titleOne of the most exciting parts of the year as enthusiasts is a new platform launch from Intel. For months now people have been talking about Intel’s Haswell processors and rumors and benchmarks have been flying all over the internet for weeks now. That must mean it’s finally time for us to dig into the latest Intel CPU and Chipset and see what it’s all about and put to rest all of the speculation. Today we are going to take a look at the new Intel i7-4770 and DZ87KLT-75K motherboard. Let’s find out how the 4770 compares to the 3770 as well as the Sandy Bridge E CPU’s as well.

Product Name: Intel i7-4770 Haswell

Review Sample Provided by: Intel

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes


Haswell Overview

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Once the excitement of a new CPU being launched starts to wear off, you then start to wonder more about what it is all about. To Start things off, to prevent Haswell CPU’s from being jammed into older incompatible motherboard they have changed the pin count to 1150 and moved the notches in the side of the CPU up a little higher. The CPU itself is the same size as an Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge CPU. Next to each other you have to look very closely to really see major differences, beyond the different transistors on the bottom of course. In the photo below the 4770K is on the left and the 3770K is on the right.

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As most of you should know by now, Intel has been running on a tick and tock processor introduction cycle for years now. Tocks introduce new microarchitecture while ticks take the previous microarchitecture and shrink the die size down. For Haswell we are on a Tock meaning this is an all new microarchitecture that is built on the same 22nm die size that we saw with Ivy Bridge.

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Much like Sandy Bridge based CPU’s, the LGA115x CPU’s are being introduced with up-to 4 cores leaving higher core counts for business focused Xeon CPU’s and enthusiast focused –E CPU’s.  That is what we will be testing out today, their top of the line consumer class i7-4770K. Intel has gone with the same naming scheme as Ivy Bridge where the 4770 is their top of the line CPU and the K means the CPU is unlocked. Today they are also introducing an i5-4670 CPU that is also available in a K version for those looking to overclock. The difference between and i5 and i7 CPU is hyper threading, a small bump in clock speed, and more l3 cache on the i7 models. They all have the same HD 4600 integrated GPU but the i7 models do have a slightly higher maximum clock speed on the GPU (1200MHz to 1300MHz).

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I7 Processors being introduced

Processor Number

Intel®

Core™ i7-

4770T

Processor

Intel®

Core™ i7-

4770S

Processor

Intel®

Core™ i7-

4770 Processor

Intel®

Core™ i7-

4770K

Processor

Intel®

Core™ i7-

4770R Processor

Intel®

Core™ i7-

4765T

Processor

 

 

 

 

Unlocked

 

 

Price (1Ku)

$303

$303

$303

$339

N/A

$303

Test TDP

45W

65W

84W

84W

65W

35W

Cores/ Threads

4/8

4/8

4/8

4/8

4/8

4/8

CPU Base Freq (GHz)

2.5

3.1

3.4

3.5

3.2

2.0

Max Turbo Freq (GHz)

3.7

3.9

3.9

3.9

3.9

3.0

DDR3 (MHz)

1333/1600

1333/1600

1333/1600

1333/1600

1333/1600

1333/1600

L3 Cache

8MB

8MB

8MB

8MB

6MB

8MB

Intel® HD Graphics

4600

4600

4600

4600

Intel® Iris™

Graphics 5200

4600

Intel® Wireless Display

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Graphics Max Dynamic Frequency

up to

1200MHz

up to

1200MHz

up to

1200MHz

up to

1250MHz

up to

1300MHz

up to

1200MHz

Intel® Hyper-threading

Technology

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intel® Advanced Vector

Extensions (AVX)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intel® Quick Sync Video

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intel® vPro / TXT / VT-d / Intel® SIPP

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Intel® AES-NI

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intel® Virtualization Technology

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

PCI Express 3.0

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Package

LGA-1150

LGA-1150

LGA-1150

LGA-1150

BGA

LGA-1150

I5 Processors being introduced

Processor Number

Intel® Core™

i5-4670T

Processor

Intel® Core™

i5-4670S

Processor

Intel® Core™

i5-4670K

Processor

Intel® Core™

i5-4670

Processor

Intel® Core™

i5-4570

Processor

Intel® Core™

i5-4570S

Processor

 

 

 

UNLOCKED

 

 

 

Price (1Ku)

$213

$213

$242

$213

$192

$192

Test TDP

45W

65W

84W

84W

84W

65W

Cores/ Threads

4/4

4/4

4/4

4/4

4/4

4/4

CPU Base Freq (GHz)

2.3

3.1

3.4

3.4

3.2

2.9

Max Turbo Freq (GHz)

3.3

3.8

3.8

3.8

3.6

3.6

DDR3 (MHz)

1333/1600

1333/1600

1333/1600

1333/1600

1333/1600

1333/1600

L3 Cache

6MB

6MB

6MB

6MB

6MB

6MB

Intel® HD Graphics

4600

4600

4600

4600

4600

4600

Intel® Wireless Display

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Graphics Max Dynamic Frequency

up to 1200MHz

up to 1200MHz

up to 1200MHz

up to 1200MHz

up to 1150MHz

up to 1150MHz

Intel® Hyper-threading

Technology

No

No

No

No

No

No

Intel® Advanced Vector

Extensions (AVX)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intel® Quick Sync Video

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intel® vPro / TXT / VT-d / Intel® SIPP

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intel® AES-NI

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intel® Virtualization Technology

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

PCI Express 3.0

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Package

LGA-1150

LGA-1150

LGA-1150

LGA-1150

LGA-1150

LGA-1150

As you can see Intel is introducing a nice variety of CPU’s at launch for desktop use. At less than $200 for some of the i5’s I feel they are priced competitively.

The biggest change to the microarchitecture of the Haswell CPU’s is the inclusion of the iVR integrated voltage regulators directly on the CPU. Intel went with this to help introduce new idle power states and to give them more control over the voltage to keep power usage low, especially on mobile devices. Beyond that when looking at a Die Map the layout is very similar to what we have seen in the past with the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture.  

image 33

intel 1

intel 2

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When it comes to retail versions the 4770K actually comes in two variations, with and without a fan. As you can see the without fan packaging is much smaller while the with-fan packaging is what we have gotten used to for packaging. We just happened to get our hands on a retail CPU with a fan, so we have a heatsink to take a look at as well. As you can see the heatsink design hasn’t changed at all over the past two generations. Why change something that works. The Intel heatsink is short enough for use in most low profile situations and easy to install with the push pin clip design. The heatsink ships with thermal paste directly on it for an even easier installation. Basically drop it on top of your installed CPU and push the four push pin clips in until they click then plug in the fan and you are good to go.

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image 26

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image 28

image 29

image 30

image 31

 

Z87

intel 4

With a new CPU means a new chipset and motherboards. I introduce to you the Z87 chipset. Beyond the new LGA 1150 socket that is needed to support the Haswell CPU’s the chipset is very similar to what we saw with the Ivy Bridge/Panther Point launch. There are a few slight differences if we take a look at the block diagram though. In the USB ports for example Intel has increased the support for USB 3.0 ports from 4 to 6 to add additional USB 3.0 ports as they grow in popularity. Along with that the support for USB 2.0 ports also went up from 10 now to 14 as well. Over on the SATA side of things previously the chipset supported 6 ports total with only two of them being SATA 3, now the overall number is the same at six but all six ports are SATA 3 capable meaning you won’t have to worry as much about what ports to plug your fast SSD’s into, before you had to figure out what ports were SATA 2 and SATA3 then sort out the ports running on the chipset as well as a secondary controller.

blockdiagram

When it comes to actual PCI Express lanes, nothing has changed from the Z77 platform; we still have 8 PCI Express 2.0 lanes as well as the 16 PCI Express 3.0 lanes that can be divided up in a x16 x8+x8 or other variations. This means that things will still be tight when it comes to multi GPU configurations on this platform. This isn’t a big shock as Intel still does not consider the Z87/LGA1150 platform to be their enthusiast products.  

7to8series

 

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31228 01 Jun 2013 18:08
If some of you have been wondering why I have been extra quiet recently it is because I have been hard at work with this launch as well as the two Nvidia launches over the past two weeks. Here is our Haswell coverage, expect to see 1-3 motherboard reviews today and a few more as we start the week.
L0rdG1gabyt3's Avatar
L0rdG1gabyt3 replied the topic: #31229 01 Jun 2013 18:59
Well, thats it! Between the 700 series Nvidia cards and this new haswell chip, time to scrap my computer and rebuild it from scratch! Goodbye Sandy-E and GTX680 4GB... ;)
SpeedBump's Avatar
SpeedBump replied the topic: #31247 02 Jun 2013 19:29
Wes, good review. I'm still on the fence as to whether or not to get a new Haswell CPU and board. I had this same conflict back with Sandy Bridge. I had a very capable i7 875k (4.4ghz) and really didn't see the benefit of buying. Same is the case today. The only difference is I am not "upgrading" , but building another rig. Price difference is quite large ATM.

4770k + Z87 Mobo = $520.00
3770k + Z77 Mobo = $360.00

Now, the big question...is it WORTH it? I am having a really hard time convincing myself (and my wallet) that it is. The setup I am currently running is probably overkill for most applications I get into day to day. I can't see me needing anything in the near future. Heck, my old 875k has been passed down to my son and it still strong enough for us. oh the dilemna.
Deb0's Avatar
Deb0 replied the topic: #31252 02 Jun 2013 20:45
I'd personally stick with the 1155 because I know you're going to buy a video card to go along with it and the biggest leap on the Haswell is the on board graphics.
garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31253 02 Jun 2013 20:48
go to microcenter and save most of the difference then profit

www.microcenter.com/search/search_result...583310+583351+583369
SpeedBump's Avatar
SpeedBump replied the topic: #31255 02 Jun 2013 22:28
Snap. They didnt have them listed last time I checked. Nice. Now...find me a MC close by. LOL. Its all good, I got one near my friend's house I can hit up when I visit. (Or a guy I know who lives in VanWert, a nice 45min drive can go pick me up some goodies when I am ready) ;)

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