A few weeks back, we took a look at the Core i7-3960X, Intel’s first
desktop processor to feature the company’s Sandy Bridge-E microarchitecture. If
you're unfamiliar with the chip, Sandy Bridge-E is the ‘tock’ in Intel’s
tick-tock release schedule cadence that bridges the gap between first-gen Sandy
Bridge-based processors like the Core i7-2700K and next year’s Ivy Bridge
microarchitecture. Sandy Bridge-E shares many of the same features of the
original Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, but as the “E” denotes, SBE
is a more extreme derivative, targeted at enthusiasts.