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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.

Stock Game Tests

The game tests were conducted with an AMD 7970 GPU instead off the Nvidia Fermi GTX480 videocard. The latter, even tough still an adequate performing game card was starting to show it's age. The GTX780 arrived too late at the [M]Lab to retest all of our CPUs, so we opted to utilise the Radeon card.

Secondly the below game tests are now all conducted at maxed out graphical settings. Too allow the CPU to have it's moment of glory, we include the games ran at 1280 x 1024 75Hz, next to the full HD 1920 x 1080 60Hz resolution.

The results of Futuremark's 3D11 are puzzling. Both Haswell setups unable to beat the scores set by the Ivy-Bridge team. Don't worry as this is more a motherboard/bios related issue. We tested with the latest F5G beta bios for the Gigabyte Z87-OC board. In our notes we found better results obtained with an earlier bios release. So we are digging into this issue together with the Gigabyte team. This is typical for freshly released motherboards, still some issues need to be adressed, daily users will hardly notice it. However for the performance enthousiast every gain, even how minimalistic it might be, counts.

Running Crysis at the Hardcore detail setting is a feast for the eyes. Take note that all game tests were done via either an integrated benchmark or an external benchmark tool. The output numbers might not accurately reflect true game performance, but should give our readers already a rough idea of what to expect. The Haswell numbers are on top, albeit just out edging the rest of the competition.

The Haswell CPU bundled together with a high end graphics card will provide you with hours of maximum gaming pleasure, without having to worry if your gaming system is somehow bottlenecked. The i5-4670K and the i7-4770K keep on topping the competition.

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