Processor Testing Methodology

Since Ivy Bridge is the successor to Sandy Bridge, it makes sense to directly compare the two CPU families. For this review, I compared the Core i7-3770K against the Sandy Bridge based Core i7-2600K. While the 2600K is one tick below the top-end 2700K, the only difference is a fractional increase in clock speed: a base clock of 3.5GHz and a turbo of 3.9GHz as compared to the 2600K's 3.4/3.8GHz clocks. That less than a 3% boost so the benchmark results you see here should be pretty much the same as you'd see with a 2700K.

I tested the Core i7-3770K processor at both its stock clock speed and the maximum stable overclock I could attain on all cores simultaneously, which was 4.7GHz. I'll have more on this in the Overclocking section.

Each CPU was tested on an ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe motherboard with the same hard disk, memory, CPU cooler, and graphics card, so that the CPU was the only variable.

For a graphics card, I used a reference design AMD Radeon HD5770 running at stock clock speeds. Since the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge integrated GPUs share L3 cache and memory bandwidth with the processor cores, the iGPU was disabled for all benchmarks except those specifically concerned with the iGPU.

Intel Z77 Express Test Platform

• Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe with BIOS 0906
• Processor: 3.5GHz Intel Core i7-3770K and 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-2600K
• System Memory: 8GB DDR3-1600 (two 4GB DIMMs) at 9-9-9-27
• Primary Drive: Seagate ST3500 500GB drive
• Graphics Adapter: AMD Radeon HD5770
• CPU cooler: Thermalright Silver Arrow

Benchmark Applications

• Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
• SiSoft Sandra Lite 2011.SPS (1780)
• AIDA64 Extreme Edition v2.30.1900
• Futuremark PCMark 7
• Futuremark 3DMark 11 (for DX11 testing)
• Futuremark 3DMark Vantage (for DX10 testing)
• Aliens vs. Predator benchmark (for DX11 testing)
• Unigine Heaven 3.0
• Maxon CINEBENCH R11.5 64-Bit
• Street Fighter IV benchmark
• PassMark PerformanceTest 7.0b1021
• x264Bench HD 3.0, including AMD-supplied variants using new FX instructions
• SPECviewperf-11:
  • Lightwave 9.6
  • Autodesk Maya 2009
  • Siemens Teamcenter Visualization Mockup
• SPECapc LightWave 3D v9.6
• Handbrake 0.96 video transcoding
• Blender 3D rendering
• POV-Ray 3D rendering

Let's start the benchmarking with an AIDA64 run in the next section.

<< Previous Page - Next Page >>