Benchmark Results: PCMark 7
Right out of the gate, Intel’s fastest Ivy Bridge-based processor, Core i7-3770K, appears to be a stunner, coasting right past Intel’s thousand-dollar Core i7-3960X.
But the Core i7-2700K also appears faster than the Sandy Bridge-E-based flagship. What gives?
Well, certain parts of PCMark 7 are optimized for at least 16 threads, we’re told by Futuremark. That’s evident in the Computation and Creativity suites below, where the -3960X does particularly well. Otherwise, the components of Windows 7 used to create Futuremark’s metric appear predominantly optimized for quad-core parts running at higher clock rates.
Of course, if our real-world benchmark suite tracks with PCMark, it’d be a lot harder to recommend Core i7-3930K. But I have the feeling that some of our other tests won’t be as friendly to the quad-core contenders.
