The first few models of Intel's third generation Core processor, codenamed Ivy Bridge, were launched today, combining faster performance with lower power consumption thanks to Intel's cutting-edge 22 nm manufacturing process.
Since 2007, the microprocessor giant has been using a model it describes as "tick-tock." Each "tick" is a die shrink and introduction of a new manufacturing process, each "tock" is the introduction of a new processor architecture. Ivy Bridge is a "tick," taking the 32 nm "Sandy Bridge" architecture and scaling it down to 22 nm. But Ivy Bridge goes further than past ticks—it includes an extensively improved GPU architecture, leading Intel graphics architect Tom Piazza to describe it as a "tick plus."
The new manufacturing process is no small change. Intel announced last year that its 22 nm process would use "3D" tri-gate transistors. The 3D transistors increase the contact area between parts of the transistor by using a silicon "fin" instead of a flat contact area, allowing much more current to flow when the transistor is turned on. This in turn allows Intel to either increase the clock speed, decrease the voltage (and hence power consumption) or both. Intel is the only company in the world to be producing processors using this technology, with silicon wafer-maker Soitech estimating that the rest of the industry won't catch up until 2014.
Intel has introduced 10 desktop processors and seven mobile processors using the new architecture. All of the new processors are quad core. i7-branded processors (four of the desktop parts and all of the mobile parts) also have Hyper Threading to allow eight threads to run concurrently. i5-branded chips (the remainder of the desktop parts) do not.
Relative to Sandy Bridge, the new processors have both faster clock speeds and lower power consumption. The standard, mainstream desktop processors now dissipate only 77W, compared to Sandy Bridge's 95W. Low power parts dissipate either 65W (for "S" model numbers) or 45W (for "T" model numbers). Clock speeds range from 2.3 GHz/3.3 GHz turbo, for the 45W Core i5-3570T, to 3.5 GHz/3.9 GHz turbo, for the overclockable Core i7-3770K. The mobile parts come in at 35W, 45W, and, for the top-end Extreme-branded processor, 55W. The 35W processor, the i7-3612QM, runs at 2.1 GHz/3.1 GHz turbo; the 55W chip runs at 2.9 GHz/3.8 GHz turbo. The specifications of the full range can be found at Intel's Ark.
Intel's complex market segmentation remains in full effect. With Sandy Bridge there was the anomalous situation that only the overclockable "K" desktop parts included the fast HD 3000 GPU; non-K processors included extra features such as Intel's VT-d virtualization technology and TXT security, but had to make do with the slower HD 2000 GPU.
The situation with Ivy Bridge is only slightly improved. Ivy Bridge has two GPUs, the high-end HD 4000 and the low-end HD 2500. The good news is that the HD 4000 graphics can now be found on the full-featured non-overclockable processors. The bad news is that the "K" processors still lack the extra functions. The i7-3770K also has a base clock speed that is 100 MHz more than that of the i7-3770. Picking the right processor remains harder than it ought to be.
As a "tick," the CPU portion of Ivy Bridge is only an incremental refinement of Sandy Bridge. Intel has made a number of microarchitectural changes, such as using a new design for its integer and floating point division unit, smarter prefetching to fetch data from main memory before it's needed, and dynamic allocation of resources between Hyper-Threading threads. The company has also added some new instructions, such as a new random number generator for cryptographic software. Taken together, Intel estimates that Ivy Bridge should offer four to six percent more performance per clock than its predecessor.
Intel's estimates seem to be borne out by actual benchmark results. Tech Report's benchmarks cover a wide range of scenarios—gaming, productivity, scientific computing—and paint a consistent picture time and time again: Ivy Bridge is a little bit faster than the four core Sandy Bridges, and it uses a lot less power than Sandy Bridges, but workloads that spawn multiple compute-bound threads are still faster on the six core/twelve thread Sandy Bridge-E processors.
Bucking tick conventions, however, is the new GPU. Not only does HD 4000 contain 33 percent more cores than HD 3000, with 16 shader cores compared to 12; each shader core is also more powerful, with larger caches, more threads per core, and more execution resources per core. HD 4000 (and HD 2500, which is half an HD 4000) also supports Direct3D 11.0, compared to HD 3000's Direct3D 10. The display drivers will initially support OpenGL 3 and OpenCL 1.1; future updates should increase this to OpenGL 4. A detailed examination of the new GPU architecture can be found at Real World Technologies.
The result of the work done to the GPU is that it's a lot faster than the old one. AnandTech's review examines HD 4000's performance in a wide range of games and a small number of computational tasks. The GPU isn't going to challenge high-end discrete cards any time soon, but it's a healthy improvement on its predecessor, typically between 20 and 50 percent faster.
The Intel GPU still can't match the GPU AMD uses in its Llano processors, though it's much closer than it was—Intel typically trails by about 25 percent in this area. However, it's not really clear that this matters: the GPU is more than good enough for non-game desktop workloads (even with the extensive 3D acceleration being exploited by modern Web browsers), and can even handle light gaming well enough for many.
Intel does lead in one area of graphics performance: specifically motion video encoding and decoding. Sandy Bridge's QuickSync made Intel processors the fastest things around for transcoding videos to, for example, convert Blu-ray discs or DVDs for iPhone viewing. Ivy Bridge's QuickSync has been made even faster, and now supports 4k video (4096×2304).
Sandy Bridge's integrated GPU already made low-end GPUs a questionable investment; Ivy Bridge arguably leaves no room in the market for low-end discrete GPUs at all. The $50 NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 is rendered all but irrelevant by the integrated GPU, and in some workloads even the $80 AMD Radeon HD 5570 is beaten by the Intel chip. With this level of performance, and the new ability to support three monitors (up from two in Sandy Bridge), Ivy Bridge will ably handle the graphical needs of a substantial number of buyers.
In all, Ivy Bridge does exactly what Intel set out to do. CPU performance is up a little, GPU performance is up a lot, and power usage is slashed. Desktop users might not notice much difference—and there's certainly little reason to replace a Sandy Bridge processor with an Ivy Bridge—but laptop buyers have much to look forward to. The low power consumption will improve battery life, and the stronger GPU will obviate the need for power-hungry discrete GPUs for almost all laptop buyers.
The only remaining issue is when the chips will actually be available to buy. The Ivy Bridge launch has suffered delays, and even this launch is incomplete, with dual core and ultra low power 17 W parts both due to arrive later in the year. Intel says that the processors will be available "this month," but online vendors such as Newegg don't even have product listings yet.
Update: Newegg tells me that the chips will go on sale on Sunday, April 29th.
Listing image by Photograph by Intel
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