Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs
Like any Intel launch, there's lots of products being introduced today and while it's not quite as aggressive as some of the previous ones because Intel officially launched the Z77 chipset earlier in the month, today is the day we feel that the Z77 chipset really launches as it's part of the Ivy Bridge platform on a whole.
Looking above you can see we've got a total of 14 processors split amongst a high-end mobile offering, eight i7 processors split into three categories and five new i5 processors split into two categories. Along with that we've also got eight new chipset offerings in two categories and five new wireless options to round out what is essentially the Ivy Bridge launch.
Ignoring the mobile offerings and instead choosing to get straight into what's on offer from the desktop line up, you can see below the new Standard Power 77w TDP chips and Low Power 65w and 45w TDP chips.
Our main focus today is of course the top i7 3770k carrying a $313 MSRP price tag. Looking above you can see it's a 4 Core / 8 Thread CPU with a 77w TDP. Its base clock is 3.5GHz with a Turbo Frequency of 3.9GHz. Like all CPUs here it shares support for 1600MHz DDR memory. On the L3 cache front we've got 8MB on offer with the new HD 4000 graphics.
The chip most similar to the i7 3770k is the non k based 3770. Looking above you can see from the main features stand point the only thing it lacks is a 100MHz lower base clock speed. In the Low Power line up we've got two more i7 CPUs that carry a 4 Core / 8 Thread setup in the 3770T and 3770S. While they still carry the same HD 4000 graphics, 8MB L3 cache, they've got different clock speeds and lower TDPs.
Moving away from the i7 line up we move to the i5 4 Core / 4 Thread chips and like above you can see the different speeds and offerings. Outside of the thread count difference and 6MB L3 cache versus 8MB setup, the move to the HD 2500 based graphics on all but the i5 3570k is the big stand out.
Looking below you can see the die of the new quad-core chip with the HD 4000 graphics that takes up a large portion of the chip followed up with the four cores and below that the shared L3 cache which goes across all four cores and the graphics core.
On the far right there is the SA and memory controller while across the bottom we have the memory controller I/O. The big thing for the new processor, though, is the introduction of a 22nm manufacturing process. In the second image above we also get a really good break down of what each area does and the benefits it brings to the table.
Looking above you can see the "Tick Tock" strategy that Intel has been using. The next piece to the puzzle is of course the 22nm based "Ivy Bridge-E" chips which are rumored to be released in Q1 of 2013. It will replace the Sandy Bridge-E.
Looking above you can see some of the main features that are bought to the table with the new 22nm Ivy Bridge chip with one of the biggest being that new 22nm process. We've of course got leading performance thanks to Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading and improved overclocking features with higher CPU multiplier limits, more DDR frequency control and support for new XMP 1.3 RAM.
Expanding on the overclocking features you can see above some of the main advantages that are on offer from the new IVB platform with an increased multiplier, real-time core ratio change and higher DDR ratio to name just a few of the features.
Intel Ivy Bridge Chipsets
As we mentioned on the second page we've got a number of new chipsets bought to the table and below you can see the main chipset SKUs with the Z77 being the Full Featured Performance version. Below that we've got the Z75 which is the Mainstream Performance offering and below that the H77 which is the Mainstream Consumer chipset.
Moving to the right side of the table we've got the Small / Medium Business chipset, the B75 and more corporate chipsets sitting above that in the Q75 and Q77. Some of the main differences are the PCIe configuration, legacy PCI support and the amount of SATA III ports.
Looking above we can see the main difference between the new 7 series chipset and older 6 series one. There's not a huge difference between them, but there are a few changes to note. Four native USB 3.0 ports is one, more display ports along with upgraded manageability, FW and iRST support.
Below we've got the extended block diagram for the Z77 chipset which gives us a good run-down of what's on offer from both the CPU itself and motherboard GPU. The CPU gives us PCIe 3.0 support, Thunderbolt on select motherboards and dual channel DDR3 up to 1600MHz DDR.
As for the chipset we've got a lot of the features that we've just mentioned including three independent display support, four USB 3.0, 10 USB 2.0, gigabit networking, eight PCIe 2.0 and six SATA ports to name some of the main features.
We would like to thank the following companies for supplying and supporting us with our test system hardware and equipment:
Intel,
Gigabyte,
MSI,
Western Digital and
Corsair.
Before we get into the performance side of things we need to quickly cover the overclocking side of things. Something we've experienced so far with our Ivy Bridge testing is that overclocking hasn't been the best mainly due to the high heat levels attained.
To date we've tested three 3770k processors and a single 3570k and when overclocking we found they had all hit over 100c and in some cases hit the 105c limit that was forcing them to throttle back in speed. Heading into the BIOS on our ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe we spent the time trying to find the sweet spot for our 3770k.
We ended up running at a 46x multiplier with the BCLK running at 99.77 which resulted in a final clock speed of 4.59GHz. This isn't the best overclock we've seen by any stretch of the indignation. Unfortunately we're continuing to see that the current crop of Ivy Bridge processors aren't overclocking as strong as the older Sandy Bridge counterpart.
None the less we'll see just what kind of performance we're able to get out of the Core i7 3770k against a number of other CPUs that are also tested and overclocked today.
Let's get started!
PCMark 7
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.04
Developer Homepage: http://www.pcmark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.pcmark.com
Buy It Here
PCMark 7 includes a range of tests that give different views of your system's performance. In the Advanced Edition you can choose which tests to run. The common use and hardware component tests are unavailable in the Basic Edition.
Overall system performance is measured by the PCMark test. This is the only test that returns an official PCMark score. The Lightweight test measures the system capabilities of entry-level systems and mobility platforms unable to run the PCMark test, but it does not generate a PCMark score.
Common use performance is measured by the scenario tests - Entertainment, Creativity and Production - each of which results in a scenario score.
Hardware component performance is measured by the hardware tests - Computation and Storage - each of which results in a hardware score.
Comparing the i7 3770k and i7 2600k we can see that performance is very close to each other with little difference being seen. Of course overclocking helps boost overall performance, but due to the stronger overclock on the Sandy Bridge based 2600k, the older CPU comes out ahead.
HyperPi 0.99
Version and / or Patch Used: 0.99
Developer Homepage: http://www.virgilioborges.com.br
Product Homepage: http://www.virgilioborges.com.br
Download It Here
HyperPi is a front end for SuperPi that allows for multiple concurrent instances of SuperPi to be run on each core recognized by the system. It is very dependent on CPU to memory to HDD speed. The faster these components, the faster it is able to figure out the number Pi to the selected length.
For our testing we use the 32M run. This means that each of the four physical and four logical cores for the i7 and the four physical cores of the i5 is trying to calculate the number Pi out to 32 million decimal places. Each "run" is a comparative to ensure accuracy and any stability or performance issues in the loop mentioned above will cause errors in calculation.
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