Intel Core i7-3770K – Ivy Bridge and the 3D transistor is here

Conclusion

The Ivy Bridge architecture and Intel Core i7-3770K is a wonderful combination of performance and power efficiency. Intel’s new flag ship in the mid-level segment is more powerful than any Sandy Bridge processor, and at the same time the processor consumes significantly less power.

The new 3D transistors is not just a clever marketing strategy, the new 22 nanometer technology and the Tri-Gate transistors let us enjoy higher performance-per-watt than ever before and this is something that we only can be excited about.

Unfortunately the sun also has its dark spots and as a fitting comparison even with Ivy Bridge it’s the heat development that is the issue. Or to be correct the fact that the new 22 nanometer transistors have a hard time to manage the circuits energy in form of heat. The transistors third dimension and tighter placement results in that the heat just can’t escape from the circuit quickly enough. This should rarely create any bigger problem with normal use, but when overclocking there’s a clear limitation, and even the older Sandy Bridge architecture get ahead looking at the performance.

The increase of performance with CPU calculations is in no way revolutionary and with the same basic architecture as the Sandy Bridge this is hardly a surprise. But Intel has raised the bar at the mid-level market once again and even the enthusiast processors in the Sandy Bridge-E family get to sweat sometimes, even if they take back the command when using heavily multithreaded applications.

Intel has also upgraded their QuickSync technology and Ivy Bridge is noticeably more rapid when transcoding video than it’s predecessor, an impressive achievement when looking at Sandy Bridge which already had the lead on the market, when looking at pure performance.

The biggest and most interesting difference only seen to performance is found in the circuits integrated graphics. Ivy Bridge has included more, and better executing units and this goes a long way. We actually see that Intel gets ahead of the AMD A-series and their powerful APU circuits at several occasions. Although the AMD A8-3850 and its Radeon HD 6550D integrated graphics looks to get ahead in most game titles, quite alot of times Intel’s new HD 4000 graphics solution isn’t far behind.

The Intel Core i7-3770K is a processor that in our opinion does almost everything right. The CPU circuit is faster than its predecessors, obviously with pretty small margins, but at the same time the graphics circuit is a big step forward for Intel. The 3770K hardly aims to the group of users where integrated graphics makes any difference, but is at the same time a little bit sad, but that is obviously nothing we can blame the processor for.

That Intel actually lowers the power consumption on their circuits, and at the same time increases the performance, is someting that we are genuinly happy about. Unfortunately the new 22 nanometer technology has still not matured enough and has the tendency to let the temperatures run wild, which is a sad side effect that makes it a bit harder for us to set our reviews.

If you are a serious overclocker Ivy Bridge will sadly enough not be as easy of a choice as we had hoped. For those who has access to exotic cooling where you can push the circuits temperatures below freezing you can just make the purchase and start smiling more as you see the circuit climb in frequencies, especially with liquid nitrogen. But for those with an ordinary air cooler or for that matter water cooling it can get significantly harder to get the maximum performance from your processor, something that even the best lapping or copper base probably can’t help you with.

Overclockers who already has alert Sandy Bridge processors in their computers therefore might benefit from waiting and see how Intel will succeed in optimizing their new 22 nanometer technology in the future.

Looking at the big picture the Intel Core i7-3770K is despite everything a fenomenal choice for those of you who are looking for a really powerful processor with high performance and low power consumption. The significantly more powerful integrated graphics is probably more of a bonus in this segment, but a really nice surprise taking into account the continuing processor war in the future. The pricetag which comes in at $313 is high for the the mid-level segment, but then the performance and the funcionality makes the Intel Core i7-3770K to a processor that we really can recommend to those of you who plan to build a really powerful and power efficient machine.