Chip giant Intel has sneakily released an upgraded Sandy Bridge CPU - the Core i7 2700K - just weeks after AMD launched its supposedly Intel-challenging Bulldozer chip.
The chip isn't a huge upgrade over its predecessor, the 2600K, offering only a small increase of 100MHz to 3.5GHz in operating frequency. In turn, this lets the chip reach speeds for 3.9GHz in Turbo mode.
Otherwise the chip's much the same, with four cores, up to eight threaded Hyper-Threading and an 8MB cache.
Unlocked overclock
As before, the Core i7's multiplier is unlocked for easy overclocking.
Intel has also announced price drops for three of its lower-end chips. The Core i2-2120 and Pentium G630 and G850 will be priced at $117 (£73), $64 (£40) and $75 (£47) respectively.
The Core-i7 2700K is now in stock at Scan Computers for £287, £87 more than AMD's latest chip.
Quite why Intel hasn't made its usual song and dance about the new chip is unknown - it could be that it's such an incremental upgrade that it's not worth promoting, or that it's going to big up the processor once the wind disappears from AMD's Bulldozer sails.
via Anandtech
