The Ivy Bridge Preview: Core i7 3770K Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 6, 2012 8:16 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Core i7
- Ivy Bridge
The State of Ivy Bridge Silicon
Intel finally delivered production quality Ivy Bridge silicon to its partners last month. The launch is still scheduled for this Spring, however there has been a delay of approximately three weeks. Remember what I said earlier about the risks associated with doing too much on the architecture side while shifting to a new process node.
We were able to spend some time with the new high-end Ivy Bridge desktop SKU: Intel's Core i7 3770K. What follows is a preview of its performance. Keep in mind that this is a preview using early drivers and an early Z77 motherboard. The numbers here could change. This preview was not supported or sanctioned by Intel in any way.
The Test
To keep the preview length manageable we're presenting a subset of our results here. For all benchmark results and even more comparisons be sure to use our performance comparison tool: Bench.
| Motherboard: |
ASUS P8Z68-V Pro (Intel Z68) ASUS Crosshair V Formula (AMD 990FX) Intel DX79SI (Intel X79) Intel Z77 Chipset Based Motherboard |
| Hard Disk: |
Intel X25-M SSD (80GB) Crucial RealSSD C300 OCZ Agility 3 (240GB) |
| Memory: | 4 x 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3-1600 9-9-9-20 |
| Video Card: |
ATI Radeon HD 5870 (Windows 7) AMD Processor Graphics Intel Processor Graphics |
| Video Drivers: | AMD Catalyst 12.2 Preview |
| Desktop Resolution: | 1920 x 1200 |
| OS: | Windows 7 x64 |
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sabot00 - Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - link
How long will Intel keep its HD Graphics increases?MonkeyPaw - Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - link
I don't understand the logic of selling a high end CPU with the best IGP. Seems like anyone running an it isn't going to stick with the IGP for games, and if they aren't gaming, then what good is that high-end GPU? Maybe the entire "Core i" line should use the HD 4000.Flunk - Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - link
Because the low end chips are just die-harvested high end chips it makes sense. No reason to disable it so they leave it on.And some people do actually use high end processors with IGPs. It's fairly easy to get one from a major OEM. It's stupid but most people don't know any better.
aahkam - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - link
Funny comments I saw.What's wrong even if the High End CPU that comes with IGP?
Is High End CPU = Gaming Machine CPU? If that is your logic, you're a rich but shallow boy!
I do lots of Video Editing and Transcoding, I need High End CPU but None of the High End GPU beats Quick Sync in Transcoding in terms of Quality and Speed.
dqniel - Friday, April 6, 2012 - link
"and if they aren't gaming, then what good is that high-end GPU?"I feel like you missed that part. He's not saying that only gamers use high-end CPUs. He's saying that gamers using a high-end CPU won't care about the high-end iGPU because they won't use it. Also, non-gamers who need a high-end CPU generally won't see the benefits of the included high-end iGPU. So, he proposes that the better niche for the high-end iGPU would be on the more affordable CPUs, because then budget-minded gamers could buy an affordable CPU that has a relatively powerful iGPU integrated into it.
defter - Wednesday, March 7, 2012 - link
This is a mid-range CPU, not high-end one.High desktop CPUs (i7 3800-3900) don't have IGP.
KoolAidMan1 - Wednesday, March 7, 2012 - link
It is because laptops continue to get slimmer and slimmer. Getting good GPU performance without the compromises on the chassis that a dedicated GPU would force is the point.Tormeh - Wednesday, March 7, 2012 - link
This.My next laptop will have processor graphics for the sake of battery life and size, and whoever has the best graphics gets my money.
bznotins - Wednesday, March 7, 2012 - link
Seconded.aguilpa1 - Wednesday, March 7, 2012 - link
If the 4000HD is on the level of lets say a 560m I would not hesitate to get a laptop with no dedicated graphics but if it isn't I'm still going to go for the dedicated.