Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
So my man that would be the Haswell refresh for ya. Yeah the new SKUs that are inserted are nothing special in terms of performance gains. With each processor generation Intel will refresh it products so that the channel sales will get some new products to sell for the upcoming two quarters of the year. When we zoom in towards the the refresh processors, and in specific the Core i7 4790 as tested today then sure; this obviously a great processor. But the Core i7 4790 merely received a small performance increase. Compared towards the Core i7 4770 it received a 200 MHz increase, and compared to the Core i7 4770K model that is only 100 MHz. Tantalizing is the combination of a product of this class with Z97, the H97/Z97 chipset might be a refresh as well, but the motherboard manufacturers have done intensely great work with their products. 2014 offers the best motherboards I have seen to date, and combined with say M.2. SSD storage, the combination of the processor, motherboard and storage unit might be just what the doctor ordered to get you migrated towards a new platform under the condition that your PC hardware is outdated and outperformed.
Overclocking
We tried and failed miserably, we had such a hard time overclocking the CPU that a little 10% bump was not possible, we gave up. The non-K models do not have an unlocked multiplier. Meaning the turbo 'boost' multiplier is locked at a maximu of 40. As such you will have to adjust the BLCK frequency (100 MHz = default), but even increasing that one 10% to 110 MHz resulted in a non posting system and thus a failed overclock. So if you like to enjoy the experience of tweaking and overclocking, you might want to put this purchase on a hold and wait for the K model 4790K, and that we need to talk about in a separate paragraph.
Devils Canyon
See, the thing is though that in our much beloved high-end and enthusiast segment most people will like to tweak that processor a little, and as we just explained, the 4790 is just not good at it at all. For that you will need a K model processor, and Intel has not yet released a 4790K just yet. This however will happen next month, these will be the much talked about Devils Canyon series processors. For the performance enthusiasts that also like to overlock a little, these CPUs will be the ones to get as the K-Series Haswell Refresh processors will offer unlocked multipliers but also use an improved design that incorporates updated packaging materials, improved TIM (Thermal Insulation Material), these processors are specifically re-engineered for enhanced performance and overclocking.
What about the IGP
Quite honestly, for gaming you are still looking at little performance for truly serious gaming with the integrated graphics. But credit where credit is due, ever since Haswwell was reeleased the IGP has gotten a nice chunk faster with selected SKUs allowing Intel to compete much better with AMD's APUs. Now we know that HD 4600 can do, but with this test had a driver issue.
Regardless of our driver issues, if you flick down and forfeit on image quality and resolution, and things will get better fast. As huge as the overall performance improvement over the last generation IGPs really is, it remains entry-level performance for gaming on low resolution monitors though. But for mobile platforms the embedded GPU will be pretty good. We also need to separate gaming from the graphics core, realize that it is a multipurpose graphics processor. You'll have no issues with Blu-ray playback, heck it can even deal with 3D TV, post-process your media files and help out with video en/trans and decoding. The GPU is compatible with HDMI 1.4 and Display Port 1.2 next to the regular DSUB and DVI connectors of course.
Power consumption
Let's compare back and forth a little. The Intel reference board with a Sandy Bridge processor (2600K) without a dedicated graphics card idles at roughly 50 Watts. Once we stress the processor 100% on that platform we leveled out at 110~120 Watts. With Haswell (4790) we notice 39 Watts in idle and 107 Watts with processor load at 100%. So Haswell and its chipset are energy friendly. Realistically though they are not at all that far off from Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. Once you add a dedicated graphics card the dynamic changes of course. Do we all really care about 10 or 20 Watts ? No in this market segment not really, but obviously in the mobile and HTPC / Small form factor platform it makes all the difference.
Let's talk money
A 4790 will cost you roughly 280 EUR, say 300 USD. This is Intel's top non-K model quad-core flagship product. Intel does not have any substantial competition within this market segment, this price is and will stay at that level.
Final Words
If you are not planning to overclock your processor then obviously the Core i7 4970 is among the fastest quad-core processors your money can get you. The Haswell refresh by itself however is nothing more then a small speed increment on the clock frequency of the base and turbo clocks. Only when we synthetically measure these processors, the performance benefit like we showed in our benchmarks can be seen. Basically what i am trying to tell you is that in real world usage the 100 MHz to 200 MHz clock speed increment is not going to make a substantial enough difference to actually notice the perf differential over say the Core i& 4770/4770K, and that makes it a processor more of the same that already was really. the good thing however is that the new SKUs will drive the prices of the 4770(K) processors down, so why not get yourself one of these at a better price ?
Realistically the only reason to upgrade would be the new Z97 motherboards, the motherboard manufacturers have done a tremendous job to make really cool gear with SATA Express and M.2 PCIe SSD storage. We'll show you a wide selection of these motherboards in separate reviews in the weeks to come and I can already show you in two Z97 motherboard reviews today. But sure, if you have a PC with say a Core i7 2600, 3770 or 4770, honestly we do not see a substantial enough reason for you to upgrade at if you are on the lookout for more performance. The package / infrastructure combo of Haswell with Z97 however offers more coolness thanks to the motherboard partners. No my personal advice to you is to wait a bit for the 4790K Devils Canyon processor to see what that does for the overall PC experience. Once these launch we'll tell you all about it. And then later this year a truly big thing is gonna happen in the enthusiast PC space, we'll see 6 and 8-core Haswell-E processors with DDR4. That's really what most of you guys are waiting on. Other then these remarks, we obviously can recommend the Core i7 4790 if you need to upgrade. The platform in its entirety is grand, the performance great and if you will build a great gaming or content creation rig, this processor is more than fast enough for even multi-GPU setups. As such we can definitely recommend the processor. But for the hardware tweakers and overclocking afficionado's out here, just wait a bit on the K series okay ?
Handy related downloads:
- Sign up to receive a notice when we publish a new article
- Or go back to Guru3D's front page.
