The Ivy Bridge Preview: Core i7 3770K Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 6, 2012 8:16 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Core i7
- Ivy Bridge
Video Transcoding Performance
x264 HD 3.03 Benchmark
Graysky's x264 HD test uses x264 to encode a 4Mbps 720p MPEG-2 source. The focus here is on quality rather than speed, thus the benchmark uses a 2-pass encode and reports the average frame rate in each pass.
In the second pass of our x264 test we see a nearly 14% increase over the 2600K. Once again, there's no replacement for more cores in these types of workloads but delivering better performance in a lower TDP than last year's quad-core is great for more thermally conscious desktops.
Software Development Performance
Compile Chromium Test
You guys asked for it and finally I have something I feel is a good software build test. Using Visual Studio 2008 I'm compiling Chromium. It's a pretty huge project that takes over forty minutes to compile from the command line on a Core i3 2100. But the results are repeatable and the compile process will stress all 12 threads at 100% for almost the entire time on a 980X so it works for me.
Ivy Bridge shows more traditional gains in our VS2008 benchmark - performance moves forward here by a few percent, but nothing significant. We are seeing a bit of a compressed dynamic range here for this particular compiler workload, it's quite possible that other bottlenecks are beginning to creep in as we get even faster microarchitectures.
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Valitri - Saturday, April 14, 2012 - link
"there's also the question of which one (CPU or GPU) approaches "good enough" first."I was worried that my A6 3420 laptop would feel sluggish in windows and general tasks, especially compared to my 2500k desktop system. However, I've been very surprised and think it works just fine in windows.
I was also very impressed that the iGPU lets me play most newer games comfortably. I was able to OC my A6 3420 on my Samsung 3 series to 2.0ghz. It runs Crysis 2 on low at 1366x768 in the 25-30 fps range. Now to me that is not really playable, but I was surprised it could even run it. Other games like SC2, Arkam Asylum, CSS, WOW, have all ran like a champ. Most of them even on medium settings!
So I think if you want a cheap laptop (mine was $399), and you want the ability to play some games while still doing general tasks well, we have already hit that "good enough" stage on the CPU department. It will be interesting to see if Windows 8/Metro does anything to change this.
p05esto - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
You are dead wrong. I need fast CPU for my work but need or care about the gpu. You realize people do more than game, right.SquirrelPunch - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
Could not disagree more.In fact the majority of power users do not need a powerful GPU, just lots of RAM and fast CPU.
Graphics designers: All 2D mostly, do not need powerful GPU.
Video Editors: Same as above.
Software developers (not games): same as above
Standard CAD: No intensive 3D models involved.
Most also don't care for multi-monitor setups, or the 2x that HD series will let you use.
klmccaughey - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
Intel needs another Larrabee. It keeps cobbling together these graphics cores, which are always well short of the mark. Either Larrabee 2 or licence from Nvidia, but something has to be done about it in the long (possible mid) term. It makes perfect sense and, to me anyway, has the air of inevitability about it.Why not take the plunge?
MarkJohnson - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
I find it odd the AMD A8-3870K was left out of the power consumption section, but is in the others.I ran a quick test and my kill-a-watt meter read 126Watts max x264 HD v5.0.1 which bests all of them
It also idles at 34.5 watts which blows them all away by a very large margin. The best is double what the AMD A8-3870K idles.