Sandy Bridge i7 vs Ivy Bridge i7

Robopolo

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I am going to be building a new system within the next 6 months. I would like an 2nd gen or 3rd gen i7 processor, but will I be able to see much of a difference between any of them?

i7 2600k vs i7 2700k vs i7 3770k

Are there major selling points in any of these that I should worry about or are they all going to perform similar.

I will be doing 3d work, video editing, gaming, programming, etc... I want something that will last for the next 3 years at least.

I meant to change the name of this thread my bad....
 
Solution
Summarising the whole ambiguity:

Large sized RAM (32 GB or more) is the base in this recommendation:

In the SB series, cost of 2820, performance wise, is not justified over 2600K. In video and high performance job, 3930K wins because the extra cores/treads with a large RAM make a difference. Between 3770K and 3930K, the 3770K is not better. For video and high performance, 3930K is still a better choice and is probably worth the cost. Pre-i7 owners would most likely upgrade to IB, while the i7 or SB folks won't. Performance and power PC (pre i7) folks may opt for i7 3930K.

Recommendation: Are you a pre-i7 guy? Take i7 3770K, throw-in a robust water cooler motherboard, at least 32GB RAM AND a top-of the line PSU. Moderately...

licktheenvelope

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If you are going to be video rendering the i7 3770k has much better performance than the 2600k or the 2700k. Where the 2600k or 2700k are more beneficial is if you don't need to render much but want to overclock as they keep cooler temperatures than the 3770k.
 

Robopolo

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I will be rendering quite a lot. I dont plan on overclocking but I might, only if I need to.
 

SSri

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What CPU do you have at the moment?

There is no performance gain between SB and IB. Some heat issues are reported while OCing IB. Intel has acknowledged it and may probably fix it in future (hopefully asap). If you are using one of the older generation of CPUs 2 core or 2 quad core, I would recommend the i7 3770K.....If you are already having one of those i7 processors, it is not worth buying a new system immediately. You may wait for Haswell, if not Skylake. Please see if you could overclock your existing CPU.

Your work is more about processor and RAM power and speed. A good GPU would be very useful (may be you would need the best of both worlds - gaming and work).

 
The major difference between these processors comes down to new features on the Intel® Core™ i7-3770K like native USB 3.0 and PCI-E 3.0 that are not support. The only issue that the 3rd generation Intel Core processors have is that they do run hot if you overclock them so make sure that you have a good cooling solution.


Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team
 

Robopolo

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I am currently on a Q9000 laptop. It works but it is not much for gaming. I can edit on it pretty well though.

I am a console fanboy so I will mainly game on my xbox 360 either way. I will do some gaming on it but nothing to intense.

What I was thinking of doing was building a solid pc with one of these processors and just upgrading to Haswell, next year. I heard that the z77 boards were going to be compatible with Haswell so I was going to use one of those.
 

Robopolo

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Do you think there is any "real world" difference or is it within 5% improvement going with the Ivy Bridge.

I can get the 2600k for $285 no tax right now. I am not going to but I think that they Sandy Bridge i7s will go down a bit in price.
 

Robopolo

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This is something else I was going to make a thread over. I am guessing that there is a big speed difference between PCI-E 2.0 and PCI-E 3.0?
 


With any current single card/single GPU config, no there really isn't much of a difference (single digit percentages, which can be attributed to margin of error, IMO). It's when you go to SLI/CrossFire with high end PCIe 3.0 cards that PCIe 3.0 can stretch it's legs. A generation or two from now with GPU's is when it'll really start to matter for single card configs.

In any case, since you're building a new rig, there's really no reason, other than decreased OC potential, not to go with Ivy at this point. It won't be much faster than a comparable Sandy chip, but it gives you the benefits that Ivy offers.
 

Robopolo

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My budget is $1500. I really would like to have an 3 monitor setup with eyefinity, but I would be really pushing it.

I wont be buying it until after summer more than likely. How big of an improvement is Haswell going to be? Speculation of course :)
 

Robopolo

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I do plan on crossfiring two radeon cards at some point. Whether I go with the 7000 series or the 6000 series depended on this question.
 

InvalidError

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They acknowledged it and said it was as-expected. Since it runs hotter by-design (they switched from solder to paste thermal interface under the heat-spreader on top of higher power density), there is nothing for Intel to fix until/unless something happens to force Intel to revert to solder TIM.
 

Robopolo

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Okay, do you think it would be a good idea to have everything else picked out, except the processor? I know for the most part what I want, but the processor is the most crucial and controversial aspect of the build.
 

InvalidError

Titan
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Not much controversy there. The best all-around CPU is i7-3770k with i5-3570k right behind for gaming-centric rigs. The i7-3nnnX LGA2011 CPUs are for the extreme high-end with a huge jump in price tag, not worth the trouble for most people. The money saved by going with i5/i7 will cover most of your next upgrade 2-3 years down the road unless you really need features from the X-series CPUs in the near future.
 

InvalidError

Titan
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He probably meant "limiting compute" as in GPGPU/DirectCompute/OpenCL. There aren't many benchmarks on that, Anandtech tried to test it but the only benchmark they found where PCIe3 made any remotely significant difference was AMD's AES Encrypt/Decrypt where there was only a 9% difference on Radeon 7970.

The difference would probably become more tangible with multi-card GPGPU.
 

SSri

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No. If your build is going to be after Summer, I would drop a cent now. Please wait; the 3-6 is a long time. Things can change (price, new product, new reviews, etc..).
 

Robopolo

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Okay, I will keep doing research and find out more about the different components. Hopefully by the end of summer I will have the money I need and be able to get a nice system. Thanks for all of the help.
 



Like most things in the computer industry it is very hard to tell the difference for the average user between two products unless you start to benchmark them. The 5% doesn't cover anything from PCI-E 3.0 or getting any value out of the Intel HD 4000 graphics. So I try to look forward when advising people on their money I try to advise based not only right now but into the future.


Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team