Intel Haswell benchmarks are here

[DrPop]

Finally found it, and for crunching purposes, it doesn't look like a good upgrade if you've got an i7 2600K Sandy Bridge or newer. Just O/C it and save your pennies.
Those of us stuck with the older AMD AM3+ or pre i7 Intel motherboards...well, I'm just not sure what is the best way to go at the moment. EDIT: Looked at many reviews, and one thing is certain: the SB/IB/Haswell is incredibly efficient compared to AMD X6/FX series, and even considerably more efficent than the SB-e. The power cost on a 24/7 cruncher may prove to be the key metric over the life time of the rig.

Quote from the article: "As you might note, we aren't looking at any spectacular improvement of Haswell Core i7-4770K over Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge. At best, the benchmarks are under 5% average improvement over last years architecture. At 4 GHz clock-to-clock comparison, the performance difference diminishes even more "
Read more: http://wccftech.com/intel-haswell-core-i7-4770k-review-live-china/#ixzz2Tibydfny

[John P. Myers]

Yeah power savings is the biggest draw for Haswell. Have you seen these people overclocking a 4770K to 5.0 GHz using about 0.900 volts? Amazing. Seems like it'd be incredibly easy to cool too. Another thing i'm noticing about Haswell is some of the new Z87 moterboards will have built-in WiFI with antennas. That could be pretty handy, as there have been many occasions when i wished i had a wireless connection on my desktop but didn't want to sacrifice a PCIe slot to get it. I know USB is also an option there, but it's something else to keep track of and it's usually brutally slow in comparison. So far i've seen Asus, Gigabyte and MSI beginning to offer this.

Also as i mentioned a couple months ago, if you have a CPU cooler compatible with Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge,you can also use it on Haswell. The mounting hole spacings on the motherboard are exactly the same.

Also for those wondering how power consumption is so much lower when TDP is higher than Ivy Bridge, it's because Haswell moved the Voltage Regulators onto the chip, so now they are added to the chip's power draw, but subtracted from the motherboard's power draw.

overclockers have already pushed Haswell to 6.2GHz with 1.216v.

[DrPop]

Yeah power savings is the biggest draw for Haswell. Have you seen these people overclocking a 4770K to 5.0 GHz using about 0.900 volts? Amazing. Seems like it'd be incredibly easy to cool too. ...

Also for those wondering how power consumption is so much lower when TDP is higher than Ivy Bridge, it's because Haswell moved the Voltage Regulators onto the chip, so now they are added to the chip's power draw, but subtracted from the motherboard's power draw.

OK, sounds like it might be worth it to wait for the Haswell, to see how much more it overclocks compared to IB. Regarding moving those voltage regulators onto the chip - does this mean we won't have to worry so much about motherboard overheating when we O/C? Also, wouldn't that increase the temp of the CPU, and therefore negatively impact the overclocking potential, or is the impact negligible?

[John P. Myers]

Yes the VRs do add heat, but they're also 50x smaller than the VRs on the motherboard and far more efficient. Since the cores will produce less heat, the added heat from the VRs won't be noticed when comparing it to IB. It should still run a bit cooler as a whole.

[DrPop]

Yes the VRs do add heat, but they're also 50x smaller than the VRs on the motherboard and far more efficient. Since the cores will produce less heat, the added heat from the VRs won't be noticed when comparing it to IB. It should still run a bit cooler as a whole.

Thanks for that info. Sounds like if we're moving up from any AMD platform or any pre i7 Intel platform, it just may be worth it to wait for Haswell to see the O/C potential. :D

[Fire$torm]

Thanks for that info. Sounds like if we're moving up from any AMD platform or any pre i7 Intel platform, it just may be worth it to wait for Haswell to see the O/C potential. :D

If you can afford one..... :(