Core i7-3720QM: Ivy Bridge Makes Its Mark On Mobility

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We've already seen that Ivy Bridge doesn't make much of a splash in the desktop space. But we collected notebooks based on Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Arrandale, and AMD's mobile Llano, and found that the new architecture's effect on mobility is profound.

Benchmark Results: WinRAR 4.11

WinRAR is one of three archival apps normally found in our processor reviews. Historically, it's far better-threaded than WinZip (though a recent update to WinZip 16.5 might change this), but it doesn't always scale as well as 7-Zip. It's a good middle-ground, and it remains a very popular title amongst our readers.

We rarely see WinRAR achieve high processor utilization numbers, likely as a result of a storage bottleneck. But the outcome is similar to Photoshop anyway. The Ivy Bridge-based platform soars into a lead, followed by the Core i7-2820QM, which itself is trailed by the Core i5-460M. Again, AMD's A8 simply cannot keep up.

Both Bridges enjoy relatively low processor utilization numbers. The Core i7-3720QM gets its job done faster with a spike in power consumption, though, while Core i7-2820QM takes a lot longer, but maintains remarkably low power use. The result is roughly a wash in terms of energy efficiency.

Core i5-460M takes longer and uses more power (not a good combination). Although it's the slowest solution of all, at least AMD's A8 maintains steady consumption under 20 W.

Andrew Ku
86 Comments Comment from the forums
  • fstrthnu
    Would there be a noticeable performance gap between the i7-3720QM and the i7-3612/5QM? I'm trying to decide whether the extra 300 Mhz is worth ~$150 more (which I'm guessing not really)
    Reply
  • s3anister
    fstrthnuWould there be a noticeable performance gap between the i7-3720QM and the i7-3612/5QM? I'm trying to decide whether the extra 300 Mhz is worth ~$150 more (which I'm guessing not really)
    There would be a performance difference in applications that could use the extra MHz (Video games, encoding/decoding) and performance would scale accordingly. Otherwise no you'd likely never notice.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    Wow, it looks like Ivy Bridge is a very compelling option in the mobile market. I had no idea the mobile versions of Llano were so performance constrained by their TDP. The graphics performance results are especially interesting. Just turned my whole world view upside down.

    Great job. Another excellent review Andrew.
    Reply
  • fstrthnu
    It looks like the Geforce GT650M in the notebook I'm looking at would bottleneck faster than the processor would, so I guess I'll save $$ then
    Reply
  • amiame
    A high end desktop plus an ivy bridge ultrabook. Now, THAT works pretty well.
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    ... why there waz no screenshots of picture quality differences in games between intel's HD4000 and AMD's HD6620?
    Reply
  • blazorthon
    dragonsqrrlWow, it looks like Ivy Bridge is a very compelling option in the mobile market. I had no idea the mobile versions of Llano were so performance constrained by their TDP. The graphics performance results are especially interesting. Just turned my whole world view upside down.Great job. Another excellent review Andrew.
    To be fair, it was a low power APU being bench-marked against higher end, higher power, and newer chips. I would be surprised if it won much of anything, besides power usage, against the Sandy and Ivy i7s. A higher TDP mobile A8 might be able to beat HD 4000 if it had 1600MHz or maybe even 1866MHz memory, granted it still wouldn't win in CPU performance.
    Reply
  • ojas
    Interesting review. But i guess people are likely to point out differences in price (thus affecting performance/$), and RAM speeds, which apparently impact IGP performance.

    IIRC, the IGPs on the mobile chips can be OC'd, right?

    The Core i7-3720QM particularly shines in tests involving:

    Video Transcoding
    DX9 Graphics
    Web Browsing
    Hmmm...wouldn't you agree that "data decryption" should be on this list too? The difference b/w each proc is significant...plus you've got hardware acceleration for AES256 on SB and IB...

    I hope the mobile i3s get HD4000...still wondering why the i5s didn't get it...
    Reply
  • DavidC1
    Andrew, love the review. But there's what seems to be a big error. You said on the power usage tests that AMD defaults to max battery life while Intel goes to balanced? Looking at World of Warcraft results, it looks like all the other results may be running max battery life mode for the AMD A8 chip.

    The i5-460M is faster than A8-3520M, just not that much faster. I have a feeling you need to run the application and gaming tests on max performance all over again. It doesn't matter for the Intel part as Balanced pretty much performs like max performance.
    Reply
  • DavidC1
    Also, you need to do a battery life test. Power usage and battery life tests are hard to connect, because of advanced power management techniques and different usage models.
    Reply