Under The Hood: Intel’s Next Processors Leak

Ivy Bridge has been on our radar for almost a year now, but with the 2012 release date fast approaching, leaks from the partner channel were inevitable. According to documents obtained by X-bit labs, Intel’s new Ivy Bridge chips will be shipping in Q2 2012, and 18 parts are listed.

Of these only eight are standard desktop flavours, with the remaining 10 all falling under the ultra-low voltage banner. All of the new chips are based on Intel’s new 22nm process technology.

Ivy Bridge was designed primarily to try and reduce power consumption, while boosting integrated graphics performance. From what we can tell they’ve accomplished both, though the pure CPU performance gains are slightly more modest. Power savings average out to around 19 per cent less than the Sandy Bridge equivalents, with TDP dropping from 95 watts to around 77 watts at the same performance levels.

The power savings and graphics improvements will make a huge difference in laptops and small form factor PCs, but if you’re rocking a modern Sandy Bridge desktop part, it’s looking increasingly improbable that Ivy Bridge would be much of an upgrade for desktop enthusiasts. According to slides obtained from Tom’s Hardware, here is how performance is shaking out so far when you compare the i7-2600 Sandy Bridge to the i7-3770 Ivy Bridge.

7% improvement in SYSmark 2012 score
14% improvement in HDXPRT 2011 score
15% improvement in Cinebench 11.5 score
13% improvement in ProShow Gold 4.5 results
25% improvement in Excel 2010 performance

Keep in mind these benchmarks cannot be verified until Intel releases proper parts to us for testing, so take them for what they are. Improvements, no matter how minor are great to see, but so would an affordable hex-core.

Here is a look at the complete lineup:

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