The Core i7-4770K Review: Haswell Is Faster; Desktop Enthusiasts Yawn

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Intel's Haswell architecture is finally available in the flagship Core i7-4770K processor. Designed to drop into an LGA 1150 interface, does this new quad-core CPU warrant a complete platform replacement, or is your older Sandy Bridge-E system better?

HD Graphics 4600: Hitman: Absolution

Another game, another win for AMD. This victory is far less decisive, though. We’re going to need to see the variance numbers to better-determine the solution with the smoother experience.

AMD’s A10-5800K keeps its nose just above 30 FPS, through most of the benchmark (even if it dips more than the Core i7-4770K at other points). Meanwhile, HD Graphics 4600 tanks at the very end of this test, hovering just over 20 FPS. That’s not conducive to a smooth experience.

Everything starts and stays under 30 FPS. Even at this game’s most entry-level detail settings, 1920x1080 isn’t in the cards for integrated graphics.

All three of the top processors exhibit worst-case variance between consecutive frames that we’d expect gamers to notice. With that said, Ivy Bridge and Haswell fare best, followed by AMD’s Trinity design.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
431 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Novuake
    WELL FINALLY!! Now to read it!

    EDIT : LOL!!!!
    http://bupp-portal.com/pictures/fp.jpg
    Reply
  • thiemo56
    Dissapointing, not worth it to upgrade over sandy or ivy bridge.
    Reply
  • thiemo56
    And they overclock so low.
    Reply
  • Danny N
    Biggest question is if its worth upgrading my cpu i5 750 4.0ghz to Haswell or my gfx card ati 5870 to nvidia 7xx, my main pc use is for Maya, After FX and some fps gaming. Any input would be appriciated cause I'm leaning towards a cpu upgrade atm.
    Reply
  • swampfire
    whats scoket is it like lg1155
    Reply
  • refillable
    @Danny N
    You shouldn't ask here. Perhaps you should get an i7-4770k and a 7970(?) I heard that kepler cards does not perform that good in Maya and Aftereffects (In OpenCL).
    Reply
  • refillable
    Well unless you can get a 780, that's a whole different story.
    Reply
  • bergami
    I want to know more about Iris
    Reply
  • envy14tpe
    Seriously. What did people expect? Of course it's better but nothing out of the ordinary for Intel.
    Reply
  • enewmen
    For me it's not about the 10% gain over SB. It's more like a huge gain over a C2Q, floating point performance over SB (should matter later), and lower watts. I hope THG can expand the Power Consumption and Media Encoding later - check the Watts idle more and fast quick-sync media encoding quality loss. My 2 cents..

    EDIT:
    other sites have reported much lower watts idle, so a lot doesn't make sense or the 4770k has a very slow throttle.
    http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/56005-intel-core-i7-4770k-22nm-haswell/?page=15
    http://www.techspot.com/review/679-intel-haswell-core-i7-4770k/page13.html
    Reply