Sunday, June 2, 2013

Not convinced of Haswell.

I don't see it.  The only benefit to Haswell, insofar as desktops are concerned, is if you prefer not to use discreet graphics cards and instead use Intel's integrated graphics.

i7-3770K Ivy Bridge

  • $330 (Newegg)
  • CPUmark: 9,608
  • Quad core / 8 threads
  • 3.5Ghz / 3.9 Ghz turbo
  • 22 nm
  • 77W
  • 8MB L3 cache
  • 4 x 256KB L2 Cache
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000


i7-4770K Haswell

  • $350 (Newegg)
  • CPUmark: 9,334 (this will change as more samples are submitted)
  • Quad core / 8 threads
  • 3.5Ghz / 3.9 Ghz turbo
  • 22nm
  • 84W
  • 8MB L3 cache
  • 4 x 256KB L2 Cache
  • Intel HD Graphics 4600
If you already have a desktop with i7-3770K, you'd get a bigger benefit from popping in discreet graphics than from buying a new computer with i7-4770K.

In mobile, the story is slightly different.  I know that Intel HD 4600 is being trumped up as a big boost from their previous integrated graphics.  But Notebookcheck ranks my (inside my 23 months-old laptop) switchable graphics GeForce GT 555M at 127, and HD 4600 at 150, and PassMark's videocardbenchmark scores the 555M at 938 G3D Marks and the HD 4600 at 602 G3D Marks.  So, while it's a huge benefit for ultra-portables, tablets and cheap laptops, it does not change anything for power laptops.

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