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Intel Haswell 4th Generation CPU: i5-4670K and i7-4770K Review

CPU by leeghoofd @ 2013-06-01

Intel keeps on pushing their technology to the max. Even while being the performance leader in most hardware segments, their engineers are driven to (re)design new architectures to satisfy the end-user's desire for more speed. However the focus with this CPU generation is not purely based on raw speed; this 4th generation main objective is to reduce the power consumption to the max, to gain grounds in the portable market. Rumor that Intel was pulling out of the desktop market has partially become reality. Not leaving the desktop market for what it is, as they will continue to develop the chipsets and processors. With Haswell we see the last releases of Intel's own motherboard branch. The market share of notebooks, ultrabooks, tablets and mini enclosures are steadily taking over the market share of the desktop. Enhanced battery life, a result of a reduced power consumption, an enhanced onboard graphic chip and the reduction of required motherboard components are the major trademarks of Intel's 4th generation processors. Time to put both K skews to the test.

Test Setup

With each press kit, Intel includes one of it's own high end boards for testing purposes. Sadly the board arrived a bit late to the party. Compared to the used mainboard, the Gigabyte Z87X-OC, it had really limited bios settings. As we wanted to conduct more profound tests we were obliged to swap the board for the Gigabyte Z87X-OC.

TEST SETUP :

Intel Core i5-4670K & i7-4770K
Corsair H80i cooler
Gigabyte Z87X OC (F5b bios)
4GB Corsair Dominator PC12800C8
8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400C10
8GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 2800C11
NVIDIA GTX480 (WHQL 290.62 driver)/ AMD 7970HD 13.4 driver
Western Digital 1TB Green Caviar
Corsair HX 1050 PSU (Haswell compatible)
Corsair Vengeance case
Windows 7 Professional 64Bit SP1 fully patched.

Note: All the Intel CPUs were run with the enhanced Turbo, meaning all cores run at the same speed !!

We received the Corsair HX1050 as it was confirmed to be Haswell ready. Due to the low power demand of the Haswell sytem it could be that some PSU's stop working or even fail. Most mainboard manufacturers have a BIOS option, that puts a dummy load so everything continues to work properly, even with non certified PSUs.

The Gigabyte Z87X-OC board is fully equipped with all the bells and whistles you can imagine. A solid bios that's very flexible in usage, very good power circuitry and on top it looks great:)

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