Intel quietly releases a pair of GPU-less Core i5 chips

CHIPMAKER Intel has quietly released seven Sandy Bridge processors, with two of the chips not having built-in graphics cores.

Intel's Sandy Bridge range is already packed but that didn't stop Chipzilla from releasing seven chips, three of which are branded as Core i5 and two featuring a new 'P' suffix. According to our man at Intel the suffix denotes chips that do not come with Intel's integrated graphics core.

Of Intel's three quad-core Core i5 chips, only the 95W Core i5-2550K has the firm's GPU on board with a standard clock speed of 3.4GHz. Interestingly while the Core i5-2380P and i5-2450P lack GPU cores, Intel still quotes a TDP of 95W for all three Core i5 chips.

Intel rounded off its latest batch of 'new' desktop chips with low-end 35W TDP Celeron B720 and B815 chips. The B720 is a single core unit clocked at 1.7GHz while the B815 is a dual-core unit.

For laptops - specifically thin and light laptops - Intel announced the Celeron 797 and 867, both with a TDP of 17W. The Celeron 797 is a single core unit clocked at 1.4GHz while the Celeron 867 is a dual-core 1.3GHz unit.

Intel chose to announce these chips as part of the processor price list it sends to OEMs and system builders. Going through the price list, not a single processor was given a price cut between December and January, showing how little competition Intel must be facing. µ