Tom’s Hardware was able to get a sneak performance preview of Intel’s upcoming Haswell-based processor, the Core i7-4770K.
Haswell uses the 22nm process and is the successor to Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge microarchitecture that powers Intel’s current generation processors. Staying true to Intel’s Tick-Tock strategy, Haswell is a “tock,” as it is a brand new microarchitecture rather than a die-shrink. Like previous “tocks” such as Core (Core 2) and Nehalem (first gen. Core i series), Haswell is expected to bring significant improvements in terms of performance and energy efficiency.
Tom’s Hardware was able to run several benchmarks on the Core i7-4770K and compare it’s performance against the Core i7-3770K (Ivy Bridge), Core i7-2700K (Sandy Bridge), and the Core i7-3970X (Sandy Bridge-E) running at the same clock frequency. They also benchmarked Haswell’s on-die GPU, the HD 4600, against the HD 4000 (Ivy Bridge GPU) and the HD 3000 (Sandy Bridge GPU). Their conclusion on the Core i7-4770K:
[quote]…the pre-production Core i7-4770K is in the neighborhood of 7 to 13% faster than Core i7-3770K in today’s threaded workloads. That’s pretty consistent with the evolution from Sandy to Ivy Bridge, even as the flagship Haswell-based part keeps its thermal ceiling under 84 W.[/quote]
While the 7-13% performance increase over the Core i7-3770K is impressive, it may disappoint some that were expecting a significant performance that previous “tocks” like Conroe and Nehalem had introduced.
The Core i7-4770K, along with other processors based on the Haswell microarchitecture, is due to launch sometime later this year.
Sources:
Tom’s Hardware – Core i7-4770K: Haswell’s Performance, Previewed
Wikipedia – Haswell (microarchitecture)
Wikipedia – Intel Tick-Tock
Wikipedia – Ivy Bridge (microarchitecture)
Wikipedia – Sandy Bridge (microarchitecture)
Wikipedia – Nehalem (microarchitecture)
Wikipedia – Intel Core (microarchitecture)