The Haswell Review: Intel Core i7-4770K & i5-4670K Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 1, 2013 10:00 AM ESTMemory
Haswell got an updated memory controller that’s supposed to do a great job of running at very high frequencies. Corsair was kind enough to send over some of its Vengeance Pro memory with factory DDR3-2400 XMP profiles. I have to say, the experience was quite possibly the simplest memory overclocking I’ve ever encountered. Ivy Bridge was pretty decent at higher speeds, but Haswell is a different beast entirely.
Although I used DDR3-2400 for most of my testing, Corsair’s Vengeance Pro line is available in frequencies rated all the way up to 2933MHz.
Platform
Haswell features a new socket (LGA-1150). Fundamental changes to power delivery made it impossible to maintain backwards compatibility with existing LGA-1155 sockets. Alongside the new socket comes Intel’s new 8-series chipsets.
At a high level the 8-series chipsets bring support for up to six SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0. It’s taken Intel far too long to move beyond two 6Gbps SATA ports, so this is a welcome change. With 8-series Intel also finally got rid of legacy PCI support.
Overclocking
Despite most of the voltage regulation being moved on-package, motherboards still expose all of the same voltage controls that you’re used to from previous platforms. Haswell’s FIVR does increase the thermal footprint of the chip itself, which is why TDPs went up from 77W to 84W at the high-end for LGA-1150 SKUs. Combine higher temperatures under the heatspreader with a more mobile focused chip design, and overclocking is going to depend on yield and luck of the draw more than it has in the past.
Haswell doesn’t change the overclocking limits put in place with Sandy Bridge. All CPUs are frequency locked, however K-series parts ship fully unlocked. A new addition is the ability to adjust BCLK to one of three pre-defined straps (100/125/167MHz). The BCLK adjustment gives you a little more flexibility when overclocking, but you still need a K-SKU to take advantage of the options.
In terms of overclocking success on standard air cooling you should expect anywhere from 4.3GHz - 4.7GHz at somewhere in the 1.2 - 1.35V range. At the higher end of that spectrum you need to be sure to invest in a good cooler as you’re more likely to bump into thermal limits if you’re running on stable settings.
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chizow - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
The other big problem with the CPU space besides the problems with power consumption and frequency, is the fact Intel has stopped using it's extra transistor budget from a new process node on the actual CPU portion of the die long ago. Most of the increased transistor budget afforded by a new process goes right to the GPU. We will probably not see a stop to this for some time until Intel reaches discrete performance equivalency.Jaybus - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
Well, I don't know. Cache sizes have increased dramatically.chizow - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
Not per core, these parts are still 4C 8MB, same as my Nehalem-based i7. Some of the SB-E boards have more cache per core, 4C 10MB on the 3820, 6C 15MB on the 3960/3970, but the extra bit results in a negligible difference over the 2MB per core on the 3930K.Boissez - Sunday, June 2, 2013 - link
I think you've misunderstood me.I'm merely pointing out that, in the past 2½ years we've barely seen any performance improvements in the 250-300$ market from Intel. And that is in stark contrast to the developments in mobileland. They too, are bound by the constraints you mention.
And please, stop the pompous know-it-all attitude. For the record, power consumption actually rises *linearly* with clock speed and *quadratically* with voltage. If your understanding of Joule's law and Ohm's law where better developed you would know.
klmccaughey - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
Exactly. And it won't change until we see optical/biological chips or some other such future-tech breakthrough. As it is the electrons are starting to behave in light/waveform fashion at higher frequencies if I remember correctly from my semiconductor classes (of some years ago I might add).Jaybus - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
Yes, but we will first see hybrid approaches. Intel, IBM, and others have been working on them and are getting close. Sure, optical interconnects have been available for some time, but not as an integrated on-chip feature which is now being called "silicon photonics". Many of the components are already there; micro-scale lenses, waveguides, and other optical components, avalanche photodiode detectors able to detect a very tiny photon flux, etc. All of those can be crafted with existing CMOS processes. The missing link is a cheaply made micro-scale laser.Think about it. An on-chip optical transceiver at THz frequencies allows optical chip-to-chip data transfer at on-chip electronic bus speeds, or faster. There is no need for L2 or L3 cache. Multiple small dies can be linked together to form a larger virtual die, increasing productivity and reducing cost. What if you could replace a 256 trace memory bus on a GPU with a single optical signal? There are huge implications both for performance and power use, even long before there are photonic transistors. Don't know about biological, but optical integration could make a difference in the not-so-far-off future.
tipoo - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
It's easier to move upwards from where ARM chips started a few years back. A bit like a developing economy showing growth numbers you would never see in a developed one.Genx87 - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
Interesting review. But finding it hard to justify replacing my i2500K. I guess next summer on the next iteration?kyuu - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
Agreed, especially considering Haswell seems to be an even poorer overclocker than Ivy Bridge. My i5-2500k @ 4.6GHz will be just fine for some time to come, it seems.klmccaughey - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
Me too. I have a 2500k @ 4.3Ghz @ 1.28v and I am starting to wonder if even the next tick/tock will tempt me to upgrade.Maybe if they start doing a K chip with no onboard GPU and use the extra silicon for extra cores? Even then the cores aren't currently used well @ 4. But maybe concurrency adoption will increase as time goes by.