Intel Ivy Bridge Launch Model Specs Revealed

I’m not sure how I missed this, but a couple of weeks ago, tech site CPU-World posted a leaked chart of upcoming Ivy Bridge CPUS – that is, the 22nm successor to Sandy Bridge. Aside from the architecture enhancements that we’d expect, it seems that there will be an Ivy Bridge model to properly succeed a Sandy Bridge one; in some cases boosting the clock speed in the process.

Most notable to me are the “S” model CPUs, which will be seeing a 300MHz boost on each available chip. S models are in effect Intel’s power-efficient offerings, and while they’ve always delivered on the promise of delivering modest power draw numbers for the speed, they’ve always suffered performance-wise compared to the non-S versions. With boosts of 300MHz all-around, the gap is certainly tightening.

At the get-go, and perhaps for the entirety of the architecture’s life, there are no plans to launch six or eight-core variants. Like Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge processors are not meant to be power houses, but rather deliver a line-up starting at the low-end and working up to the mainstream, stopping at about the $300 mark. As such, Sandy Bridge-E will be the only go-to architecture for those looking for a six-core (or higher in the months to come, if rumors prove true) offering.

All-in-all, these Sandy Bridge successors don’t look totally different in specs, but given the architecture benefits that a die-shrink can bring, along with other new features Ivy Bridge is set to bring to the table (tri-gate transistor, to name a major one), this launch looks to be worth waiting for if you are in the market for building a new rig. Let’s just hope we can avoid a chipset issue with this one.