Is it worth waiting for Ivy bridge?

[dinu630]

I have a Core 2 Quad Q8400 with G41 chipset. I was planning to buy Intel's new Ivy bridge, i7 3770. Since it is said it will be priced similar to the present SB is it worth the wait? What is the future ahead after Ivy Bridge?

Will I see significant performance differences between Q8400 and i7 3770?

 

[HURRIC4NE]

I have a Core 2 Quad Q8400 with G41 chipset. I was planning to buy Intel's new Ivy bridge, i7 3770. Since it is said it will be priced similar to the present SB is it worth the wait? What is the future ahead after Ivy Bridge?

Will I see significant performance differences between Q8400 and i7 3770?

well you would have a significant ghz performance upgrade and 4 more threads... so in a way... yes... but if i were you... i'd prolly wait for haswell microarchitechture who knows if intel releases a 100 core 200 thread 200 mhz processor lol.

 

[dinu630]

100 core 200 threads?? haha..you inventing one?

 

[Arachnotronic]

Go with the Ivy Bridge. I went from a Q6600 to an i7 860 and the difference was night and day, especially with a superior, modern platform.

Going from a Q8400 to an i7 3770 should be even better.

 

[gramboh]

May as well wait and see some official reviews before you decide. NDA lifts either this Sunday or next depending which rumours you believe.

 

[superccs]

A good rule of thumb I follow, upgrade when you need to or when you can't bear it and see a slickdeal that's too good to pass up.

If you have 4 cores that run ~3Ghz you are probably not suffering for cpu performance.

 

[LagunaX]

Even an i5-3570k is pretty good from where you are coming from.

the E1 (full production, not ES) that are already on sale in Asia pretty easily do 4.5ghz on 1.2-1.24v Prime95 stable and performs equivalent to a 4.8ghz 2500k.

 

[dinu630]

Users who can wait for a little longer can they wait for Haswell? It is expected to be launched by next year March. Hardly a year wait. So should users feel major difference with Haswell as Ivy Bridge will see only little (5-10%) difference. So if we can should wait for Haswell?

 

[postmortemIA]

i would wait few more days. you already waited few years, so few days wouldn't make much difference.

 

[Puppies04]

Users who can wait for a little longer can they wait for Haswell? It is expected to be launched by next year March? Hardly a year wait. So should users feel major difference with Haswell as Ivy Bridge will see only little (5-10%) difference. So if we can should wait for Haswell?

Did you actually read the actual question? He isn't upgrading from SB.

Also do you understand what a question mark means, because your post makes no sense whatsoever.

As a reminder, this is an international board. Attacking people over their written English skills is often in poor form
-Thanks
ViRGE

 

[AtenRa]

I have a Core 2 Quad Q8400 with G41 chipset. I was planning to buy Intel's new Ivy bridge, i7 3770. Since it is said it will be priced similar to the present SB is it worth the wait? What is the future ahead after Ivy Bridge?

Will I see significant performance differences between Q8400 and i7 3770?

You will definitely see a huge performance increase from C2Quad to Core i7 IB both in applications and games with a huge decrease in power usage.

You will also get new platform features like PCIe Gen3, SATA-3 and Intel Quick Sync.

Even I am considering upgrading to IB over my Core i7 920@4GHz.

 

[BD231]

If you plan to overclock go Sandy, if you plan on running stock speeds go Ivy.

 

[LagunaX]

If you plan to overclock go Sandy, if you plan on running stock speeds go Ivy.

for the most part I would agree except for the following:
1) So far it seems the E1 3570k's have no problem hitting 4.5ghz stable on air at 1.2-1.24v with reasonable temps (low 70's) with a higher end air cooler.
2) a 4.5ghz 3570k performs as a 4.8ghz 2500k.
3) In the bell curve of 2500k's, only 20% are able to achieve greater than 4.6ghz stable with reasonable temps and volts.
4) Lately the batches of 2500ks and 2600ks have been pretty crappy silicon as far as needing high volts just to get to 4.5-4.6ghz.

So if a 4.5ghz 3570k or 3770k with a high end air cooler or H80-H100 is in your target, that is what I'd recommend if you were not on a z68 board already.

 

[BD231]

for the most part I would agree except for the following:
1) So far it seems the E1 3570k's have no problem hitting 4.5ghz stable on air at 1.2-1.24v with reasonable temps (low 70's) with a higher end air cooler.
2) a 4.5ghz 3570k performs as a 4.8ghz 2500k.
3) In the bell curve of 2500k's, only 20% are able to achieve greater than 4.6ghz stable with reasonable temps and volts.
4) Lately the batches of 2500ks and 2600ks have been pretty crappy silicon as far as needing high volts just to get to 4.5-4.6ghz.

So if a 4.5ghz 3570k or 3770k with a high end air cooler or H80-H100 is in your target, that is what I'd recommend if you were not on a z68 board already.

In certain situations yes Ivy performs like a faster sandy, lets not go get people thinking they'll get 4.5/4.6 at 1.2v, not a single person on this board could do that and if you do happen to get a bad overclocking Ivy the implications would be far worse. Just my .02, not worth the risk.

 

[LagunaX]

Actually I have done that...
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=33290302&postcount=396
4.5ghz needs 1.24v:

and 4.6ghz needs more like 1.3v:

And a couple of other ppl on this forum and UK forums have seen the same results.

But BD231 is also right, you could always get a crappy chip...

 

[Smoblikat]

Get sandy bridge instead, runs cooler and uses less power due to less volts for overclocks.

 

[LagunaX]

Actually at stock and lower overclocks an Ivy "K" uses less power (Anandtech, Tweaktown) and the heat is reasonable.

However, the 3770k is rated NOT 77W but 95W just like Sandy Bridge.

 

[BD231]

Actually at stock and lower overclocks an Ivy "K" uses less power (Anandtech, Tweaktown) and the heat is reasonable.

However, the 3770k is rated NOT 77W but 95W just like Sandy Bridge.

The final reviews should shore things up, current verdict being you're stuck at lower voltages but still require the same amount to hit sandy numbers with unacceptable thermals. Quantifying Ivy's advantage in mhz doesn't make any sense, it's variable so you can't just slap on some arbitrary clock speed and expect that to be accurate.

 

[LagunaX]

Quantifying Ivy's advantage in mhz doesn't make any sense, it's variable so you can't just slap on some arbitrary clock speed and expect that to be accurate.

Actually it seems to be a pretty consistent:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...-comparison.&p=5086456&viewfull=1#post5086456

Sorry BD231, I really don't mean to contradict you or give you a hard time, but overall it is give or take a 200-300mhz difference.

 

[BD231]

Actually it seems to be a pretty consistent:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...-comparison.&p=5086456&viewfull=1#post5086456

Sorry BD231, I really don't mean to contradict you or give you a hard time, but overall it is give or take a 300mhz difference.

You didn't contradict me once, you've not shown me an ivy that does 4.5 @ 1.2v and your performance numbers are in fact, variable.

 

[LagunaX]

Fair enuf but mine does 4.5ghz at 1.248v and Don Karnage at 1.236v.
I'd still take it over the crappy SB silicon that has been coming out lately (that recent $199 2600k I got from MicroCenter was the worst 2600k I've ever had).

And here's some 4.5ghz 3570k's at 1.17-1.22v:
http://forums.aria.co.uk/showthread...CPU-Semi-Stable-Testing-*Preview*-56K-WARNING

Fairly consistent range 1.17-1.248v @ 4.5ghz for E1 chips - some variance probably motherboard bios related.

 

[Puppies04]

Did you actually read the actual question? He isn't upgrading from SB.

Also do you understand what a question mark means, because your post makes no sense whatsoever.

As a reminder, this is an international board. Attacking people over their written English skills is often in poor form
-Thanks
ViRGE

I am sorry if my post came across as an attack it certainly wasn't meant that way, I was pointing out he was making an incorrect comparison as the OP isn't currently using a SB CPU (i assume this is what he was comparing IB to when he quoted 5-10% gains on performance).

Also while I am certainly not a "grammar nazi" placing a question mark at the end of each sentence is highly confusing and I figured pointing out his mistake in a non aggressive way wouldn't be a problem and could help prevent future misunderstandings.

 

[denev2004]

well you would have a significant ghz performance upgrade and 4 more threads... so in a way... yes... but if i were you... i'd prolly wait for haswell microarchitechture who knows if intel releases a 100 core 200 thread 200 mhz processor lol.

...I think only LRB will have 100 core with 4-way SMT and a frequency not lower thant 0.8Mhz at that time, and that's irrelevant to Haswell AFAIK.

 

[BD231]

Fair enuf but mine does 4.5ghz at 1.248v and Don Karnage at 1.236v.
I'd still take it over the crappy SB silicon that has been coming out lately (that recent $199 2600k I got from MicroCenter was the worst 2600k I've ever had).

And here's some 4.5ghz 3570k's at 1.17-1.22v:
http://forums.aria.co.uk/showthread...CPU-Semi-Stable-Testing-*Preview*-56K-WARNING

Fairly consistent range 1.17-1.248v @ 4.5ghz for E1 chips - some variance probably motherboard bios related.

He doesn't even start any real stability tests until he's over 1.2v, and disables AVX just to do so.

 

[Denithor]

Users who can wait for a little longer can they wait for Haswell? It is expected to be launched by next year March. Hardly a year wait. So should users feel major difference with Haswell as Ivy Bridge will see only little (5-10%) difference. So if we can should wait for Haswell?

Two things.

First, if you need an upgrade today, you will see a huge increase in CPU performance going from Q8400 to either SB or IB. At stock settings IB should do slightly more work (5-10%) at the same speed as SB while consuming a little less power. Overclocking with either series is a crapshoot, no guaranteed results of how high any particular chip will go and/or how much voltage it will require to get there.

Second, Haswell is expected to be a major step forward in CPU performance from IB. Read some other threads on Haswell for more details if interested so you can make a more educated decision.

But it all comes down to this - if you need more processor power today, get either SB or IB. If it doesn't bother you to wait another year, Haswell should offer even more performance.