| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processors | Intel Xeon E3-1280 v2 (Ivy Bridge) 3.6 GHz, LGA 1155, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Intel Xeon E3-1290 (Sandy Bridge) 3.6 GHz, LGA 1155, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Intel Xeon E3-1275 (Sandy Bridge) 3.4 GHz, LGA 1155, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Motherboards | Intel S1200BTL (LGA 1155) Intel C204, BIOS 35;1.13;1.14 |
| Memory | Crucial 8 GB (4 x 2 GB) DDR3-1333 ECC Unbuffered, CT25672BA1339.18FG |
| Hard Drive | Intel SSD 710 200 GB SATA 3 Gb/s SSD |
| Graphics | Nvidia Quadro 5000 |
| Power Supply | Enermax S Galaxy Evo EGX1250EWT 1250 W 80 PLUS Bronze PSU |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Graphics Driver | Nvidia Quadro Driver: 297.03 |
Although our focus is on workstation testing, we're using a more server-oriented motherboard based on Intel's C204 chipset, the S1200BTL. Really, this platform's only limitation is a PCI Express slot configuration designed for storage and networking expansion. As a case in point, the board's one 16-lane slot is wired for x8 data rates.

Also interesting was that, although we've seen desktop processors work in other vendors' workstation motherboards, the S1200BTL wouldn't recognize our Sandy or Ivy Bridge-based chips, limiting testing to the LGA 1155 Xeons in our lab.
| Video Benchmarks and Settings | |
|---|---|
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.9.5 Video: Big Buck Bunny (720x480, 23.972 frames) 5 Minutes, Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile) |
| MainConcept Reference v2.2 | Version: 2.2.0.5440 MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| Application Benchmarks and Settings | |
| WinRAR | Version: 4.2 RAR, Syntax "winrar a -r -m3", Benchmark: 2010-THG-Workload |
| Blender | Version: 2.62 Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, Resolution: 1920x1080, Anti-Aliasing: 8x, Render: THG.blend frame 1, Cycles renderer and internal tile renderer (9x9) |
| e-on Software Vue 8 PLE | 1920x1080 Landscape Render, Global Illumination enabled |
| Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5 | Paladin Sequence to H.264 Blu-ray Output 1920x1080, Maximum Quality, Mercury Playback Engine: Software Mode |
| Adobe After Effects CS 5.5 | Version: CS 5.5 Tom's Hardware Workload, SD project with three picture-in-picture frames, source video at 720p, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously |
| Adobe Photoshop CS 5.1 (64-Bit) | Version: 11 Filtering a 16 MB TIF (15 000x7266), Filters:, Radial Blur (Amount: 10, Method: zoom, Quality: good) Shape Blur (Radius: 46 px; custom shape: Trademark sysmbol) Median (Radius: 1px) Polar Coordinates (Rectangular to Polar) |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version: 10 Professional Build (10.0.102.82) Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
| 3ds Max 2012 | Version: 10 x64 Rendering Space Flyby Mentalray (SPECapc_3dsmax9), Frame: 248, Resolution: 1440 x 1080 |
| Cinebench | CPU Test, Built-in benchmark |
| SolidWorks 2010 | PhotoView 360 Render 01-Lighter Explode.SLDASM (SolidMuse.com) Image Output Resolution: 1920x1080, Render: Preview Quality “Good”, Final Render Quality “Best” |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Compile Chrome project (1/31/2012) with devenv.com /build Release |
Previous
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Summary
- Ivy Bridge Finds Its Way Into Servers And Workstations
- Intel’s Second-Gen Xeon E3 Processor Family
- Platform Support: Three Old Chipsets, C216, And Memory Compatibility
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Adobe CS 5.5
- Benchmark Results: Rendering
- Benchmark Results: Transcoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power Consumption
- Xeon E3-1200 v2 Is A Power Story, Not A Performance One
Ask a Category Expert
Need Ivy Bridge Goes budget.
Still Waiting this.... i3, Pentium G
Need Ivy Bridge Goes budget.
Still Waiting this.... i3, Pentium G
I went with a Sandybridge E5-1620 + discrete graphics. Twice the memory bandwidth. Twice the PCIe lanes. Comparable price. And the raw performance of the cores is only a couple % slower. A good tradeoff for GPU compute.
You don't buy Xeons for performance, you buy them for reliability. The performance for clock speed is exactly the same.
If you need the single-threaded performance, you need it. You can't get that performance by combining multiple systems. In servers or render farms, you can just add a few more machines to make up for the lesser performance, because they are dealing with tasks that are extremely well threaded – so you don't buy the fastest option, you buy the best value option. But in some cases, the single threaded performance is more important (certain workstation tasks) or you are limited to one system (many workstation tasks), so the performance matters more than value until the performance stops making a significant difference.
And I wouldn't say that it is better value, rather I'd say that it is necessary for the extra reliability.
Thanks.
Thanks.
It does whatever it wants.
AMD or ARM-BASED are not serious competitors at least for about next 2 years I guess.
I'm liking the v2 moniker; instead of inventing new codes, is it so hard to just attach a suffix like a version number of an a/b/c etc.? That's enough to convince people that it's comparable to an older model in speed, socket type etc. but the version number will denote improved performance.
4 = LGA 1356
6 = LGA 2011
8 = LGA 1567
Intel: Compatibility? Standards? Screw that.
Translation to Real World - One thing that has often disturbed me is the duration of many of these benches, my experience is that they often either aren't relevant or worst aren't a good measure to real world jobs which often last for HOURS not 1~2 minutes. For comparison sake and perhaps scaling it would be nice to have a 'Part 2' with E5's and UP/DP/MP.
It took me a half cup of coffee to figure out why you choose the E3-1290, I got it once I realized the clocks.
Using Stock clocks the Ivy Bridge is a good step in the right direction, but other than it's Litho it's hard for me still to consider it a 'Tock'. I'm hoping the Haswell will correct some of the IB shortcomings.
And I wouldn't say that it is better value, rather I'd say that it is necessary for the extra reliability.
Okay, so basically it is that thing I said (the need for performance being that great). And yeah, I worded the whole 'value' bit pretty poorly, but you seem to have caught on to what I was getting at. Thanks!
Being a consumer with no knowledge of the enterprise/server sector of hardware, it's a bit difficult to see how something so seemingly small can be worth so much, but I often forget that businesses have a lot more money to spend than individuals like myself.
It depends, supposedly Q2 2013 but if the Haswell makes the Ivy Bridge-EP superfluous then it's doubtful it will ever be produced.
If you can stomach guesses and utter conjecture then here's an interesting post with external links in an effort to prove or disprove - http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2259752
E5 is the full server version of Sandy Bridge. The equivalent won't be released for Ivy Bridge until next year, so the comparison isn't valid. This is just some re-badged client Ivy Bridge parts with minor enhancements.
FYI you wasted money if you bought E5 for home use. Overclockability, which Xeons don't have, is more important that memory bandwidth or pci-e lanes.