The new Sandy Bridge architecture from Intel is sure looking to be a great solution for the future after a sample has been tested by AnandTech. The hardware analysis site got their hands on a sample Core i5-2400 processor – a quad-core Sandy Bridge chip running at 3.1 GHz and with 6 MB of L3 cache.

Overall, the chip performed around 10% faster than similarly clocked CPUs available on the market today without consuming any more power. This isn’t the shining area of the chip though. The integrated graphics processor (IGP) present in the Sandy Bridge processor was faster than a discrete ATI Radeon HD 5450 by a fair margin and is powerful enough to play current games such as Dragon Age: Origins on lesser-quality settings.

Sandy Bridge processors will also have a naming scheme that will be easy to follow. Simply take a look at the chart below to get an idea of how the naming scheme will work. K suffix processors denote unlocked multipliers, S will denote “performance optimized lifestyle SKUs” and T denotes power optimized.

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Intel today has released some fairly mainstream processors with unlocked core multipliers, a first for the company who mainly reserve fully unlocked processors for their “Extreme Edition” line. The Intel “Clarkdale” Core i5-655K and Intel “Lynnfield” Core i7-875K are these new processors, both of which come with a fairly reasonable price of US$216 and US$342 respectively. The i7-875K is a particularly good deal as the processor is cheaper than the i7-870, which is essentially the same chip just without the unlocked multiplier.

The Core i5-655K is essentially the same as the US$175 Core i5-650 – it packs a clockspeed of 3.20 GHz, a Turbo Boost clockspeed of up to 3.46 GHZ, support for dual-channel DDR3 memory up to 1,333 MHz, two cores with four threads thanks to HyperThreading and 4 MB of L3 cache with a 73W TDP. The only thing different from the i5-650 is the unlocked core multiplier and unlocked power.

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Joining the AMD Athlon II range today are six new CPUs, all of which should provide some good bang for buck thanks to the under US$150 price point. The upper end of the new line-up consists of a quad-core Athlon II X4 640 which comes loaded with a 3.0 GHz clock speed, 2 MB of L2 cache and a 95W TDP. The mid-range Athlon II X3 445 comes with a 3.1 GHz clock speed, 1.5 MB of L2 cache and a 95W TDP. Finally, the 3.2 GHz Athlon II X2 260 with 2MB of L2 cache and a TDP of 65W fills out the dual-core sector. Prices for these processors are US$122, US$87 and US$76 respectively.

Also coming to us are three lower power processors – the Athlon II X4 610e, X3 415e and X2 245e with are clocked at 2.4 GHz, 2.5GHz and 2.9 GHz respectively with prices of $145 for the quad, $102 for the triple and $77 for the dual. All three CPUs have a 45W TDP which is perfect for a home server or media PC. All the processors released today should be available in stores pretty soon, if not right now.

Today AMD has released their first six-core processors into the desktop world. The AMD Phenom II X6 “Thuban” processors released today come in two flavours – the 1090T which comes with a core clock of 3.2 GHz with a maximum Turbo Core clock of 3.6 GHz and the 1055T which packs 2.8 GHz across all six cores along with a 3.3 GHz Turbo clock. Each processor comes with 3 MB of L2 cache and 6 MB of L3 cache, happily fits into an AM2+ or AM3 socket motherboard.

Prices start at US$285 and US$199 for the processors respectively, and therefore are priced to compete with Intel’s “Lynnfield” processors – namely the Phenom II X6 1090T is matched up with the Intel Core i7-860 in terms of price and the Phenom II X6 1055T is matched with the Core i7-750. Of course, the Intel processors aforementioned are only quad-core processors but they still fair pretty well against the Phenom II X6s.

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Intel has quietly added two new processors to their desktop line-up. The Core i5-680 is the fastest Clarkdale processor yet, coming loaded with two cores running at 3.6 GHz each which can be scaled up to 3.86 GHz thanks to Turbo Boost technology. The 32nm chip comes with 4 MB of L3 cache, Hyper-Threading support and a 733 MHz integrated graphics core. The Pentium E5500 is also joining the ranks today for those with an LGA 775 socket – it comes with a 45nm, 2.8 GHz dual-core CPU with 2 MB of cache and no HT or Turbo Boost.

Also, news is coming to us today of a second Intel processor to join the Gulftown six-core line-up. The Intel Core i7-970 will come with a 3.2 GHz core clock (slower than the i7-980X’s 3.33 GHz clock), presumably with Turbo Boost and the same 12 MB of L3 cache and will be compatible with LGA 1366 sockets. Prices for the Core i5-680 will start at US$294, the E5500 will cost you around US$75 and when the i7-970 gets released in the coming weeks it should retail for cheaper than the existing Core i7-980X.

Intel today announced some info about the upcoming architecture set to succeed Nehalem. The new set of processors, named “Sandy Bridge”, are expected to go into mass production sometime later this year probably for an early 2011 release. These next-gen processors will be built using Intel’s second-gen 32nm process and will span into the production of 22nm chips. Intel’s sixth-generation graphics core will also be present on the processors and will be the first to feature Intel’s Advanced Vector Extension (AVX) instructions. New AES-NI encryption/decryption instructions will also be present.

Intel also released info on the “Moorsetown” range of Atom system-on-a-chip processors. These CPUs are set for a first-half 2010 release and will bring new power saving technology that aims to reduce idle power by a factor of 50 and also use 10 times less power than the first-gen Atoms during audio playback. More info on both these processors will be coming in the future.

Rumour has it that AMD will soon be releasing some more triple-core processors into their Athlon II X3 range. The Athlon II X3 450 is slated for a Q3 release and will come loaded with a 3.2 GHz triple-core “Rana” processor made using AMD’s 45nm process. The “Rana” core comes with 1.5 MB of L2 cache and no L3 cache, along with support for DDR3 memory. The TDP for this chip is expected to be 95W.

The Athlon II X3 445 is the second chip coming sometime in Q3 and is also based on the “Rana” core but with a clockspeed of 3.1 GHz – a small bump over the Athlon II X3 440‘s clockspeed of 3.0 GHz. A 45W triple-core is also coming soon, known as the Athlon II X3 415e with a 2.5 GHz clock speed. No pricing has been announced for these chips but we estimate the prices will be somewhere between US$130 and US$90.

Intel has already kicked off the consumer six-core race with the Core i7-980X, and as we’re waiting for AMD’s six-core processor we are getting specs leaked by Gigabyte. While the specs sheet has since been pulled, Hexus caught a glimpse of what’s coming in the Thuban CPUs – the Phenom II X6 1055T and Phenom II X6 1035T.

In the X6 1055T we’ll be seeing a clock speed of 2.8 GHz, 512 kB of L2 cache per core and 6 MB of L3 cache. The X6 1035T will be clocked at a lower 2.6 GHz but with the same amount of cache as the bigger brother. TDPs have not been leaked, but it is expected that the processors will be rated as either 95W or 125W.  Both processors are built from AMD’s 45nm process and will fit into the AM3 and AM2+ socket, and are set to be released in April.

Intel’s latest and most powerful processor has been popping up in the news over the past few months, but now it has been finally released and reviewed. The Intel Core i7-908X is Intel’s first six-core desktop processor released into their Nehalem line-up. Codenamed “Gulftown“, the i7-980X is built on the same 32nm process as the Arrandale/Clarkdale desktop CPUs and fits nicely into LGA 1366 motherboards powered by the X58 chipset with a simple BIOS update.

The 6-core beast comes with 1.17 billion transistors but thanks to the 32nm process is smaller than all the previous quad-core Nehalems. It comes loaded at 3.33GHz with a 3.60 GHz Turbo Boost, 12MB of L3 cache, 6 cores and 12 threads and a 130W TDP – the same as the other Bloomfield i7s. The chip also comes in the package with a new tower cooler that is bigger and presumably better than the cooler that came with previous i7s.

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Feeling satisfied with your long-running Core i7-920? Well, no more, because Intel has just released an updated version for sale. Like the i7-940 to i7-950 and i7-965 to i7-975 bump, the only thing new about the Intel Core i7-930 is a speed bump – which takes the 920′s 2.66 GHz and upgrades it to a 2.80 GHz with a 3.06 GHz Turbo Boost. It still packs the same four cores/eight threads setup as well as 8MB of L3 cache and the LGA 1366 socket.

The Core i7-930 is available now from several retailers such as Newegg, who are selling the chip for just $6 more than the i7-920 at US$294.99. Go out and grab one now if you want a cheap i7 on the LGA 1366 platform, or alternatively just overclock your i7-920 if you have one.