Intel Releases First Sandy Bridge-E Quad-Core: i7-3820

When Intel released its first Sandy Bridge-E processors this past November, it was expected that we’d see the first quad-core variant appear in February. Lo and behold, that has held true. The Core i7-3820 is a 3.6GHz offering that lobs off two cores and four threads. It shares its max Turbo frequency with the i7-3960X at 3.90GHz, and despite the drop of cores, it also shares the same TDP of 130W.

We will have our review of the i7-3820 in the next couple of weeks, but if you’d like to see general performance differences between Intel’s previous-generation six-core and the Extreme Edition i7-3960X, then I recommend you check out our review for that.

To our knowledge, there are no known plans for Intel to release additional Sandy Bridge-E models. Instead, the company will likely focus its near-future efforts on the mainstream (and under) Ivy Bridge parts, which will be the first desktop processors based on a 22nm node. Perhaps more notably, they will also be the first to use Intel’s tri-gate transistor technology – essentially “3D” interlocking transistors.

Is there reason to jump all over the i7-3820? We’d recommend checking out our review linked-to above for that answer. Even though the particular model is not covered, you can learn the benefits that Sandy Bridge-E can provide. If you don’t have a particular need for immense memory bandwidth and density, you should be able to hold off until Ivy Bridge. For those who want six-core models, Sandy Bridge-E is the best possible option at the moment, as no six-core models seem to be slated for release with the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture.