The Intel Haswell Refresh Review: Core i7-4790, i5-4690 and i3-4360 Tested
by Ian Cutress on May 11, 2014 3:01 AM ESTFor our discrete GPU benchmarks, we have split them up into the different GPU configurations we have tested. We have access to both MSI GTX 770 Lightning GPUs and ASUS reference HD 7970s, for SLI and Crossfire respectively. These tests are all run at 1080p and maximum settings, reporting the average and minimum frame rates.
dGPU Benchmarks: 2x ASUS HD7970
F1 2013
Bioshock Infinite
Moving up to two AMD GPUs puts the i3 on the back foot with Bioshock Infinite average frame rates, with the i5/i7 pulling a ~30% lead.
Tomb Raider
Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs matches Bioshock Infinite in that as the GPU power increases, the demands on the CPU does as well. As the i3 has two fewer cores, frame rates are struggling to get above 60 FPS with an i3, and you really need an i5 or i7 for 60 FPS minimum.
Company of Heroes 2
Battlefield 4
Battlefield is known for taking advantage of all the resources available, and while the added threads of the i7 does not seem to make much difference, the two fewer cores of the i3 show a 50% lead to the quad core counterparts compared to the i3.
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AndrewJacksonZA - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
If you didn't clarify "Human limited" and "CPU limited" I would've understood them the other way around:"Human limited" has the human being as the slowest part of the system with a very fast CPU.
"CPU limited" has the CPU as the slowest part of the system.
Harry Lloyd - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
Testing performance of these CPUs is completely pointless. The only interesting thing about them is power consumption and thermals.geok1ng - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
The benchmarks of the Xeon 2687 v2 8c/16Ht imply that the upcoming Extrem Edition haswell-E CPU will be a landslide. 5960X can't come soon enough.Antronman - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
If the 5960x will be as bad as the 4960x, the 5930k can't come soon enough either.milkMADE - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
too bad the only sku with 8-cores to give it that landslide are the EE $1000 5960xgeok1ng - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link
a xeon 1680 v2 , single socket 8c/16ht costs $1887, and afetr 6 months we still do not know if it is unlocked like the 6cores 1650/1660. So $1000 for a 5960x is not outlandishChrispy_ - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
Looking at the Z97 vs H97, why are small businesses not allowed to use SRT?Such dumb.
Antronman - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
How many fucks I give: 0.StrangerGuy - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
Intel can spam a million SKUs left and right while pretending it's relevant like 10 years ago and it still doesn't mask the fact there are only like 2 chips @ $50 and $220 that makes sense for 90% and 9.99% of desktop users respectively, and most of them are well served by chips sold 3 years ago.Antronman - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
Actually there are more "sensible" enthusiast chips. For example, if I am running a 4k setup, and I also record gameplay and upload it to youtube, I want something notably better performing than the 4670k. And I would say that much larger .01% of the computer-using community is pro overclockers and video editors and scientists and software developers.There's so many niches these days, a much greater percentage of people needing more specific solutions is present than most people think.