Intel has yet to launch the dual-core Core i7 3520M in June, and already in Q3 2012 it plans to top it with Core i7 3525M.

The slight change in the designation indicates a slight change in the processor itself. The Core i7 3525M runs at the same clock as Core i7 3520M, 2.9GHz, with a maximum single core clock of 3.6GHz and maximum dual-core clock or 3.4GHz and comes from a family of dual cores with two threads. It is also a 35W TDP processor with 4MB cache 1600MHz DDR3 or DDR3L support.

The only difference as few can suspect is graphics. Core i7 3525M is still based on Intel HD 4000 and its graphics by default works at 650MHz but its maximum graphics frequency gets to 1350MHz, or 100MHz more than at Core i7 3520M.

We guess that this is enough to call a processor something else and there will coexist from Q3 2012 onward as Core i7 3520M will remain in production and selling together with 3525M. The other notable difference is that Core i7 3525M supports only BGA packaging while Core i7 3520M supports both BGA and rPGA if anyone cares about it.