Hardware Intel Core i7-3770K CPU Review

I have 72ºc with my 2600k@5ghz... And I'm on air... well, my Silverstone FT02R helps

 

ill think ill just keep my 920 for a couple more years

 

9x0 @ 4 GHz here.... 62 degrees at 100% load Corsair H70 + 2 38mm fans.

Next !

dunx

P.S. 2 PCI-E 3.0 slots @ x8 = 2 PCI-E 2.0 slots @ x16 so plenty of bandwidth there, IMHO.

 

I'll keep my 920 'till the next 'tick'.

 

Any word on when the Xeon E3 v2 and C21x are due?

 

That's 60°C actual, so a 41°C delta. Not too bad. An OC delta of 71°C isn't terrible either - our H100 isn't running at full chat. e set it on the most agressive setting (based on coolant temp iirc) but it never really sped up to anything more than its usual low-noise levels. We've never done comparison temps for a CPU because there's too many factors when it comes to cooling; Case, CPU cooler, fan speed, etc. Stick enough cooling onto a chip and anything runs cool. Remove enough cooling and everything runs hot.

Also worth a mention that, despite priming away at 91°C for over a day, the h100 itself never actually got hot to the touch. It's clearly dumping out heat, but the CPU doesn't run hot to the touch if you understand my point? I think the temps recorded are very much internal only - it's no furnace, despite a 70°C OC delta. The more important number to look at is the overall power consumption; the 3770K @ 4.8GHz is pulling 70W less than a 2600K @5GHz; unless there's a fundamental flaw with the heatspreader, that's less power, so less heat overall to dispose of, even if the internal thermistors report higher temps. Feel free to correct if im wrong on that assumption though.

Not sure how I could have given more info on the overclock. 48 x 100, 1.34V, load line to extreme, disable C-states. That's all we needed to do!

 

Same here - I'll have my student budget to spend, and a new PC is the perfect choice, right?

Also, why did the BBC have an article on this (nowhere near as in depth, just a "it's released today" thing) which was released just after midnight this morning?

 

Absolutely! IB-E That's been on the cards for ages. That's the one I'm interested in.

 

Quote: "However, for new-builds and for those who skipped the Sandy Bridge last year it’s a simple choice: the i7-3770K is far, far quicker than an Intel Core i7-920 or any other preceding quad-core chip."

Most games are not CPU-limited though like older games so upgrading for me from a Core i7-920 @ 3.6 GHz to a Core i7-3770K would be a waste of money for gaming. Since the release of the Core i7 in 2008 I personally don't feel the CPU market is anywhere near as exciting as it used to be as far as gaming goes. The truth is that if you have a half-way decent quad-core CPU then upgrading the graphics card is far more useful than upgrading the CPU unless you really want that extra 9 fps (then why not overclock the graphics card instead?).

Looks like I'll be sticking with my Core i7-920 for the forseeable future as there's nothing coming out in 2012 that needs anything more powerful, particularly when you consider than generally games don't make full use of four cores anyway. I'll wait for Haswell. To be honest, the Core i7-920 has been the best CPU I've ever bought as no other CPU has ever managed to last me three years before becoming a bottleneck and this one is pushing 3.5 years!!! Awesome.

 

cant see me upgrading yet

still on an i7950 in gaming computer till i see the threads maxxed out i wont be pushing an ugprade.

 

My experience is somewhat opposite. I have to say, that I find a fair few games limited by CPU rather than GPU these days (I have a GTX570).

Just off the top of my head:

Shogun 2
GTA4
FSX
Civ 5
Bad Company 2 (this is gpu limited and cpu in different places, depending upon what you are doing but there are times when it eats my 2500k for breakfast)

 

Any idea on whether it's a better folder than the 2600k?

 

right, because I'm a big sado, I've just popped a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo onto our 3770K chip.

Stock CPU = peak delta of 47°C

But it sadly wasn't up to the task of cooling the chip at 4.8GHz; 4.4Ghz/4.6Ghz are more in line for this cooler I should think - that is a hefty OC. While I've not tested this cooler before, this is a bit surprising considering it sells for £30. Sadly since taking on the 'review everything' mantle I've found we don't have archival results of CPU temperatures - we've just never recorded them for CPU reviews, in which we tend to go for the max OC with the best off-the-shelf cooling available.

Clearly then IVB runs a bit hotter than SB, but then if you're aiming for 4.8GHz, you'd want a hefty cooler to support it, and would be a bit hopeful to expect a low or mid-range cooler to handle that much of an OC. The overall power draw is still substantially less, which leads me to think that there's an deficiency in simply getting heat out of the GPU. Perhaps a stepping change could resolve the issue?

Regardless, I don't think its a reason to not opt for Ivy bridge. If you're going for big overclocks, you'll want a big cooler - a factor that's no different from past CPUs. Certainly if you're not fussed about the Z77 features such as PCI-E 3.0, there's bound to be some bargain 2600Ks around too.

 

Another good review from Bit-tech, Makes me wonder whether it's worth upgrading from my i5 750. While the performance increase (and decreased power draw) would be welcome, it's the motherboard features that are the attractions for me. Native USB 3.0, UEFI Bios and Sata 6Gbps are all big positives. Maybe an upgrade when Windows 8 comes out is in order Look forward to the 3570K review tomorrow.

 

In testing here it was evident that tim application was key to temps. Correct application resulted in a drop of 12c over all cores to mid 70s at 4.6ghz

Without the correct application (typical application with SB) temps of high 80s, even low 90s at times were seen.

Ill get some DATA up on the OcUK forums at some point this week as well as a video for those who are interested.

 

Well, strictly speaking Panther Point doesn't bring PCI 3.0 to the table. IB does. Apart from native USB3 there isn't _that_ much to Panther Point with regard to Cougar Point. That being said I'd not opt for a Cougar Point mobo at this time, unless we're in for another debacle like with SATA3 issues on Cougar Point at launch.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do that. Not bad considering how inexpensive this cooler is. Maybe I'll bump it down to a 3570k and budget in an H80.

 

Same here. my oc'ed 750 has been running nicely and i didnt feel the need to upgrade. But those z77 mobo features are just too tempting, especially compared to p55.

 

Man... I'm still shocked by the horrible performance of AMD in these tests...
Intel just keep stepping up their game (even if it's only by a little) expanding the gap between AMD and intel ever further. Being a 2600k owner this isn't my time to upgrade just yet. Looking forward to the i7 4880k