Today Intel launch their 3rd Generation of processors codenamed Ivy Bridge. We take a look at the Core i5 3570K and Core i7 3770K CPUs.
Product on Review: Intel Core i5 3570K & Intel Core i7 3770K
Manufacturer : Intel
Street Price: 3570K – £179.99 3770K – £259.99
Last year Intel unveiled a new socket, platform and chipset that had its roots spanning back an entire decade and in just over a year the CPUs for this socket – codenamed Sandy Bridge are set to be superseded by what Intel are calling Ivy Bridge.
Just like Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge tackles both the mobile and desktop markets at the same time, Intel will be releasing a plethora of CPUs upon launch today and we shall be taking a look at two of their high-end desktop solutions within the 3rd Generation Core i5 and i7 families.
Sandy Bridge, whilst being an overwhelming success for Intel hasn’t had a very prosperous lifespan and though many will continue with respective P67/Z68 chipsets other enthusiasts have completely avoided Sandy Bridge due to Ivy Bridge being on the radar early on. Ivy Bridge may use the same socket as Sandy Bridge and have the same physical dimensions but underneath Intel have implemented 22nm technology – the first for their desktop (and mobile) processing solutions. With a smaller transistor size Intel can pack in even more power and efficiency.
Today we will be taking a look at Intel’s 3rd Generation Core i5 3570K and Core i7 3770K CPUs and investigating whether it’s really in your best interest to upgrade to CPU family and respective Z77 chipset.
Intel’s words on Ivy Bridge (3rd Generation)
A new PC can provide you with unique and expanded capabilities. And when it is powered by a visibly smart 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor, it can deliver amazing performance. Smart features give your PC the ability to adapt to your needs, as well as stunning visuals built-in for an enhanced experience that you can both see and feel. You can enjoy a wide selection of entertainment, create and share your great memories, and explore and connect to what interests you most. Rediscover what’s possible with a new computer. The only thing more amazing than our technology is what you’ll do with it.
Features & Architecture
•Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
• Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology
• Integrated Memory Controller
• Built-In Visuals
– Intel® Quick Sync Video
– Intel® Clear Video HD
– Intel® InTru™ 3D
– Intel® HD Graphics
– Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions
• Intel® Smart Cache
• AES New Instructions (AES-NI)
• Intel® Virtualization Technology
• Thermal Solution for Boxed Processors
• Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology
• Integrated Memory Controller
• Built-In Visuals
– Intel® Quick Sync Video
– Intel® Clear Video HD
– Intel® InTru™ 3D
– Intel® HD Graphics
– Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions
• Intel® Smart Cache
• AES New Instructions (AES-NI)
• Intel® Virtualization Technology
• Thermal Solution for Boxed Processors
8 Way Multi-Task Processing: Runs 8 independent processing threads in one physical package.
Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0: 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 multi-tasking, 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): 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 Chipsets.
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.
Intel Ivy Bridge – Model comparison
Closer Look
The new Ivy Bridge processors use LGA1155 socket, so the physical size of Intel’s 3rd generation CPUs are exactly the same as Intel’s 2nd Generation CPUs (Sandy Bridge). All Ivy Bridge CPUs are designed to work with the new Intel Z77 chipset motherboards.
As is typical with the packaging; our Intel Core i5 3570K and Core i7 3770K arrive in a bright blue retail box. The retail version comes with an Intel reference heatsink and fan whilst the OEM version – just the chip. The retail version also has the added bonus of an extended warranty.
The retail packaging for Intel’s 3rd Generation CPUs (Ivy Bridge)
The same physical size as Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs – LGA1155
Test Setup & Overclocking
CPUs
Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz) Sandy Bridge
Intel Core i5 3570K (3.40GHz) Ivy Bridge
Intel Core i7 3770K (3.50GHz) Ivy Bridge
Cooling Alpenfohn K2 – Mount Doom
Motherboard MSI Z77A-GD65
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB 2133MHz CL11 DDR3
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
PSU OCZ Fatal1ty 750W
Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz) Sandy Bridge
Intel Core i5 3570K (3.40GHz) Ivy Bridge
Intel Core i7 3770K (3.50GHz) Ivy Bridge
Cooling Alpenfohn K2 – Mount Doom
Motherboard MSI Z77A-GD65
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB 2133MHz CL11 DDR3
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
PSU OCZ Fatal1ty 750W
In order to present a fair and reasonable comparison all CPUs will be tested on the Intel Z77 chipset. This is perfect for comparing Sandy Bridge vs Ivy Bridge since we can use the same motherboard for benchmarking due to both chips being LGA1155.
Overclocking
As previously mentioned in our Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge Roundup – overclocking with Ivy Bridge is identical to Sandy Bridge. It is achieved by altering the multiplier rather than the BCLK. So the BCLK stays at 100MHz and the multiplier is modified. So if we have 100MHz on the BCLK and 40 for the multiplier this will obviously output 4GHz.
For this section of the review the maximum overclock was achieved by using the MSI Z77A-GD65 and monolith CPU cooler – Alpenfohn K2 with 2x 120mm and 1x 140mm fans. The multiplier for Core i5-3570K and Core i7-3770K was nudged up in small increments starting with 43 and upon booting into windows LinX was run 5 times in order to observe temperatures and confirm stability.
Intel Core i5-3570K
The 3750K managed to overclock up to 48 – 4.8GHz from 3.40GHz, a 41% overclock. This is a significant increase and required 1.38 vcore and PLL overvoltage enabled. I pushed for the 5GHz milestone but sadly the temperatures increased far too high under load when nudging up vcore to achieve such a frequency. The temperatures rose to over 90⁰C.
Intel Core i7-3770K
The 3770K managed to overclock up to 47 – 4.7GHz from 3.50GHz, a 38% overclock. Again this is an encouraging result. 4.7GHz required a vcore of 1.36v with PLL overvoltage enabled. As with the 3570K, I tried to get closer to the 5GHz mark but again increasing the voltage caused the heat to rise to unacceptable levels under load – beyond 90⁰C. In pursuit of anything above 4.7GHz even with a slight nudge to 1.38-1.4 though the temperatures weren’t an issue the system was unstable. Increasing the voltage was the key to attaining a higher frequency but this only worsened.
On the following pages we will be benchmarking our two Ivy Bridge CPUs at both stock and overclocked settings as per above. The stock settings are obviously at default – with turbo boost enabled. Our overclocked settings are fixed at the overclock frequency with turbo boost disabled.
Power Consumption
It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using P67 and Z68 chipsets, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark 11 – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.
IGP Performance Analysis
An interesting feature that first appeared on the desktop environment with the Sandy Bridge architecture was the integrated graphics on the CPU. This meant that regardless of if you had a discreet graphics solution you always had the ability to use “Built in” processing power to watch movies, view 3D content and take part in some casual gaming.
With Ivy Bridge, Intel have stepped up with new graphics architecture by delivering full DX11 functionality. With HD-4000 there is a significant increase in execution units which mean even greater performance enhancements when compared to HD 2000/3000 – found on Sandy Bridge CPUs. To the end user this should translate to being able to handle 1080p movies, more complex gaming titles and even more intense 3D renders.
Testing procedure
Now in order to test the effectiveness of the IGP on both 3570K and 3770K there are a variety of benchmarks we can test but we have decided upon 3DMark 11 – performance preset 720p and DIRT 3 @ 1680×1050 with low settings and 4xMSAA. For this test AMD’s A8-3870K iGP along with Intel’s 2500K, 3570K and 3770K will be compared plus we will observe the performance advantage to combining integrated graphics with a discreet solution – XFX 7970 Black Edition.
With 3DMark 11 being DX11 only – the 2500K results could not be obtained, hence no score.
Encoding Performance – X264 HD
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
x264 HD gives results for 2 passes when compressing an MPEG-2 clip into x264. It presents 4 separate results for each pass giving a total of 8 – all results are given in FPS. For each pass I have averaged out the results.
Both the IVB CPUs do well in the encoding tests, especially during the 2nd pass. An overclock optimises this, resulting in even greater efficiency.
Processing Performance – AIDA64
Get your copy of AIDA64 here!This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.
Between the SB and IVB CPUs there isn’t that much of a gulf separating performance at stock but as we will come to learn throughout these benchmarks, overclocking presents a key advantage.
Processing Performance – Cinebench
CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.
In the Cinebench test the raw processing power is challenged and both IVB CPUs step up to the mark. Between the 3570K and 2500K the difference is relatively marginal – the 3770K offers the best performance. Overclocking allows for even great performance increase for both IVB CPUs.
Bandwidth Performance – SiSoftware SANDRA
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.
Processor tests – Both 2nd Generation and 3rd Generation Core i5 CPUs battle it out and its very much neck and neck in these tests whilst the 3rd Generation Core i7 pushes on to lead the way.
Memory tests – The results between each of the CPUs in these tests are marginal.
3D Performance – 3DMark 11
Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.
3DMark 11 is a very popular 3D performance benchmark suite and needs little introduction. For the test settings both Performance and Extreme presets are run with ‘benchmark only’ being selected. This provides good analysis. Many will only test the performance preset, using the extreme mode we can examine the board under much more severe stressing – at 720p and 1080p.
In both tests the difference in points is minimal but as is the case throughout most of the benchmark tests the trend continues with 3570K and then 3770K leading the way.
Gaming Performance – DIRT 3, Skyrim & Battlefield 3
It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have a selection of popular gaming titles, critically acclaimed and action-packed.
Settings
DIRT 3
– 1680×1050 4xMSAA – Ultra Quality *Benchmark tool*
Skyrim
– 1680×1050 2xAA – Very High Quality *FRAPS – 1st episode*
Battlefield 3
– 1680×1050 2xAA – Ultra Quality *FRAPS – Sepur Fedelis*
The gaming titles selected demand GPU power over CPU power – in each test the difference is rather marginal except with BF3 where the results for the 3570K drop slightly when compared to 2500K and 3770K.
Conclusion
Jump onto any community hardware forum and you will undoubtedly see many topics surrounding Intel’s infamous Ivy Bridge. Enthusiasts have been waiting for Intel’s 3rd generation of CPUs for a long time and now that it’s finally here, what do we think of it?
Thanks to IVB being designed for LGA1155 – those currently with Sandy Bridge either on the Z68 or Z77 chipset can step up to IVB with no hassles at all. The upgrade path is easy – you won’t need to buy new memory or a new CPU cooler.
The Core i7 3770K – the flagship within the IVB i7 lineup led the way with performance but overclocking both the 3770K and Core i5 3570K resulted in a significant advance in performance. Most notable was the sheer processing power and ability to encode video with both of these chips – with overclocking remaining the same as with SB, it is therefore to the users best interest to nudge the frequency up on the CPU however great or small.
Increasing the CPU voltage for overclocking purposes just slightly did have its drawbacks – heat. Perhaps due to the smaller surface area the IVB core has more difficulty dissipating heat. The air cooler used in our testing – Alpenfohn’s K2 is more than up to the job of providing efficient cooling, it is a market leader and with 3x cooling fans attached so this remains a slight mystery. Early reports of intense overclocks surfaced well before IVB launch – these were made possible by using active cooling such as LN2, so perhaps other cooling methods such as water might be necessary to push the boundaries.
Nevertheless we managed to get both the 3570K and 3770K over 4.6GHz which is an admirable achievement especially as minimal effort is required.
Back when SB launched I gave the new CPUs our “Amazing Value” award because nothing could touch these new chips, they offered great performance, great features and pricing was also very good. With IVB offering a slight improvement against SB it makes it hard for me to award this – though the pricing is almost identical to the pricing SB was given at launch for respective CPUs.
So it remains very difficult to choose an award for Intel’s new Ivy Bridge. Sure enough the great performance is there but there isn’t any giant leap by any means. It will be interesting to see how this new family of CPUs perform within the mobile sector as SB based machines have certainly stood out from the crowd.
Pros
+ Easy upgrade path from SB
+ Good performance especially when encoding
+ Overclocking is easy and effective
+ Overclocking realises significant improvements
Cons
– Get very hot
– Not the performance leap many were expecting
+ Easy upgrade path from SB
+ Good performance especially when encoding
+ Overclocking is easy and effective
+ Overclocking realises significant improvements
Cons
– Get very hot
– Not the performance leap many were expecting
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
