SANDRA CPU Benchmarks
This is a good indicator as to the computational power inside Ivy Bridge. There’s roughly a 15% performance gain over Sandy Bridge. That’s about the average increase from CPU to CPU.
Again, we see about the same kind of performance gain in Crypto. It’s interesting to see that Ivy Bridge has just about caught up with the Gulftown Core i7-980X. Pretty cool given the Gulftown cost $1000 vs the $320 Ivy Bridge.
Here, the Core i7-2600K system memory was set to 1600MHz. This tells us that there is probably some tuning in Ivy Bridge but not a lot different from Sandy Bridge’s integrated memory controller. However, Ivy Brdige is able to match the slower stock 1333MHz Core i7-980X’s triple channel setup.
The more bandwidth and lower the latency, the better. Ivy Bridge is a little faster on the bandwidth and lower on internal core latencies. This should mean the cores are able to utilize the cache more efficiently thus increasing rendering and transcoding performance. Overall, Ivy Bridge is right on par with Intel’s usual performance increase from generation to generation.
3D Game and Graphics Benchmarks
Game benchmarks were run using GTX 560 Ti SLI using NVIDIA 296.10 drivers and Ivy Bridge’s HD 4000 IGP. Settings were set to max or default max on each DirectX11 title. Keep in mind that your results will vary due to motherboard tuning and video card frequencies.
Alien vs Predator Benchmark – Dx11
This DirectX11 benchmark is easily downloadable and tests your system’s graphics. I’m using it here to show everyone that when it comes to gaming, it doesn’t take a $1,000 or $500 processor to get your elite game on. The Z77 platform just seemed a bit more efficient providing slightly higher frames on the average.
Metro 2033 – DX11
Yes, these are true results as Metro 2033 makes Crysis 2 look like a DX9 game. In other words, Ivy Bridge (or any processor here for that matter) will make a great gaming CPU if you have the $320 US to couple with a Z77 board. It’s all about the graphics!
Batman Arkham City – DX11
It’s Batman, it’s fun, it’s elite! The frame rates are very close again. The Core i7-3960X just kept the higher average. As long as you select a capable video card, these processors will have no problem keeping the action going.