Final Thoughts and Rating

Ivy Bridge hasn't blown our minds, and the fact that we're just a little underwhelmed by Intel's third-generation Core processor family is testament to the company's history of constant innovation.

Ivy Bridge has always been earmarked as a modest step up from Sandy Bridge in the performance stakes, and though the 22nm Tri-Gate fabrication process is a technical marvel, we're left wanting more. This is Intel, the multi-billion-dollar self-proclaimed 'Sponsors of Tomorrow,' and we want to see it deliver a dozen cores, integrated graphics that do battle with the best discrete solutions, and the kind of power efficiency that will keep laptops running for weeks and not hours. We're consumers, we want all that, and we want it now.

Instead, what we have is an Ivy Bridge processor that humbly improves on the foundations laid by its predecessor in just about every meaningful way. CPU performance is up by only 10 per cent and IGP performance is up by only 40 per cent... all this, and the processor is only 20 per cent more power efficient. You just can't get the staff these days.

Bottom line: we see no immediate reason to upgrade from Sandy Bridge, but if you're moving from an older platform, Intel's Ivy Bridge should be your only high-performance and energy-efficient destination. The best just got that little bit better.

The Good

Superb quad-core performance
Outstanding Quick Sync transcoding
Class-leading power consumption
IGP can drive three displays
Improved graphics capabilities

The Bad

Not a huge step up from Sandy Bridge
Average overclocking potential on air

HEXUS Rating

Intel Core i7-3770K

HEXUS Awards

Intel Core i7-3770K

HEXUS Where2Buy

The Intel Core i7-3770K processor will be available to purchase from Scan Computers* starting April 29, 2012.

HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

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The overclocking is disappointing….although not very surprising based on leaked info. I personally think the heat is from the tri-gate tech. That is having the biggest change to transistor density that I can see.

Still…..I think I would be content with one of these at 4.5GHz

“Generally speaking, the Tick refers to major architecture revamp, while the Tock insinuates a minor architecture refresh coupled with a shrink in manufacturing process.”

I think you have that the wrong way round.

The heat it generates is a let down. I put off my Sandy Bridge build to wait for these. I wasn't interested in the small performance gain rather the USB3 and PCIe3 support.

I wouldn't mind seeing different overclocks.
I was planning on achieving 4.5GHz stable and running cool (to match Sandy Bridge tbh).

Now to wait for the i5-3570K review to see if it runs any cooler and to make my decision by the 29th when Scan stock Ivy Bridge.

Nice detailed review though.

runing the amd 3870 with 1600 memory was unfair, we all know its gpu side runs much faster with 1866 memory and so 36% over the 3770k could well have been 40% plus. mind you if you have a 3770k or 3570k i would at least be runing a Nvidia 560 gpu, cant see it run with much less.
as for the heat, roll on Haswell or whatever the next one is in a year.

I don't get how a 1.2ghz bump (33%!) isn't a good overclock amount ? And 75c under load is a perfectly acceptable temperature especially considering the overclock level.

Should be expected though, smaller tighter CPU is going to have less wiggle room.

Personally I can't see me upgrading my CPU for at least another 5 years anyway.