Intel Core i7-3770K

It seems like we've been hearing about them for nearly a year (well, maybe that's because it has been that long), but Intel’s third-generation Core processors have finally decloaked. During the long run-up to their debut, these new-gen chips have gone under the code-name “Ivy Bridge,” much like their second-generation predecessors, known as Intel's "Sandy Bridge" line. Indeed, the "Sandy Bridge" development code-name, though never Intel's official name for those processors (the company always just called them its "Second-Gen Core" chips once they hit the market), never quite expired.

We don't mind. After all, the naming scheme served up, for the tech journalists of the world, the most fitting lead-in to these new chips imaginable. Namely, it lets us ask: Is Ivy a "Bridge" too far?

The short answer? A resounding "no."

In the Ivy Bridge processors, the key innovation is a familiar one with a new Intel chip family: The company has shrunk the chip's essential architecture, packing more capability into a new-generation processor without increasing die size or heat output. With 2011's Sandy Bridge chips, a less drastic die shrink, plus several other architectural changes, together made the processors runaway hits. This time, Intel has further reduced the die, but introduced a different twist: significantly improved graphics performance. On-processor graphics acceleration debuted in Intel processors with the Sandy Bridge family, and in Ivy Bridge, it's much better.


In advance of the April 23 debut of this chip line, we got our hands on Intel's flagship Ivy Bridge processor, the Core i7-3770K, intended for desktop PCs, and subjected it to a whole battery of tests. Not everything about it is revolutionary, by any means; for example, it serves up only a small boost in raw CPU processing power over comparable second-generation chips, such as the Intel Core i7-2600K. But the graphics performance is the big deal here: Dubbed Intel HD Graphics 4000, the graphics-acceleration circuitry integrated into the processor is the most impressive we’ve seen on an Intel CPU to date. Plus, the chip draws less power than its predecessors.

Also impressive: the pricing outlook. Despite the graphics improvements Intel made, the prices for the initial Ivy Bridge processors are actually a few dollars below those of their second-generation equivalents. The wholesale prices on this initial batch range from $174 for a 3.1GHz Core i5-3450 to $313 for the high-end Core i7-3770K we tested here. (Though Intel is shipping a whopping nine Ivy Bridge desktop Core i5 and Core i7 processors at launch, including a number of low-power models, the company hasn’t announced any Core i3 processors...yet. We’re sure we’ll see them soon.)

On the whole, you won’t see enough of a performance boost from chips like the third-gen Core i7-3770K to justify replacing a system based on an equivalent Second-Gen Core processor from 2011. As we said, the biggest real-world performance difference between these generations is in the on-chip graphics, and if graphics muscle is what you need, you'd be better off adding a dedicated video card than upgrading the CPU. But, if you’re replacing or upgrading an older system, the smaller power draw of the Ivy Bridge-family chips will be welcome, and the increased graphics performance would have a dual benefit. With Ivy Bridge graphics performance on the level of what we saw in the i7-3770K, many users who aren’t hard-core gamers will be able to forgo a dedicated graphics card, but they'd still get graphics oomph enough for productivity applications and casual gaming.

Even if you're not an upgrader or PC builder, you can expect to see plenty of these processors in mainstream desktops and laptops—in many cases, we expect, with the on-chip graphics carrying the full acceleration load. Here's why we're excited by what we saw from this first sample chip.

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