Platform upgrade: Core i7-920 vs i7-3770 at 4.2GHz featuring ECS Golden Series Motherboard and Kingston
Test Configuration
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core i7-3770K (reference 3.5GHz, HyperThreading and Turbo boost is on to 3.7GHz; also overclocked to 4.2GHz and 4.8GHz; DX11 CPU graphics), supplied by Intel.
- Intel Core i7-920 (reference 2.66GHz, overclocked to 4.2GHz using the 21x multiplier; Turbo boost and HT are on)
- ECS Z77H2-A2X motherboard (Intel z77 chipset, shipping BIOS, USB/PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 8x+8x)
- Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-DH3 Series 7 mATX motherboard (shipping BIOS, USB 3.0, PCIe 3.0 specification, CrossFire/SLI 8x+8x)
- Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P x58 motherboard (latest BIOS, USB 2.0, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
- 6 GB Kingston DDR3 PC 1800 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, dual- and tri-channel at 1333 and 1200MHz; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
- 8 GB Kingston DDR3 PC 1866 Kingston RAM (2×2, 3×2 and 4×2 GB, dual- and tri-channel at 1600, 1833 and 2000MHz; supplied by Kingston)
- GeForce GTX 680, 2 GB (reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
- GeForce GTX 690, GB (reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
- Two identical 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard drives
- Kingston HyperX SSD 3K 240 GB, supplied by Kingston used for Bloomfield platform
- Kingston HyperX SSD 240 GB, supplied by Kingston used for Ivy Bridge platform
- Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
- Thermaltake Overseer RX-I supplied by Thermaltake
- Thermaltake Frio OCK CPU cooler for Core i7-920 supplied by Thermaltake for i7-920’s 4.2GHz overclock
- Noctua NH-DH14 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua for i7-3770K’s 4.2/4.8GHz overclock
- Philips DVD SATA writer/Sony DVD SATA writer
- HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD
- ASUS VG278 1920×1080 120Hz 3D Vision 2 ready 27″ display supplied by ASUS/Nvidia
Test Configuration – Software
- GeForce WHQL 301.42 drivers used for the GTX 5680; latest Intel drivers for Graphics and Chipset from Intel website; latest drivers for HD 4000 and shipping drivers for Series 7 motherboards.
- Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
- Latest DirectX
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- VSync is off in the control panel.
- Varying AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied if possible; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
- All results show average rates as noted.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.
Note
- 4GB of Kingston HyperX PC1866 used for benching all games on the 500GB HDDs, except as noted when 8GB was used. All other tests with both PCs were run with 8GB of DDR3 from a 240GB Kingston HyperX SSD
The benchmarks
The Game benchmarks
- Serious Sam 3, BFE
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Crysis
- World in Conflict
- Far Cry 2
- Just Cause 2
- Resident Evil 5
- Alien vs. Predator
- Battleforge
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- F1 2010
- Metro 2033
- Lost Planet 2
- H.A.W.X. 2
- Civilization 5
- Total War: Shogun II
- Crysis 2
- Dirt 3
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Batman: Arkham City
- Max Payne 3
Other Tests
- Super Pi
- Fritz Chess Bench
- Custom PC Benchmark
- Cinebench
- x264 HD
- Crystal Disk Mark
- AS SSD
- ATTO
- Folder copy
- HD Tach
- HD Tune
Synthetic Benching Suites
- SiSoft Sandra 2012 SP4c
- PC Mark Vantage
- PC Mark 7
Synthetic Gaming Benchmarks
- Heaven 3.0
- Vantage
- 3DMark11
We have got an interesting project going. First we look at synthetic and real world benches before we head for gaming results.
No offense, but there are two main summary charts that are identical to each other. Is the second one supposed to show different games?
Don’t forget about the “[insert chart]” part! 😛
None taken. Thanks for pointing it out!
Fixed.
Never mind my previous comment, as it’s now fixed, thanks!
Of course, Civilization V does better with Ivy Bridge than with Bloomfield, all clocked the same. At 4.8GHz (IB), CivV is like 30% faster than Nehalem (Bloomfield) at 4.2GHz.
BUT what amazes me is that Nehalem still seems to be doing just as well as IB overall, clock-for-clock. In Crysis 2, Nehalem is like 15% faster than IB. At 4.2GHz, Nehalem still beats IB at 4.8 GHz in DX11 mode, by around 15%!! I was thinking of blaming it on the system memory bandwidth (with Nehalem using triple channel), but even at only 1200MHz, Nehalem still shines pretty much just as much as it does at 2000 MHz.
The case reverses in the favor of IB but only by a few percentage points for Crysis 1, LP2, HAWX2.
It goes to show that unless one is a serious Civilization V gamer, an overclocked Nehalem would be just fine for even a GTX 690. I would guess that Starcraft 2 and Skyrim (other CPU-limited games not tested here) are the only other games that show a noticeable improvement on the Ivy Bridge.
Thanks, apoppin for all of this benchmarking that pretty much nobody else on the ‘net have done with all of these games, on the still mighty Nehalem!!
Amazing work!
It would be one of these, but with an Athlon II X4 OC with maximum range and I7 3770K OC max.
Athlon X4 ~ 3.5Ghz vs 5Ghz i7 3770K for example
It would be interesting to see one of these with a single GPU both as a dual system which is where I think you will notice more.
Sorry for my English.
I have a 3770k and a I7 920. Its was a nice review because many people with older i7s are itching for an upgrade. I do think this review is biased in its language. The non scientific language of “Way Faster” vs saying its 8 percent faster is a dead give away. “What faster is subjective where a percentage is objective. Way faster to them seems to be any test that the Ivy beats the bloomfield in.
USB 3.0 ports are nice but can be installed in an older X58 board (they fail to mention)
For gaming its not worth the upgrade at all. For most windows tasks its not worth it.
For tasks that take hours then it might be worth it. Ie encoding, but here a 6 core would be better than a quad. So an upgrade to a 6 core might be cheaper on x58 than doing entire MB/RAM swap.
Not trying to rain on the parade but this review seems to want to justify the upgrade by using subjective wording rather than just stating the percentages.