Bethesda's epic sword & magic game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is our RPG of choice for benchmarking. It's altogether a good CPU benchmark thanks to its complex scripting and AI, but it also can end up pushing a large number of fairly complex models and effects at once. This is a DX9 game so it isn't utilizing any of IVB's new DX11 functionality, but it can still be a demanding game.

Ivy Bridge does very well in Skyrim, not able to reach 60 fps but still above 30 at up to 1680 x 1050. The gains over Sandy Bridge are significant at nearly 50%. Meanwhile Ivy Bridge also gets surprisingly close to Llano, bringing the gap down to 10% at 1366 and 18% at 1680. Seeing as how Skyrim is not particularly shader heavy at these settings, Ivy Bridge looks to be largely shrugging off its biggest bottleneck here in favor of pure pixel pushing power.

Intel HD 4000 Performance: Starcraft II Intel HD 4000 Performance: Minecraft
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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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