CPU Charts 2012: 86 Processors From AMD And Intel, Tested

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Benchmarking 86 CPUs takes a while. After long last, though, we have 51 models from AMD and 35 from Intel tested in our current suite. If you want to know how your processor sizes up to its competition, you'll find plenty of comparison data inside!

Intel: Ivy Bridge

Ivy Bridge is Intel's current-generation design. The company's tick-tock cadence establishes a new architecture (the tick), and then follows it up with a updated manufacturing technology (the tock). That way, the next tick is implemented on a mature process, paring back some of the risk associated with transitioning to a significantly-updated architecture.

After the tick that was Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge employs a very similar design on a 22 nm process. Intel maintains its Core i3, i5, and i7 nomenclature, updating the model names to reflect a third generation. Fortunately, Ivy Bridge-based chips drop into the same LGA 1155 interface as the Sandy Bridge-based parts.

Though its x86 cores remain largely the same, Ivy Bridge does offer a more advanced graphics engine, along with a memory controller that officially supports 1,600 MT/s data rates. The unlocked parts boast maximum multipliers of 63x (up from Sandy Bridge's 57x), and the entire line-up includes 16 lanes of PCI Express 3.0 connectivity.

More information:

Benchmarked Intel Ivy Bridge-Based CPUs:

Ivy BridgeCode NameRev.SocketNumber ofCoresClockFrequencyL2 CacheL3 CacheiGPUMemoryControllerTDP
Core i5-3450Ivy BridgeE1115543.1 GHz4 x 256 KB6 MBHD Graphics 2500650-1100 MHzintegrated up to DDR3-160077 W
Core i5-3470Ivy BridgeE1115543.2 GHz4 x 256 KB6 MBHD Graphics 2500650-1100 MHzintegrated up to DDR3-160077 W
Core i5-3550Ivy BridgeE1115543.3 GHz4 x 256 KB6 MBHD Graphics 2500650-1100 MHzintegrated up to DDR3-160077 W
Core i5-3570KIvy BridgeE1115543.4 GHz4 x 256 KB6 MBHD Graphics 4000650-1100 MHzintegrated up to DDR3-160077 W
Core i7-3770KIvy BridgeE1115543.5 GHz4 x 256 KB8 MBHD Graphics 4000650-1100 MHzintegrated up to DDR3-160077 W
Manuel Masiero
108 Comments Comment from the forums
  • amdfangirl
    Sometimes I wish you updated legacy CPUs like the Core 2 Duo or even perhaps the Athlon 64 X2 series, just one or two models so that people upgrading can have an idea how much faster the CPU is in relation to their new purchase.
    Reply
  • Where are the Visual Studio Test results?
    Reply
  • johnsonjohnson
    Sandy and Ivy i3s are MIA.
    Reply
  • emperor piehead
    Why is the fx6300 missing i wanted to see how it fit into this
    Reply
  • Thanks Toms, now i know that i can get double the performance and 3/4 the power consumption going from AMD 955 to a Core i5 3570K.
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    Great benchmarks.
    But i want some processors which were legendary overclockers, and representatives of their generation of CPU's, included with a nominal OC :

    intel C2D E7300 : 2.66- > 3.33
    Intel C2Q Q6600 : 2.4- > 3.0ghz
    Intel i5-750 : 2.66 - >3.33

    Its highly likely that a person has owned at least one of these CPU's. I want to know how well these compare to modern processors.
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    And please update the Winrar to version 4.2 . The 3.9 you are using is quite old and has poor multithreading.
    Reply
  • bak0n
    amdfangirlSometimes I wish you updated legacy CPUs like the Core 2 Duo or even perhaps the Athlon 64 X2 series, just one or two models so that people upgrading can have an idea how much faster the CPU is in relation to their new purchase.I always wish this. Beyond that the AM3 Athlon X2's are still being sold at newegg and the Phenom X2's are not...
    Reply
  • Soma42
    amdfangirlSometimes I wish you updated legacy CPUs like the Core 2 Duo or even perhaps the Athlon 64 X2 series, just one or two models so that people upgrading can have an idea how much faster the CPU is in relation to their new purchase.
    Agreed, maybe just one dual core and one quad? q9550 and e6850? not that I still own both of those or anything...

    But let's do some math. Just for a rough order of magnitude I figure an average of 15% increase in performance per clock cycle, per generation (not including clock speed, number of cores, etc.). So if we start back at Conroe and work our way to present day Ivy Bridge, that's 5 new generations of processors. 1.15^5 = 2.01

    Which means that an Ivy Bridge CPU at the same speed as a Conroe CPU (2006ish) is about 2x as fast per clock cycle, on average. Once you take into account faster clock speeds, number of cores, cache sizes, integrated memory controllers, etc. and more importantly what software will be used with the CPUs the real world performance difference could be almost nothing to somewhere around 10-15x as fast.

    I digress. The point being, is I would like to see some more benchies Tom's! Prove me wrong!
    Reply
  • flyflinger
    Lot of great info here, but missing Core i3 info leaves a big hole in the data point. Please add.
    Reply