Intel Promises Big Performance With Sandy Bridge
The next big "leap ahead" for Intel.
We know that the next big thing to come from Intel is Sandy Bridge, which will be the biggest CPU overhaul since Nehalem.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini made mention of the upcoming processor generation, saying that it'll be the biggest leap the company's made yet in terms of processing power.
While Intel would never encourage prospective customers to hold off on a new PC – especially leading up to the hot holiday buying season – the CEO's enthusiasm for Sandy Bridge could give reason to wait until 2011.
In closing, I want to mention our next processor family codenamed Sandy Bridge. This quarter, we began volume production of Sandy Bridge and expect to ship revenue units in Q4 as we prepare for systems launch in the first quarter of 2011. Sandy Bridge represents the largest increase in computing performance in our history. This is a truly stunning product that we can’t wait to bring to market. Early demand from customers is much greater than we originally expected and we anticipate a very fast ramp.
Source: Seeking Alpha

Better chipsets please!
"Hoping that he's bid for more than arguments And failed attempts to fly, fly"
Better chipsets please!
IMHO - Sandy bridge may be good for sub 800$ systems, since you won't need a separate GPU, but anyone looking to push the limits wouldn't benefit.
There are going to be SB based systems that will not have a GPU built onto the die, specifically the K series that has a unlocked multiplier.
In terms of performance, Anand had a review with some SB CPUs in a sort of Alpha stage and it was pushing 10-20% overall better performance than a equally clocked Core i7. With driver improvements and final silicon it could be higher than that. The SB to truly replace X58 based Nehalems though will come in late 2011 in X68 based systems on LGA2011.
Yea if thats how you feel, you should not be a PC enthusiast. Technology always gets better. Should I be mad that LGs Ally is such a nice phone over the EnV Touch? Nah. I am glad. But you can't get everything for free.
I think that the real jump in performance will come when Ivy Bridge is released on the 22nm process. Notebooks will have 4 cores with 8 threads, and desktops will have 8 Cores with 16 Threads. Wait until Ivy Bridge or you will be very, very sorry.
Don't listen to Paul Otellini.
Then there's Bulldozer. I'm optimistic that Bulldozer will at least match i5/i7; since it will undoubtedly cost less, very likely that's the way I'll go, even if Sandy Bridge is 20% faster.
Of course, I could be pleasantly surprised and Bulldozer will equal or beat Sandy Bridge, while still costing less. That would be sweet indeed.
Now, I still look forward to it but the pricing is always a concern with Intel. If AMD can even at least match i7 with Bulldozer but with their usual prices of considerably lower than Intel I would still be interested. I'd rather not spend 50% more for 10% more performance and end up with an unbalanced system.