Its popularity aside, Battlefield 3 may be the most interesting game in our benchmark suite for a single reason: it was the first AAA DX10+ game. Consequently it makes no attempt to shy away from pushing the graphics envelope, and pushing GPUs to their limits at the same time. Even at low settings Battlefield 3 is a handful, and to be able to run it on an iGPU would no doubt make quite a few traveling gamers happy.

So does Ivy Bridge reach its goal here? Kind of. 37.3 is playable in single player, but it's been in our experience that multiplayer framerates can bottom out at half our SP benchmark, which means Ivy Bridge would be bottoming out in the high teens.

All things considered however, this is another case of Intel greatly improving their performance. Compared to Sandy Bridge, Ivy bridge is 48% faster, once again well ahead of the clockspeed and EU count improvements for HD 4000. Intel's improved shader performance plays a large part here, but BF3 provides a good mix of shading, texturing, and geometry stress at low settings, meaning Ivy Bridge is getting a full workout. As a result it's also once again closing the gap on Llano, trailing AMD's iGPU by only 25% here.

Intel HD 4000 Performance: Portal 2 Intel HD 4000 Performance: Starcraft II
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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 @ 4.6ghz

    Not 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?

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