Small 4770 (non K) Review

[Edrick]

I know most people here are not interested in the non-K versions, so you can skip this review.

For the few who are interested, you may find some information here useful.

CPU: i7 4770
MB: Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H
Cooler: Zalman CNPS 5X
RAM: GSkill Ripjaw Z 2400mhz
Disk: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
Room Temp: 23C

First the OC potential (or lack there of)

Max OC just using the Turbo multipliers: 39-39-38-37 (1-4 cores active). Now that is not too bad considering the base clock multiplier is 34. Slightly better than the non OCable i3s.

Max Uncore multiplier: 37 (34 stock)

Max RAM multiplier: 32 (could be 34, I will have to double check) Either way it is good for anything on the market today. So the non K model does not limit RAM speeds.

BLK clock: This is where is gets interesting. I read that this is only active for the K models. But Intel never said that as far as I know. So with an updated BIOS to my MB, I can select 100, 125, and 166 options. They are not disabled. However, the system crashes shortly after so either it is disabled and the MB doesn't realize it, or there is a way to have it active, but the MB makers haven't worked out the bugs yet. I suspect new BIOSes will fix it one way or another.

Temps: Freaking hot chip. With stock cooler my load temps reached 81C @ 3.7Ghz with Prime95. Only using 1.148 vCore, which is nice.

With the Zalman cooler, load temps dropped to 68C with same Prome95 and vCore. I tried with both ICDiamond 7 and Artic Silver 5, same results. Idle temps hover at 26C, which isn't bad. But these CPUs now idle at 800mhz, compared to 1600mhz for SB.

FMA is just plain awesome. As a developer, I am in heaven.

I haven't had a chance to play with the TSX extensions yet (the reason I bought the no K version). I will post more when I do.


Compared to my old 3820 system:

 

[dmoney1980]

Thanks for posting! I think a lot of potential buyers here will have to figure out which route to go with haswell - get the K series and OC, or stick with the standard SKU and get TSX. We really don't know what kind of performance increase TSX brings to gaming, but if developers along with AMD / Nvidia starts using it that could change.

Still stratching my head as to why intel gimped the K SKU...

 

[BenchPress]

FMA is just plain awesome. As a developer, I am in heaven.

Glad to hear it works as advertised. 256-bit integer operations should also make a huge difference, especially for mixed float/int code where you previously didn't really have the option of using AVX. Eightfold parallelization of loops will be awesome.

 

[Dahak]

Nice, not to go off topic, but how do you like that motherboard? i am trying to decide on one but cant make up my mind.

 

[Edrick]

In all honesty, if I had the K version, and seeing these temps, I would only OC to 4.0 or 4.2Ghz. After that it will just get too darn hot for me. I'm happy. Sacrificed a few 100mhz to get more features. And the 4770 @ 3.7ghz is faster than my 3820 was at 4.1ghz.

 

[Edrick]

Nice, not to go off topic, but how do you like that motherboard? i am trying to decide on one but cant make up my mind.

The MB is great. I paid $179. I was trying to decide which one to go with as they have like 9 models out. I choose this one because it was the cheapest model which had these features:

- eSATA and extra 2 internal SATA6 connections.
- The upgraded audio codec
- SLI ability
- DisplayPort

The next step up was the UD4, which adds more expansion which I didn't need.

 

[TuxDave]

Great to hear this. I hope you get some more datapoints on how the 4770 performs to your specific workloads. I'm about to order a 4770 or a 4770k for a family member (upgrading from a Core 2 Duo!)

 

[bronxzv]

I know most people here are not interested in the non-K versions, so you can skip this review.

For the few who are interested, you may find some information here useful.

CPU: i7 4770
MB: Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H
Cooler: Zalman CNPS 5X
RAM: GSkill Ripjaw Z 2400mhz
Disk: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
Room Temp: 23C

First the OC potential (or lack there of)

Max OC just using the Turbo multipliers: 39-39-38-37 (1-4 cores active). Now that is not too bad considering the base clock multiplier is 34. Slightly better than the non OCable i3s.

Max Uncore multiplier: 37 (34 stock)

Max RAM multiplier: 32 (could be 34, I will have to double check) Either way it is good for anything on the market today. So the non K model does not limit RAM speeds.

BLK clock: This is where is gets interesting. I read that this is only active for the K models. But Intel never said that as far as I know. So with an updated BIOS to my MB, I can select 100, 125, and 166 options. They are not disabled. However, the system crashes shortly after so either it is disabled and the MB doesn't realize it, or there is a way to have it active, but the MB makers haven't worked out the bugs yet. I suspect new BIOSes will fix it one way or another.

Temps: Freaking hot chip. With stock cooler my load temps reached 81C @ 3.7Ghz with Prime95. Only using 1.148 vCore, which is nice.

With the Zalman cooler, load temps dropped to 68C with same Prome95 and vCore. I tried with both ICDiamond 7 and Artic Silver 5, same results. Idle temps hover at 26C, which isn't bad. But these CPUs now idle at 800mhz, compared to 1600mhz for SB.

FMA is just plain awesome. As a developer, I am in heaven.

I haven't had a chance to play with the TSX extensions yet (the reason I bought the no K version). I will post more when I do.


Compared to my old 3820 system:

thanks for sharing, L2 cache bandwidth looks poor (especially write bw), Intel claimed it will be doubled from Sandy Bridge, maybe an issue with the benchmark ?

 

[Ken g6]

BLK clock: This is where is gets interesting. I read that this is only active for the K models. But Intel never said that as far as I know. So with an updated BIOS to my MB, I can select 100, 125, and 166 options. They are not disabled. However, the system crashes shortly after so either it is disabled and the MB doesn't realize it, or there is a way to have it active, but the MB makers haven't worked out the bugs yet. I suspect new BIOSes will fix it one way or another.

To BCLK or not to BCLK, that is the question. I hope we get some resolution soon one way or the other. You're sure it's not crashing just because your multiplier is too high or your voltage too low? (34*125 = 4.25GHz) Or does it maybe run your RAM too fast? Can you lower your multiplier to, say, 27, lower your RAM multiplier to an appropriate level, and try again? Or will it not let you do that?

 

[Edrick]

To BCLK or not to BCLK, that is the question. I hope we get some resolution soon one way or the other. You're sure it's not crashing just because your multiplier is too high or your voltage too low? (34*125 = 4.25GHz) Or does it maybe run your RAM too fast? Can you lower your multiplier to, say, 27, lower your RAM multiplier to an appropriate level, and try again? Or will it not let you do that?

No, I am not 100% sure it is not me doing something stupid. I tried a few times with what I thought were safe numbers, but it crashed at the same point each time. Then I simply got frustrated. These are brand new MBs, so I will wait for a few more BIOS updates before I conclude anything.

 

[SPBHM]

so the BCLK dividers for higher clock doesn't seem to work on non K CPUs as expected (it shouldn't crash)

also on the multi adjustment, have you tested under 4 cores load?
because 3.9GHz is the default turbo for 1c anyway (for the non k 4770).

 

[Torn Mind]

Interesting indeed that BCLK overclocking might still yet be possible on a non-K chip.

 

[blckgrffn]

Very cool, thanks for this

 

[Edrick]

so the BCLK dividers for higher clock doesn't seem to work on non K CPUs as expected (it shouldn't crash)).

I would have thought the option would have been disabled in the BIOS if in fact it was not an option. However, it is not. It lets me choose the BCLK strap and then I see the updated numbers in the live BIOS screen (CPU, Uncore, and RAM). I can then set them accordingly.

also on the multi adjustment, have you tested under 4 cores load?
because 3.9GHz is the default turbo for 1c anyway (for the non k 4770).

I can set the Turbo numbers directly in the BIOS. 39 (1 core), 39 (2 cores), 38 (3 cores), and 37 (4 cores). I can also set the CPU multiplier to 37 outside the Turbo settings. And yes, at full load it is running 8 threads at 3.7ghz. And while running 1-2 cores, it does reach 3.9Ghz. Fully confirmed.

 

[Kenmitch]

No, I am not 100% sure it is not me doing something stupid. I tried a few times with what I thought were safe numbers, but it crashed at the same point each time. Then I simply got frustrated. These are brand new MBs, so I will wait for a few more BIOS updates before I conclude anything.

Try using a fixed safe vcore. Drop the multiplier down to 30 under all loads and upping the bclk to 125 and see what happens. Of course if you don't set up your memory also it will crash I'd think. Did you overlook the memory clocks when you tried it?

 

[SPBHM]

I would have thought the option would have been disabled in the BIOS if in fact it was not an option. However, it is not. It lets me choose the BCLK strap and then I see the updated numbers in the live BIOS screen (CPU, Uncore, and RAM). I can then set them accordingly.



I can set the Turbo numbers directly in the BIOS. 39 (1 core), 39 (2 cores), 38 (3 cores), and 37 (4 cores). I can also set the CPU multiplier to 37 outside the Turbo settings. And yes, at full load it is funning 8 threads at 3.7ghz. And while running 1-2 cores, it does reach 3.9Ghz. Fully confirmed.

being able to select doesn't mean the option will work without a K CPU,

as for the multi, 3.9GHz is the default clock for 1c load, so that's not overclocking... as for 4 cores load, I thought it was 3.6 with turbo, but I don't really know.

Interesting indeed that BCLK overclocking might still yet be possible on a non-K chip.

his experience seems to confirm it doesn't work, just like described by others who tried

"The interest to overclock the bus is obviously to overclock a processor despite a multiplier locked, as is the case on non-K processors Or is it possible to overclock the entry-level processors, which disappeared from the LGA 1155? Nay! Any attempt to use ratios DMICLK: PEG / DMI from us has been a failure, and is therefore limited by the bus as on LGA 1155 overclocking 5-7% by DMICLK.

But this is where the first disappointment for non K. processors Indeed, on Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, Intel still left a little freedom of overclocking, it was possible to add frequencies to 400 MHz Turbo. On Haswell, it is no longer possible to align the frequency of the Turbo with 4 active on the hearts of the Turbo with 1 active core."

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/897-6/overclocking-plus-libre-k-plus-strict-par-ailleurs.html

 

[Edrick]

thanks for sharing, L2 cache bandwidth looks poor (especially write bw), Intel claimed it will be doubled from Sandy Bridge, maybe an issue with the benchmark ?

The L2 cache read is 10GB/s faster than the SBE CPU (and running 200mhz slower). Intel only claimed it to be double read for the L2. It is not quite double, but still a good 30% faster. I will take 30% any day.

The L1 cache is pushing 1 TB/s, now that's crazy.

 

[bronxzv]

Intel only claimed it to be double read for the L2

source?

 

[bronxzv]

The L1 cache is pushing 1 TB/s, now that's crazy.

it should be more than that with 2:1 load:store kernels, this benchmark isn't very good at maxing out cache bw apparently

 

[Edrick]

Source AnandTech:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6355/intels-haswell-architecture/9

I was slightly incorrect. Intel doubled the read path from L2 to L1, not L2 to CPU.

 

[someEEguy]

Interesting indeed that BCLK overclocking might still yet be possible on a non-K chip.

Here's a i7-4770 review where they set the BCLK to 105, not sure how much higher you could go though.

 

[Edrick]

it should be more than that with 2:1 load:store kernels, this benchmark isn't very good at maxing out cache bw apparently

Yes, it should. The benchmark is clearly not reaching the full max bandwidth, but its close enough to give a good indication of what we are dealing with compared to previous generation CPUs.

 

[SPBHM]

Here's a i7-4770 review where they set the BCLK to 105, not sure how much higher you could go though.

that with the default divider, so 105MHz is near the limit... it's like ivy/sandy bridge bclk OC.

 

[Edrick]

Here's a i7-4770 review where they set the BCLK to 105, not sure how much higher you could go though.

Yes, I can push the BCLK up higher to about 105,but I was posting about the BCLK strap options. Could I get to 3.8Ghz at full load and 4.0Ghz single core? Possibly. But that is not what I was focused on in this review.

 

[ebberz]

Any chance you can clarify, if I'm using my home system to run VMWare workstation then the 4770 is the version to buy?

I won't be OCing.
Both models support hyperthreading so there is nothing lost not going for the K.
Both support VT-x but you get VT-d with the non-K model along with TSX.

The only issue with it is the lack of support for > 32GB RAM but going SB-E is too damn expensive!