The Intel Ivy Bridge (Core i7 3770K) Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Ryan Smith on April 23, 2012 12:03 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Ivy Bridge
Total War: Shogun 2 is the latest installment of the long-running Total War series of turn based strategy games, and alongside Civilization V is notable for just how many units it can put on a screen at once. Adding to the load is the use of DX11 features such as tessellation and high definition ambient occlusion, which means it can give any GPU a run for its money.
At high quality with Shogun 2's basic DX11 functionality, Ivy Bridge can't quite reach playable framerates. At this point it's closer to the entry-level GT 520 and Radeon HD 5450 than it is AMD's Llano, trailing AMD's iGPU by over 50%.
Turning our settings down to medium, and thereby reverting to DX10 functionality, Ivy Bridge picks up some performance. 26fps still isn't good enough to reach the 30fps mark, but at the same time it represents a remarkable improvement for Intel. Ivy Bridge is 61% faster than Sandy Bridge here, which is far greater than the theoretical performance difference between the two GPUs. Nevertheless Ivy Bridge still trails Llano by 55%, keeping Ivy Bridge decidedly in the entry level class of GPUs.
What's interesting here is that this is the first test in our suite that is shader intensive at even lower settings. On paper Ivy Bridge has far more memory bandwidth than GPUs like the GT 520, but only roughly the same amount of shader performance. The fact that the two GPUs are nearly tied is a stark reminder of this fact. Ivy Bridge greatly improves on Sandy Bridge, but it still has quite some distance to go to catch Llano in shader-bound scenarios.
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sld - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - link
.... and in this multivariate comparison you choose to ignore the superior battery life which makes Llano a serious competitor in the mobile space.midn8t - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
this the frames pre secound for CPU, you cant really figure out well when gamming its all mostly based around what ever video card they used, in this artical so I would have to guess that they might have used diffrent GPU video card in each system.obivuously they cant use same motherboard for amd vs intel
Also I find it wired that other reciews have Rated the phenom II x6 lower in preformance then the FX chip makes it wired how these review claims that the phenom II which is lower grade CPU is more powerfull then the top of the line AMD product out.
zeagus - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - link
A huge chunk of text is spent explaining how while its a step in the right direction, they need to do more on the GPU side of the equation. Take off your strangely coloured glasses.wingless - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
EDIT: I'M NOT KIDDING. I bought my 2600K the Friday before last for $199 and paired it with an ASUS P8Z77-V PRO. Ivy Bridge is simply too hot and lacks OC performance.I overclock so I WILL be keeping my 2600K for the foreseeable future!
fredisdead - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link
So HD4000 igp is weaker than last gen Brazos ?? Based on the leaked Trinity benchmarks, Trinity blows any Intel igp into the weeds, never mind the ( already 1.5 yr old ) Brazos, which is 'only' 5% faster.fredisdead - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - link
So HD4000 igp is weaker than last gen Brazos ?? Based on the leaked Trinity benchmarks, Trinity blows any Intel igp into the weeds, never mind the ( already 1.5 yr old ) Brazos, which is 'only' 5% faster.1ceTr0n - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
I'll keep my 2500k @ 4.6ghzNot kidding
smookyolo - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
And I'll keep mine at 4.9GHz.But that's just because I'll be waiting for the tock, not the tick.
I will however be getting a Ivy Bridge Laptop soon.
Flunk - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
Me too, the 2500K is a great chip. Especially with watercooling.Ratman6161 - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
For anyone like me who already has a Sandy Bridge quad core (mine's a 2600K) it wouldn't make a lot of sense to "upgrade" to an Ivy bridge. But for those with older systems looking to upgrade, these actually seem like pretty good deals. @ $313 the 3770K is cheaper than the 2700K and cheaper than the typical price on a 2600K (unless like me you are lucky enough to live near a Micro Center).As to those complaining about graphics, come on. Will anyone who really cares a lot about graphics, particularly gaming, be using the on board graphics anyway?