Intel Atom Processor Z3740

The Intel Atom processor series has been the weakling of the block; in other words, the chip that the other ones would push around the school yard. The Atom was born with the intention of an x86 processor that could work within a small power envelope, and keep the low power ARM chips from taking over the lower segment of the market. Intel originally envisioned their Atom chips in the gamut of low power devices, from tablets, to smartphones, and to long battery life laptops. The Atom did find some success in netbooks (N270), but many consumers got frustrated with the limited performance of a single core processor, and even when Atom went dual core (N550) it still offered only a minimal performance gain.

Intel Core i5-4670 Haswell Review

Released last summer, the latest processor from Intel is known by the codename Haswell.  Following on the heels of Sandy Bridge, and then Ivy Bridge, the Haswell family of chips gets used across the product line in both desktop and mobile parts.

Spec wise, it is an 84 watt part.  It is a quad core part, but no hyperthreaded (the hyperthreaded quad core chips are the i7's).  It has 6 megs of cache, with a base clock speed of 3.4 Ghz, and a turbo boost to 3.8 GHz.  The graphics are Intel HD 4600.  It is based on the 22 nm manufacturing process.  I posted the CPU-Z below to confirm the processor used.

Intel Core i5-2500k Benchmarks

I got a new desktop, and it happened to have the Intel Core i5-2500k as the processor.  While it is the previous generation "Sandy Bridge" architecture, as opposed to the latest "Ivy Bridge," it still impressed.  This particular chip is certainly a favorite among budget conscious enthusiasts, and I quickly saw why.  This chip has been tested ad nauseum in the past, but I want to add the freely available benchmarks I use, and the comparisons to the older chips that few sites seem to test against these days.

For reference, the Core i5-2500k is a 4 core chip, with a clock speed of 3.4 GHz, that can Turbo Boost to 3.7 GHz.  It does not have Hyperthreading.  It has a healthy 6 megs of cache.

It certainly shines on the HyperPi 1 million calculation, that measures single core performance.  We can see the nice linear progression, and cut nearly a third of the time off my Phenom 2 time.  This is not surprising given the architecture changes, and that it also ties for the fastest clock speed on the chart.

The Core i5 most impressed on the multicore benchmarks.  Looking at Fritz Chess, and 7Zip, the numbers that it put up were even faster than I would have guessed, and show the 4 cores working together quite well.   On these benchmarks, we can seriously see how the dual core chips from a few years back get left in the dust.

In short, the Core i5-2500k is the fastest processor I have personally benchmarked to date.  It performs quite well across both the single and multi threaded benchmarks.  While I will still be keeping my AMD Phenom 2 quad core, if my fastest chip was a Core 2 Duo, or older/slower, I would give serious consideration for a main machine to upgrade to the Sandy Bridge part.  It is currently available for $219 on NewEgg.  While I have traditionally been an AMD fan, the benchmarks above make it increasingly difficult to remain loyal.

Ivy Bridge Delayed

Intel's next upcoming processor, code named Ivy Bridge, was not exactly a well guarded secret.  Last year when the current generation of chips was released, the so called Sandy Bridge parts, they also announced that Ivy bridge would be out around a year later.  As I had no pressing processor needs, I decided to sit tight and wait for the Ivy, that promised higher performance with less energy, and better graphics.

The part was expected for 4/8/12, but that is on hold.  Apparently, through a variety of factors, the Ivy Bridge chips won't be out till late summer is the current thinking, if not early Fall.  What is frustrating is that the reason for the delay is not that the chip is not ready to go, or cannot be made in quantity.  Rather, it is that the manufacturers don't want to be stuck with the current chips.  Sales have been weak, and with nobody buying the supply chain is backed up.  On top of that, Windows 8 looms on the horizon and is expected to debut officially in the Fall, which should spur sales.  Finally, add in that AMD has not released a new part in a while, taking pressure off of Intel to bring new parts to market.

Well, I still think that patience will be rewarded, and would wait for the Ivy Bridge parts to be available.  There is still a small chance that this is just rumor, and the situation is not as dire as they are making it.  At any rate, I would love to see the Sandy Bridge parts pile up at this point if they are manipulating the market to avoid this.

PC Perspective

-Jonas