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.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 9 - SuperPi / WPrime
Page 2 - Specifications	Page 10 - WinRar
Page 3 - Ivy Bridge CPU / Chipset / Overclocking	Page 11 - Crysis
Page 4 - Test Setup	Page 12 - Resident Evil 5
Page 5 - Futuremark	Page 13 - Street Fighter 4
Page 6 - Cinebench	Page 14 - Power consumption
Page 7 - SiSoft Sandra 1	Page 15 - Conclusion
Page 8 - SiSoft Sandra 2

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