Intel is rumored to be preparing the launch of the Core i5 3350P during this quarter, an Ivy Bridge processor without functional graphics features.
Fudzilla reports that the 69 watt quad-core CPU will run at 3.1/3.3 GHz and share the 6 MB cache of its graphics-capable processors. The 3350P will slot in just below the 3.1 GHz 3450, which sells for a tray price of $184.
As a replacement for the 32 nm 3.1 GHz 2380P, we expect the discount of the no-graphics feature to be minimal and surface at $177. Given Intel's market position at this time, there is no reason for the company to apply any pricing changes.
Intel did not officially comment on the rumor.
The point of Ivybridge was better IGP and lower power consumption, once you remove the IGP it's just another chip.
You're not looking at any upgrade from a Sandybridge i3. The Ivybridge i3's DO NOT support PCIE 3.0, the only benefits are slightly lower power consumptions and the HD 4000.
I'll like to upgrade my Core 2 duo system with less than $60-100.
Actually, the performance per Hz boost from Sandy to Ivy averaged out at under 4% according to Tom's tests of some commonly used programs. Some programs took much more benefit than this, but most didn't.
No graphics card that is fast enough to have a consistently significant performance difference between using PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 is also slow enough to not be bottle-necked by IB i3s in games with settings representative of the cards' performance, IB or not, so including PCIe 3.0 support in IB i3s would be kinda wasteful.
It doesnt need to be *stop the press* news in order to be news. f not for this article, then it might take most of us much longer to find out that this is happening. Maybe some of us are affected by this and would have missed it without the heads-up that this article provides.
Exactly!
That's why the Ivybridge i3 is just another chip!
I can't argue with that logic. I simply see IB as what it pretty much is, a power efficiency and power usage improvement to beta-test Intel's 22nm process in preparation for Haswell.