Intel Sandy Bridge Pentium CPUs Won't Feature Quick Sync or Clear Video HD Support

Following Intel's launch of the first mobile Celeron processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture everyone in the industry expected the company's upcoming Pentium SNB CPUs to come with a cut-down IGP and a recent leak has just confirmed that these chips will indeed lack both Quick Sync and Clear Video HD support.

While the lack of Quick Video was expected by many, is surprising to see that Intel has also decided drop support for the Clear Video HD technology.

This is one of the main features that Intel added to the Sandy Bridge integrated graphics core and is designed to offload the CPU from decoding high-definition video files.

Without it, the processor has to handle the media decoding tasks, which places an additional load on the chip and also increases the power consumption and heat generated by the system.

Both of these issues are extremely important for mobile systems as they cut back into the battery life of the device.

Outside of the crippled graphics core, Pentium SNB processors drop InTru 3D, AVX and HyperThreading support and feature only 3MB of Level 3 cache memory (2MB mobile versions). Turbo Boost also isn't available.

Intel is expected to launch the first Pentium desktop processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture on May 22 and the lineup will include three new chips, dubbed the G620, G840 and G850.

Their operating speed will range between 2.6GHz and 2.9Ghz and the TDP is rated at 65W.

On the mobile front, Intel is expected to release the Pentium B940 and B950 processors that work at 2GHz and 2.1GHz respectively. Both chips will use the current G2 socket and have a TDP of 35W.

Their release date is not yet known, but reports tend to suggest these will be introduced at the same time with their desktop counterparts. (via ComputerBase)