Ivy Bridge CPU / GPU / Overclocking
Compared
to Sandy Bridge the new Ivy Bridge processors are quite a bit more complex.
Therefore the new state-of-the-art desktop CPUs are based on 1.4 billion
transistors. The old Sandy Bridge CPUs were based on 995 Million transistors.
This means equals about a 40 percent increase regarding the transistor count. On
the other hand the die size shrank by 100 square millimeter from 265 square
millimeter to 160 square millimeter. Intel has been able to do so by migrating
to an new manufacturing process. The new transistors come with 22 nanometer
structures. But this is not enough: Intel also overworked the transistors
themselves. Therefore they are the first to introduce tri gate transistors,
which can be packed with a higher densitiy. The new flagship model, the Core
i7-3770K, now has a TDP of 77 Watts. The former performance desktop CPU king,
the Core i7-2700K, had a TDP of 95 Watts. Intel could even increase clock speeds
to 3.5 GHz standard and 3.9 GHz turbo and they still stay within the lower TDP
of 77 Watts.
Intels Z77-Express chipset is the first Chipzilla offers
that natively supports USB 3.0. Via PCH there are four USB 3.0 ports which a
motherboard manufacturer can make use of. Furthermore there is also PCI Express
3.0 support. Therefore the maximum bandwith the PCI Express bus offers, has
doubled. Like this Ivy Bridge is ready, even for next generation GPUs. Regarding
SATA port you find the same configuration like with P67 or Z68. What you get is
two SATA 6Gbps ports and four SATA 3Gbps ports. If a motherboard manufactutrer
wants to provide more than two SATA 6 Gbps ports, then then have to put
controllers from ASMEDIA or Marvell onto the PCB. Another improvement over
previous chipset is the fact that Z77, combined with Ivy Bridge, can handle up
to three independant displays. The predecessors were limited to two displays.
In order to prevent the memory subsystem from becoming a bottlenck there is a
dual channel memory interface whereas the individual DIMMs can be clocked at
1600 MHz. Generally we noticed that the integrated memory controller of Ivy
Bridge can quite easily cope with memory clocked at 2400 MHz. Nevertheless Intel
guarantees stability up to 1600 MHz.
Overclocking
Regarding Ivy Bridge the multiplyer can now but adjusted
up to 63. Paired with a BCLK of 110 MHz this results in clock frequencies, which
are close to 7 GHz. Results like this have already been reached quite some time
before this launch. Ivy Bridge also allows to change the clock frequency of the
integrated graphics unit in real time. Earlier on we've been writing about the
very good memory overclockability. Intel mentions that up to 2667 MHz are
possible. Some days ago we've seen proof that even DDR3-3200 is was possible
without the use of extreme cooling methods.
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