As with every new chip release, Ivy Bridge promises improved performance and greater power efficiency compared to last-generation chips. The general performance boost for the new processor, though, isn't really that much. In , the new processor ran only about 5 to 10 percent faster. You might not really notice a difference, especially if you're running chores that don't task the processor much--for example, if you're browsing the Web or editing a document.

So what's Ivy Bridge good for? If you do a lot of tasks that are processor-intensive, you'll save some time. These tasks include media transcoding (converting video, say) and playing video games.

The biggest Ivy Bridge benefits, in fact, are on the graphics side. The (graphics processing unit) in Ivy Bridge is so improved that you might not need a discrete video card in your laptop for running 3D graphics or playing most games. Intel benchmarks using 3DMark* Vantage show graphics performance gains ranging from 18 percent to 105 percent.