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Ivy Bridge is Here – An Overview

By on April 26, 2012 in Ivy Bridge, Z77 Chipset

7093651619 c69ea33e4f o Ivy Bridge is Here An OverviewThis week brought us the release of Ivy Bridge.  This particular release is especially strange and rather challenging to cover as a lot of the critical parts are spread out over a 3 month period. Earlier this month we saw the release of the Z77 chipset, which is the primary enthusiast chipset to support Ivy Bridge (like the Z68 Chipset).  This week we get the release of the Quad Core CPU versions of Ivy Bridge.

The article below is a great extensive look at the Ivy Bridge release and more specifically, the Core i7-3770K.  I just want to touch on a few key points here which will be important to you.

The number one question I am sure:  ”Is it worth upgrading to Ivy Bridge from Sandy Bridge?”  From a value standpoint my answer is no – UNLESS you want to run PCIe 3.0, or you want to support Thunderbolt technology.

Before I continue, there is a HUGE caveat about Thunderbolt.  If you are wanting to use Thunderbolt devices with your new Ivy Bridge System – DO NOT BUY ANYTHING YET.  The Z77 chipset will be supporting Thunderbolt with an additional controller, but this will not be released until the end of May.  So that means you can’t buy a Z77 motherboard right now, and have it support Thunderbolt.  If you don’t care about using Thunderbolt, then don’t worry about it.

Ivy Bridge CPU Ivy Bridge is Here An OverviewThe largest benefit for building an Ivy Bridge system is PCIe 3.0 – or it will be eventually.  Currently you can play any game at max settings with PCIe 2.0 cards – though I am interested to see the effect PCIe 3.0 will have on current benchmarks.  There are currently PCIe 3.0 capable cards on Tom’s Benchmarks, but it is difficult to compare the current offerings.  AMD’s 7XXX series cards are PCIe 3.0 capable, and they perform better than the previous generation – but that is to be expected for a new generation video card.  nVidia has released the GTX 680 as their only PCIe 3.0 video card, and it outperforms everything except certain cards with higher memory at higher settings – the Extreme benchmarks are dominated by 3 and 4 GB cards, which is to be expected considering the large resolution (keep this in mind when Retina Displays become mainstream).

My take on this is that if you have a Sandy Bridge system right now, don’t upgrade just yet (unless of course you simply enjoy doing that, then feel free to go nuts icon smile Ivy Bridge is Here An Overview .  There is no value justification in upgrading from a Sandy Bridge / Z68 system to an Ivy Bridge / Z77 system at this time.

Just to wrap up some other notes about this release.  This release is only for the Quad Core Ivy Bridge CPUs.  The i7-3770k reviewed below is the IB version of the i7-2600k/2700k.  The i5-3570k is the IB version of the i5-2500k.  So the mid-range build will likely consist of an i5-3570k on a Z77 chipset board.  As I am writing this, I haven’t actually seen these chips available in retailers, so I am not sure when that will happen.  It’s nice to note that the new versions of these CPUs are actually going to be slightly cheaper than their predecessors – the i7-3770k being $19 cheaper than previous, and the i5-3570k being $13 less.  This says to me that retailers are going to likely drop prices on Sandy Bridge not insignificantly (or at least provide sales).

So again, if you currently have a Sandy Bridge system of at least the mid range build, there’s really no reason to upgrade to Ivy Bridge (other than for the heck of it).

I’ll be building a new Ivy Bridge system in the next couple of months – I’m waiting on Thunderbolt for Z77 as well as the rest of nVidia’s Kepler lineup.

For now, do check out this article for more extensive information on the Ivy Bridge release.

The Intel Ivy Bridge (Core i7 3770K) Review
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5771/the-intel-ivy-bridge-core-i7-3770k-review

The times, they are changing. In fact, the times have already changed, we’re just waiting for the results. I remember the first time Intel brought me into a hotel room to show me their answer to AMD’s Athlon 64 FX—the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. Back then the desktop race was hotly contested. Pushing the absolute limits of what could be done without a concern for power consumption was the name of the game. In the mid-2000s, the notebook started to take over. Just like the famous day when Apple announced that it was no longer a manufacturer of personal computers but a manufacturer of mobile devices, Intel came to a similar realization years prior when these slides were first shown at an IDF in 2005:

 

image from IntelFreePress

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Ivy Bridge – First Look

By on March 8, 2012 in Ivy Bridge, News

With the (delayed) approach of Ivy Bridge, the exact place of this new technology for gamers has yet to be made clear.  Is it worth upgrading from Sandy Bridge?  Until now we haven’t had independently tested performance of an Ivy Bridge system with a discrete graphics card.

This is one of many tests that will be considered as we get more information going forward – until then, here’s my interpretation:

The CPU tested is the i7-3770k, it is to Ivy Bridge as the i7-2600k is to Sandy Bridge (quad core with hyperthreading).  That is, the average computer gaming build wont be considering this chip, but we can use its comparison with i7-2600k for an idea.  The charts in the article show us a 5-10% increase in graphics performance with a discrete GPU.

So I would say it isn’t worth upgrading from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge on the surface, for a gamer (there are decent improvements in production activities for those of you who do more than gaming).

You would likely see a larger improvement by upgrading graphics cards, especially if you switch to PCIe 3.0 (for which we don’t yet have benchmarking comparisons).

If you have a Sandy Bridge system with a motherboard other than a Z68 rev 3 that supports PCIe 3.0, then you may consider upgrading to Ivy Bridge just for PCIe 3.0 support (of course you could upgrade the motherboard, but why not go all the way and sell your Sandy Bridge system?)

Anyways, check out the article below for the first independent look at Ivy Bridge performance.

The Ivy Bridge Preview: Core i7 3770K Tested
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5626/ivy-bridge-preview-core-i7-3770k

Intel calls Ivy Bridge a tick+. While CPU performance steps forward, GPU performance sees a more significant improvement – in the 20 – 50% range. The magnitude of improvement on the GPU side is more consistent with what you’d expect from a tock. The combination of a CPU tick and a GPU tock is how Intel arrives at the tick+ naming. I’m personally curious to see how this unfolds going forward.

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The Delay of Ivy Bridge

By on February 27, 2012 in Ivy Bridge, News, Storify
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Anticipating Ivy Bridge

By on February 23, 2012 in Ivy Bridge, News, Storify
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Z77 Chipset – Panther Point

By on February 15, 2012 in Ivy Bridge, Z77 Chipset

51ro87u2ZkL. SL160 Z77 Chipset Panther PointWith the release of Ivy Bridge on the horizon (currently April 8 ) we are also anticipating the release of the next series of chipsets to go with it – this time it will be Panther Point or 7-series chipsets. Check out the article on Ivy Bridge for a brief overview. In this article, I’m going to quickly touch on the Z77 chipset.

The Z77 Panther Point chipset is the top of the line chipset complimenting the Intel Ivy Bridge CPU. The Z77 chipset is going to be the most advanced of the chipset options (think an upgraded version of the z68 chipset).

Some of you have asked whether it is worth waiting for the Z77 chipset over building a system right now with Z68 (and then upgrading to Ivy Bridge later). While it has not yet been released – so we don’t know how it will perform – we can look at features that the Z77 chipset will have.

There are two major differences between the Z77 and Z68 chipsets. This is native USB 3.0 and slightly different PCIe configuration. Currently, in order to get USB 3.0 onto a motherboard, manufacturers are using third parties.

The most noticeable effect of using a third party is an increase in price, as the manufacturer has to purchase the chips (ICs) from those third parties. With Intel including USB 3.0 natively (for up to 4 USB 3.0 ports), this should mean that the relative cost will be slightly less (in the neighborhood of $20) – granted, when Panther Point is released, the previous generation will likely drop in price anyways.

One could also surmise that native hardware implementation makes it easier for manufacturer’s to build custom configurations.

This is where the different PCIe configuration will come into play.  The new chipset will provide a more flexible pcie configuration for the manufacturers, making it easier to implement multiple card configurations for PCIe 3.0 – wheras currently it looks like the most you can do on Z68 is two PCIe 3.0 cards (at x8/x8), and then not all Z68 motherboards allow this.

The rest of the Z77 chipset configuration is very similar to Z68. Both Z77 and H77 will include SSD caching – the increase in number of options for SSD caching suggests a trend in that direction, but thats for another article.

In terms of overclocking both Z77 and Z75 will be capable, while H77 will not. Similarly, it looks like there will be K (or similar) versions of the Ivy Bridge processors indicating overclockability.

Unlike the Sandy Bridge release, where the enthusiast chipset (P67) was limited with on board video, all version of Panther Point will include built in video. This is likely due to the utility of Virtu (which again, does not affect gaming performance).

 

So on the surface, the Z77 chipset appears to be perhaps only a slight upgrade (some might say that about the Ivy Bridge CPU as well). The new platform may prove to be not worth upgrading from Sandy Bridge, but I’m personally trying to wait until April to build a new system – I plan on diving into Ivy Bridge + Z77 with gusto ^_^

 

Reference

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Z68 Motherboards and PCIe 3.0

By on January 31, 2012 in Ivy Bridge, PCIe 3.0, Z68 motherboard

With the upcoming release of Ivy Bridge and PCIe 3.0, one question that might be on your mind is “will my current Z68 chipset board support a PCIe 3.0 video card?” Today I just want to take a quick look at the situation and hopefully answer that question.

First, a quick look at PCIe 3.0. This is the next iteration of PCIe, following the update to PCIe 2.0 in 2007. PCIe 3.0 is going to double the memory bandwidth of PCIe 2.0 – this is the most important change to realize. Some sites have taken a look at how that might affect current gaming – but this analysis has yet to be done with an actual PCIe 3.0 video card (as none are available yet).

The other thing about PCIe 3.0, is that in order for it to function you will be required to be running at least an Ivy Bridge CPU (presumably any CPUs released after Ivy Bridge will be compatible as well). Some of these motherboards have PCIe 3.0 capability, but only if you install an Ivy Bridge CPU into them. Currently Intel has indicated that Ivy Bridge will be compatible with the LGA 1155 motherboards – z68 and P67. You also of course need a PCIe 3.0 video card.

 

51nZvs2L9XL. SL75 Z68 Motherboards and PCIe 3.0ASRock EXTREME7 GEN3/EXTREME4 GEN3 - these motherboards come with PCIe 3.0 capability. As previously mentioned, you must have an Ivy Bridge CPU installed. The way the PCIe 3.0 is activated is that the second x16 slot is directly connected to the CPU (where the PCIe 3.0 lanes come from in Ivy Bridge). This means that this particular motherboard can only run 1 video card at PCIe 3.0 (so no PCIe 3.0 SLI/Crossfire). The notes on the Gen 2 version of the next motherboard make me stress that you should only get the Gen 3 of this board if you are looking for future PCIe 3.0 capability.

51eRxCJnGhL. SL75 Z68 Motherboards and PCIe 3.0ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 – just like the Extreme7, this motherboard has the capability of switching one of it’s PCIe 2.0 slots to 3.0 with an installed Ivy Bridge CPU – again, no SLI/Crossfire. ASRock notates that the Gen 2 version of this motherboard will only provide PCIe 2.0 speeds even with Ivy Bridge installed – though you can run a PCIe 3.0 card in the slot (with 2.0 speeds).

 

51xkQ3Z91aL. SL75 Z68 Motherboards and PCIe 3.0ASUS Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3 – This motherboard comes with 2 PCIe 3.0 capable slots. Ivy Bridge CPU Required. This suggests that this motherboard would be capable of running two PCIe 3.0 in SLI – notations indicated x8/x8, though at PCIe 3.0 speeds, this would be similar to running PCIe 2.0 SLI at x16/x16.

51Ny0QpwDEL. SL75 Z68 Motherboards and PCIe 3.0ASUS P8Z68 DELUXE GEN3/P8Z68-V Pro GEN3/P8Z68-V GEN3 – these motherboards also has 2 PCIe 3.0 capable slots (totally 3 PCIe 2.0 capable slots). No notations claim SLI in PCIe 3.0 is capable, however with 2 PCIe 3.0 slots, it is reasonable to assume this will be possible.

 

613BQPN1ZcL. SL75 Z68 Motherboards and PCIe 3.0Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P/GA-Z68x-UD3H-B3/GA-Z68XP-UD3 – all three of these motherboards support PCIe 3.0 with what appears to be two x16 slots. The wording of their specifications suggests that these boards may only support one slot as PCIe 3.0. If they do support two, then they would run in x8/x8.

 

Of all these choices I have been most skeptical of the Gigabyte boards – they released “pcie 3.0 supported” z68 motherboards first, but as I recall they were shown to only be running at pcie 2.0 speeds (like the ASRock Gen 2 motherboards). The take home from this is that if you want to build a system right now, but with the ability to upgrade to PCIe 3.0 video card(s) – be sure you grab a Gen 3 Z68 board from ASRock/Asus or a UD3/B3 board from Gigabyte. Even though some P67 boards may support Ivy Bridge, it doesn’t appear that any will support PCIe 3.0.

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Ivy Bridge

By on January 20, 2012 in Ivy Bridge

2011 was the year of Sandy Bridge – a glorious production for Intel, as they stormed to the front of pc gaming with the best processors we have yet seen. 2012 will be the year of Ivy Bridge. With four months to go until release of Ivy Bridge, we don’t have every detail – the most important information is going to be the rigorous benchmarking tests that sites like Tomshardware and Anandtech go through.

With that being said, we can being to arm ourselves with important information about the upcoming architecture. As far as prices go, we can expect Ivy Bridge CPUs to be released with the same price structure as Sandy Bridge (and Sandy Bridge will almost certainly be lowered in price).

Chipsets accompanying Ivy Bridge – initially we will see Z77, H77, Z75, and B75, followed by Q77 and Q75 in May. Currently, the champion for building gaming pc’s is Intel’s i5-2500k. There is little advantage to the i7-2600k over the i5-2500k due to the lack of support in video games for more than 4 CPU threads. The Ivy Bridge equivalent to the i5-2500k  looks to be the i5-3750K (ref) -

  • 4 core CPU with no hyper-threading, running at 3.4 GHZ Turbo of 3.8 GHZ, 6 MB L3 Cache at 77W for $225.

This compares to the i5-2500k:

  • 4 core CPU with no hyper-threading, running at 3.3 GHZ Turbo at 3.7 GHZ, 6MB L3 Cache at 95W for $215.

So the immediate advantages we can see are a slight improvement in GHZ, and less power consumption (which typically translates into greater OC capability). We don’t yet know if the improvements of Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge make it worth the jump from an i5-2500k to an i5-3750k – that assessment will come following benchmarking tests around release. We do know that Intel has claimed the Ivy Bridge CPUs internal GPU support has been boosted by 70% over the Sandy Bridge – what we don’t know is exactly how this translates into noticeable game performance.

Intel has released their internal testing benchmarks – while I wouldn’t presume to suggest that Intel would release false data, regardless I would hold this information in question until a 3rd party has been able to verify real world benchmarking results. With that being said, these tests show between a 7% and 25% improvement in calculations, and between a 168% and 199% improvement with integrated graphics benchmarking tests.

If Ivy Bridge does indeed provide close to a 200% boost in graphics performance over Sandy Bridge, then it is likely going to be deemed “worth” the upgrade – and I would consider waiting if you are looking to build a new system right now.

Aside from the technical aspects of the processors themselves, Ivy Bridge also brings us exciting new technology in PCIe 3.0. I find especially around video card architecture upgrades that it is prudent to wait for the next technology. Yes, you can always wait for the next best thing and end up never upgrading – but consider that the last time we had an upgrade in video card support architecture to PCIE 2.0 was 2007. This is a once every few years sort of upgrade. PCIe 3.0 will be the standared for the next 3 years (as PCIe 4.0 was announced for 2015 barring any delays).

I also remember around when we upgraded from AGP to PCIe 2.0 – I didn’t wait for PCIe 2.0 and went with an AGP system. This meant that 2 years down the line I was unable to upgrade my video card without upgrading my entire system.

So look for Ivy Bridge in April!

 

 

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The Failings of the AMD Bulldozer

By on January 18, 2012 in AMD Bulldozer

Awhile back I wrote about AMD’s Bulldozer after release.  Now, AMD’s newest offering proved to be disappointing in the benchmarks.  This is one of the main reasons why AMD’s processors never appear in my recommended lists – though I’m still considering putting together a separate AMD build.  I do conceptually like AMD, and have built AMD system’s in the past – I just see higher value with Intel right now.  That being said, here is a pretty cool article that gets into the technical nitty gritty of how Bulldozer functions, what their goals were in creating it, and why the 8 core Bulldozer just doesn’t cut it in Windows 7.

They don’t say it here (as this article is from October), but recent rumblings about Windows 8 suggest these problems are fixed – which could push Bulldozer into a competative position.

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Ivy Bridge is Around the Corner – Should you Build Now?

By on January 12, 2012 in Build a Gaming PC, How to Build a Gaming PC, Ivy Bridge

We are in sort of a lull right now – the beginning of the new year brings change, and having just passed the holidays, some of us may be in a situation to build a new gaming computer. CES this week is showing us some really awesome technology that will make it’s way to PC gaming over the next couple years. So you might be asking, should I build a new system right now? Let’s consider what we have:

Last year brought us Intel’s Sandy Bridge. The preferred processor for gaming right now is the i5-2500k paired with either a P67 or Z68 board. My recommendation for mid-range video card is the nVidia 560ti (I would also consider the 560ti 448 cores). Ram is incredibly affordable right now. SSD prices have dropped dramatically and manufacturers have churned out many new models – there is lots of competition there, and some very find options. We have also seen the introduction of hybrid HDD drives with SSD attached for caching. In the meantime, HDD prices have remained high after the Thailand flooding disasters.

Now we look forward to this year, and what is coming to us in April. In April we will see Ivy Bridge plus a new motherboard chipset supporting this. Ivy Bridge looks have a 70% boost in cpu graphics support over Sandy Bridge – what this means in terms of gaming is not quite known yet. Simply put, the i5-2500k equivalent in Ivy Bridge is going to be the new king of the hill. Along with this we will see PCIe 3.0 and USB 3.0 – possibly even some Thunderbolt support.

The new platform brings us a lot of new goodies – it’s not every year that you see an upgrade in gfx support architecture – so I would say this next tech upgrade is “significant.”

The question if you are looking to build right now is, do you wait 4 months for a new system?

Any system you build right now is going to be a fantastic system – it is safe to say a mid range sandy bridge system built right now will likely last you 3-4 years, as it will take a couple years for game manufacturers to start producing en masse the type of games that will take advantage of PCIe 3.0. However, if in two years you want to play the newest games at max settings, its possible you may need to upgrade again then. Right now it is difficult to tell the route which video games will take considering the new technology we are about to come into – it’s safe to say that a couple companies will make games pushing that tech to the limits (think Crysis when it first came out).

I’m actually in this boat right now – I’m looking to upgrade (I would also like to bring y’all some cool video of the process), but I would prefer to do so with the Ivy Bridge system – I’m just not sure 4 months is worth waiting for. As is said, you can always wait for the next tech upgrade, but then you will be left sitting there doing nothing.

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Welcome Sandy Bridge E – a CPU Fit for a King

By on November 16, 2011 in Gaming CPU, Gaming Motherboards, Sandy Bridge

Welcome Sandy Bridge E, a true enthusiast processor. Intel is between mainstream CPU architectures right now, with Sandy Bridge out and Ivy Bridge coming around 6 months from now (no official dates on that). What they like to do in between is release their enthusiast level processors. Sandy Bridge E processors will run you at least $1000, so they aren’t for the typical pc gamer or computer builder. These are for those folks who love to build a powerhouse system for the sake of building a powerhouse system – and for who can afford it icon wink Welcome Sandy Bridge E a CPU Fit for a King . Granted I would love to build a system around this setup, but it’s a bit out of my budget range currently.

325080 intel sandy bridge e cpu Welcome Sandy Bridge E a CPU Fit for a KingSandy Bridge E brings us two 6 core processors (and later a 4 core), each with hyper-threading for 12 threads. The i7-3960X is a 3.3 GHZ processor which comes with 15MB L3 Cache. The i7-3930K is a 3.2 GHZ processor bearing 12MB L3 Cache. In a few months Intel will also be releasing the i7-3820, a 4 core 8 thread processor at 3.9 GHZ with 10MB cache – this being part of the Sandy Bridge E series and sitting between the i7-2700k and the i7-3930K. The i7-3960X will run you around $1000, while the i7-3930K will be an ‘affordable’ $600.

To play with these delicious 6 core processors, Intel has also released the x79 chipset. The x79 chipset boasts quad channel memory capabilities (up to 64 GB RAM support), and enough PCIe bandwidth to support true x16/x16 SLI, x16/x16/x8, x16/x8/x8/x8, and even x16/x8/x8/x4/x4 – all depending on the specific motherboard of course. Anandtech showed a sparkling review of Asus P9X79 Pro, which looks to be a slam dunk for me. If I were to be building a Sandy Bridge E system, I would surely go with that motherboard. It should be noted that the x79 chipset is more like P67 than Z68 – it doesn’t come with on board video nor does it include SSD caching. Asus has included it’s own version of SSD caching on the P9X79 Pro which you can read about here – however, if I were spending this much on a processor/motherboard combo, I would be sporting full sized SSDs (probably in RAID) and would have no need for the ssd caching feature.

4381 03 asus p9x79 pro and deluxe intel x79 motherboard preview full 300x220 Welcome Sandy Bridge E a CPU Fit for a KingTo me, the increased performance in gaming over a i5-2500k system is not worth the $$ in terms of value. As we know, there aren’t games which take advantage of 6 cores and 12 threads (one of the reason’s that AMD’s Bulldozer fails). The benefit comes in the video and memory bandwidth increase. As is shown in the Anandtech analysis, games like World of Warcraft actually benefit not insignificantly (13% boost in performance over an i5 system). Still, performance in those games is fantastic in the ‘lesser’ system..

Sandy Bridge E is really for the super enthusiast. It’s part of my dream build that I drool over. So that begs the question: should you consider the Sandy Bridge E? Well, if you are willing to spend $3k minimum to build a computer when a $1200 system can play most games maxed then yes. I myself hope to one day put together a glorious $5,000 gaming system, and I will love every minute of it – but that day is not today. One thing is for sure, that system is going to last you for a number of years. Unless the pc gaming world gets its act into gear and starts putting out games that take advantage of 8-12 cores, PCIe 3.0, and other advancements like quad channel memory and multi-card SLI systems.

For now though, I’m certainly going to have fun dreaming about ultra gaming systems that blow the pixels out of my monitor…keep an eye out for my High End Gaming PC Build icon wink Welcome Sandy Bridge E a CPU Fit for a King

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