VR Zone have published a news article which indicates that Intel will be releasing three new Sandy Bridge SKUs which won't feature integrated graphics.

VR Zone say “In a last minute attempt at getting rid of some more Sandy Bridge processors, Intel will be launching three new SKUs, one of which will be the rumoured Core i5-2550K. The big news here isn't actually the new models themselves, but the fact that none of the three new models feature built in graphics.”

The new chips will be called Core i5-2380P (3.1ghz) and the Core i5-2450P (3.2ghz), with the P indicating a lack of graphics core. It is a clever way of selling chips with faulty manufactured graphics cores, which can simply be disabled and sold as rebadged ‘graphics less' models. Both chips have 6MB of cache.

We don't think this is such a big deal, as very few enthusiast users will take advantage of weak onboard graphics capabilities anyway, but as VR Zone point out, there will no longer be support for Intel's Quick Sync technology.

Kitguru says: Pricing has yet to be announced, but the cost should be lower than those chips with built in graphics enabled.

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