Ivy Bridge has been a Buzz word that has been tossed around the world, and one that has everyone in anticipation of just what the hell Intel has up their sleeves for the desktop environment, and finally the long awaited day has arrived where we can actually legally show off just what all the hype and hoopla was all about. Many sites have already violated NDA, which is a legal statement by Intel addressing the time and date of releasing their information to the public, but we held fast waiting for the actual stated deadline to arrive before breaking the news to you good folks. It sucks to be a legitimate player sometimes as that means towing the line even under pressure.
When it comes to CPUs and their accompanying chipsets there is no company known to man that reaches the levels that Intel does. Always on the forefront of technology and development it is a rare day to see anyone offering them anything but the slightest competition as AMD really does not create a hard competitor for big blue. Everybody is always looking for a better, faster and more affordable solution to solve their computing needs and from entry level to High-End Intel has a solution to fit your need. The big Buzz word for this event is Ivy Bridge and it once again see’s Intel breaking ground and paving the way for a new desktop platform. Sandy Bridge was a very big market hit and the i7 2500K one of the most sought after CPUs for the overclocker and gamer crowd who have pushed that CPU to its limits squeezing every ounce of performance they could extract from it.
Intel releases a new set of CPUs to work on their latest Z77 and other Chipset motherboards that offers many new features including a separate chip for the onboard graphics all housed in the same Silicon in a similar fashion to the AMD APU line of products, but one that actually has a pair of balls to back up the video capabilities where the APU uses a low end processors in its mix. That might be good for very entry-level projects, but Ivy is ready for desktop primetime and has both good CPU power and GPU power to boost about. This release will show Intel on a new road that takes your graphics needs very seriously and if they really put their efforts in an all out quest to achieve this the graphics cards companies will have to find new ways to fill in that niche. I am no scientist so I don’t grasp and truly understand all the technology involved in creating a new CPU so I wont even try to convey that, but I do know what works and if it is something I would want to actually own and use. I am a layman, gamer and enthusiast just like 98% of the people reading this review. With that in mind lets take a closer look at what Intel’s been trying to keep under wraps for months, the new Core i7 3770K.
The Desktop 3rd Generation Intel CoreTM processor family is the next generation of 64-bit, multi-core processors built on 22-nanometer process technology. The processors are designed for a two-chip platform. The two-chip platform consists of a processor and a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) and enables higher performance, lower cost, easier validation, and improved x-y footprint. The processor includes Integrated Display Engine, Processor Graphics, PCI Express ports, and an Integrated Memory Controller. The processor is designed for desktop platforms. The processor offers either 6 or 16 graphic execution units. The number of EU engines supported may vary between processor SKUs. The processor is offered in an 1155-land LGA package, but will not function on previous generation chipset motherboards.
Intel has now shrunk the die size of the of the CPU from 32nm to 22nm just like we have seen the VGA companies doing on the new 6 series from NVIDIA and 7 series from AMD so its no surprise to see the CPUs going in the same direction. Today Intel introduces 10 new CPUS to the desktop market, these are as follows: The Intel CoreTM i7-3770K, i7-3770, i7-3770S, i7-3770T, i5-3570K, i5-3550, i5-3550S, i5-3570T, i5-3450, and i5-3450S processors. We are looking at the i7 3770K the new flagship CPU for the Ivy Bridge platform featuring an unlocked core and HD4000 graphics. The i7 3770K is clocked at 3.5GHz with Turbo Boost to 3.9GHz, has 4 Cores that when used with Hyper-Threading enabled works like 8 cores, and having an unlocked core means that overclockers will have the utmost in flexibility when trying to get the most performance from their CPU. Lower power requirements should also translate into a cooler running CPU as well and with Intel now being 100% behind the entire overclocking movement this new generation of processors should be the most receptive to this process.
Ivy Bridge Special Features
8-Way MultiTask Processing: Runs 8 independent processing threads in one physical package.
Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.01: Dynamically increases the processor frequency up to 3.9 GHz when applications demand more performance. Speed when you need it, energy efficiency when you don’t.
Intel Hyper Threading Technology: Allows each core of the processor to work on two tasks at the same time providing amazing processing capability for better multitasking, and for threaded applications.
Intel Smart Cache: 8MB of shared cached allows faster access to your data by enabling dynamic and efficient allocation of the cache to match the needs of each core significantly reducing latency to frequently used data and improving performance.
CPU Overclocking Enabled (with Intel Z77 Express & Z75 Express Chipsets)
Fully unlocked core multiplier, power, and DDR3 memory ratios enable high flexibility for overclocking.
Graphics Overclocking Enabled (with all Intel 7 Series Chipsets) 5: Unlocked graphics multiplier allows for overclocking to boost the graphics clock speed.
Integrated Memory Controller: Supports 2 channels of DDR3 1600 memory with 2 DIMMs per channel. Support for memory based on the Intel Extreme Memory Profile (Intel XMP) specification.
Chipset/Motherboard Compatibility: Compatible with all Intel 7 Series Chipsets and selected Intel 6 Series Chipsets6.
Intel Secure Key: a HW assist processor technology designed to produce high-quality, high-security, high-volume random numbers through an on-chip entropy source that can be used for various security computing demands.
Intel OS Guard: A HW assist processor technology designed to prevent certain system malware attacks aiming to gain kernel level access to the operating system (OS enabling required).
Intel AES New Instructions (AES-NI) Provides 6 processor instructions that help to improve performance for AES encryption and decryption algorithms.
Built-in Visuals: New enhanced built-in visual features deliver a seamless visual PC experience for doing everything from simple e-mail to enjoying the latest 3D and HD entertainment.
The built-in visuals suite includes: Intel Quick Sync Video 2.0 Technology: Media processing for incredibly fast conversion of video files for portable media players or online sharing. Intel InTruTM3D9: Stereoscopic 3D Blu-ray playback experience in full HD 1080p resolution over HDMI 1.4 with
3D. Intel Clear Video HD Technology: Visual quality and color fidelity enhancements for spectacular HD playback and immersive web browsing. Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel AVX): Increased performance for demanding visual applications like professional video & image editing. Intel HD Graphics 4000: Brand new graphics architecture delivering full DX11 functionality and up to 2X compute throughput (via increased number of execution units and dual-issue), translating into significant graphics performance enhancements (over 2nd Gen Intel Core processors with HD Graphics 2000/3000) for immersive mainstream gaming on a broader range of titles.
Supported Technologies
• Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d)
• Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT-x)
• Intel Active Management Technology 8.0 (Intel® AMT 8.0)
• Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT)
• Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1 (Intel® SSE4.1)
• Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2 (Intel® SSE4.2) • Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology • Intel® 64 Architecture
• Execute Disable Bit
• Intel Turbo Boost Technology
• Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel® AVX)
• Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (AES-NI)
• PCLMULQDQ Instruction
• RDRAND instruction for random number generation
• SMEP – Supervisor Mode Execution Protection
• PAIR – Power Aware Interrupt Routing
In this section of the review we compare the i7 2600K to the i7 3770K in direct CPU computational performance so you can see just what types of performance levels there are between Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. These tests are designed to stress the various aspects of your CPUs total computing power and how they perform under a full load. We ran the i7 2600K at its stock clock speed of 3.4GHz and the 3770K at both its core clock at 3.5GHz and at an overclocked state at 4.6GHz.
The biggest thing that has happened is something getting smaller as in the new die shrinkage from 32bn to 22nm and the Onboard HD4000 Graphics with a ton of technical information as to the scientific if that’s and what’s that make up the architecture of the new 3rd generation Core CPUs. In-between all that is how it affects our lives in the minute way that interfacing with our PC has on a daily basis has, and finally our workload and playtime interaction. Don’t expect miracles here, as this race is always just another brick in wall of the step-by-step process each new generation of CPUs brings to the market.
As far as sheer GPU power Ivy Bridge brings about a 12-21% performance increase depending on the application and that is about the same as most desktop performance gains seen in previous launches, and at least this is not just a bump release, but also an actual new and improved product. Improvement in gaming is noticeable if you use a PCIe 3.0 based card, but older cards show no real improvements, as they cannot take advantage of the features that PCIe 3.0 brings to the table. The HD 4000 Graphics engine shows a major improvement over the previous generation HD 3000 and now is the perfect solution for any HTPC or entry level gaming rig and significantly reducing the TCO for that type of system. This is one area that Intel has definitely improved with each new generation of the chipset.
The move to the smaller Die size will also allow Intel to venture into new areas of discovery and a wave of new mobile devices for the PC crowd. The Z77 platform offers users a robust amount of features and with the release of 14 new CPU skews you will have many shiny i5 and i7 processors to choose from so you should be able to find one that will suit your needs. With the release of Ivy Bridge Intel did not reinvent the wheel, but the did make a better tire to grip the road your on. Ivy Bridge breaths just enough new life into the desktop environment to at least keep things interesting through the summer season and show a positive direction for the future of embedded graphics.
The biggest thing that has happened is something getting smaller as in the new die shrinkage from 32bn to 22nm and the Onboard HD4000 Graphics with a ton of technical information as to the scientific if that’s and what’s that make up the architecture of the new 3rd generation Core CPUs. In-between all that is how it affects our lives in the minute way that interfacing with our PC has on a daily basis has, and finally our workload and playtime interaction. Don’t expect miracles here, as this race is always just another brick in wall of the step-by-step process each new generation of CPUs brings to the market.
The move to the smaller Die size will also allow Intel to venture into new areas of discovery and a wave of new mobile devices for the PC crowd. The Z77 platform offers users a robust amount of features and with the release of 14 new CPU skews you will have many shiny i5 and i7 processors to choose from so you should be able to find one that will suit your needs. With the release of Ivy Bridge Intel did not reinvent the wheel, but the did make a better tire to grip the road your on. Ivy Bridge breaths just enough new life into the desktop environment to at least keep things interesting through the summer season and show a positive direction for the future of embedded graphics.