The big news about the first Ivy Bridge processors was the improved graphics, but with this second tier iGPU, can the Core i5 3470 match the pace of its technological compatriots?

More features in less space. Is AMD's new Trinity fusion chip for thin-and-light laptops an Intel Ultrabook killer?

This is it, this is the biggie: the i5 3570K, the replacement for the i5 2500K - hands down our favourite CPU of the past year or so.

It's new CPU season at Intel with the launch of the Ivy Bridge family, and the i7 3770K is the quickest of the new breed.

With the arrival of the new Intel Xeon 2687W eight-core monster, we're getting a taste of the multi-core future we've been missing.

While its flagship FX processors are failing to shine it does seem a little on unfair on AMD that at the other end of the market it has a chip which really ought be cleaning up. Its Llano Fusion APUs, which combine a multi-core CPU and a Radeon graphics part on one die, are actually rather good.

Intel, with even less of a fanfare than it made for the muted launch of the Sandy Bridge E platform, has now unleashed the quad-core iteration of its top-end chips, the Intel Core i7 3820. Finally a CPU that doesn't cost the same amount as some full PCs.

The point is that this cheaper Sandy Bridge E gives you everything the top chip delivers for a lot less money. There's absolutely no reason to spend. We're not completely convinced even this truly means the 3930K is good value for money. But it's still a very fast processor and the chip we'd buy if we had a big budget.

The Intel Core i7 2700K's only hope of giving something we haven't already got is overclocking. What'll she do, mister? The answer during our testing and in the context of air cooling and a modicum of extra voltage is 4.8GHz. A very good result, we think you'll agree. But not materially better than you can expect from most 2600K processors. Again, the game doesn't move on.

We'll put a hold recommendation the 6100. At stock clocks and with the final module hidden, it's not terribly exciting. However, if it turns out that most of all 6100s will happily run with the final module enabled, it might just be worth a roll of the dice. If that happens, we'll be more than happy to upgrade the 6100's status to buy.

In our testing, the 4100 didn't deliver significantly better overclocking headroom than the full eight-core Bully. The best that can be said about this dual-module Bulldozer, then, is that it's not far behind its triple and quad-module brethren in games. If only they weren't all off the pace.

It's a properly new chip, not an upclocked respin of an existing design. It even comes with a new socket and chipset, known respectively as LGA2,011 and Intel X79. But there's another side to the story of this chip, otherwise known as Sandy Bridge E. And it's symptomatic of a broader problem with the PC platform.

We've waited a long time for AMD to release a brand new processor architecture, but finally the AMD FX series of CPUs has arrived.

The cheaper Llano Lynx Accelerated Processing Unit lays it all out

More food for thought at the business end of quad-core CPU market

Last month saw the launch of the Llano motherboards from AMD, and if that isn't enough alliteration for you we've now got the release of the desktop Llano APU code-named Lynx. The AMD A8-3850 Fusion APU is the current top-end desktop Llano chip, and is a bit of a doozy.

AMD's second fusion processor ups the performance ante with more cores and better graphics

Apart from the low power rating, the Core i7 2600S still retains all the familiar features of the 2600 family: four cores, eight threads and 8MB of Smart Cache. But as with all the S class chips, it's clocked slower than the rest of the their family.

Although it's getting all the attention as the flagship chip in the second generation Core i5 line-up, there are a couple of other interesting family members. Not because of their overclocking ability – they don't really have any – but because they're low power chips. The most interesting one of these is this Core i5 2500T.

After all the Sandy Bridge goodness without the quad-core price-tag? Then the dual-core Intel Core i3 2100 might well be up your street.

The i7 990X is one of Intel's classic Extreme Edition class CPUs; beyond the grasp of most mere mortals and more powerful than most of us could possibly need. It follows in the footsteps of Intel's other hexcore processors, like the i7 970 and drops in almost identical footfalls as the i7 980X, itself another Extreme Edition.

Can this aging CPU hold its own against the newer Intel offerings?

Six of the best AMD can manage in its latest hex-core Black Edition CPU

What kind of processor performance can you get for this cheap a price?

Ready or not, here they come. Intel is rolling out a thoroughly overhauled range of PC processors based on its new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. Our first taste of the new chips comes in the form of the Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K desktop CPUs.