max DC Turbo	2.9GHz	2.7GHz	2.4GHz	2.3GHz	2.0GHz
Memory Speed	DDR3-1333	DDR3-1333	DDR3-1333	DDR3-1333	DDR3-1333
L3 Cache	4MB	4MB	4MB	4MB	3MB
Graphics Cores	12EUs	12EUs	12EUs	12EUs	12EUs
Base GFX Freq.	500MHz	500MHz	350MHz	350MHz	350MHz
Max GFX Freq.	1100MHz	1100MHz	1000MHz	950MHz	900MHz
Hyper-Threading	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TDP	25W	25W	17W	17W	17W
Package	BGA-1023	BGA-1023	BGA-1023	BGA-1023	BGA-1023
Estimated Price	$346	$311	$317	$289	$250

What’s interesting to note about the ULV parts is that even the slowest i5-2537M (yeah, those code names are going to be easy to remember!) comes clocked higher than the outgoing i7-640UM, with more aggressive Turbo modes and a 1W lower TDP. Perhaps we’ll see an M11x R3 with 400M (or 500M?) graphics and one of these ULV chips?
But enough about other products; let’s take a look at the preview system we received and see how this thing stacks up to the current generation notebooks. As this isn’t final hardware, we won’t be focusing all that much on the laptop design and features but will instead concentrate on performance. So, come meet our mobile Sandy Bridge test notebook.