Intel Core i7-4770K Pro Reviews

The advantage of Hyper-Threading makes the Intel Core i7-4770K the most powerful processor of the Haswell series. Thanks to HT and the larger cache, it is able to surpass any processor in its price range. The Core i7-4770K is, as expected, the winner of this comparison. Hyper-Threading, a larger cache, and great iGPU make this CPU a great item for every buyer, but it takes luck to get one that will clock higher than 4.6 GHz for everyday use without temperature issues.

Intel has possessed a fast and unchallenged microarchitecture for a number of years. The goal is to bring that level of performance to increasingly-popular form factors such as all-in-ones, convertible laptops and tablet PCs. For the first time, the top-of-the-range Core i7-4770K desktop part isn't the chip we're excited about. As the industry moves from components towards solutions, it's the prospect of a Haswell-powered Surface Pro offering an always-connected Windows 8.1 experience with true desktop performance, all-day battery life, and, who knows, a fanless chassis, that really tickles our fancy. Haswell's scalability is its biggest asset, yet while the architecture holds promise, the real question remains unanswered; has Intel done enough to revitalise a faltering PC industry? And will Haswell chips really inspire a new breed of thin, light, long-lasting and always-connected PCs? Only time will tell.

Intel's new 4th Generation Haswell microarchitecture holds a lot of promise. From a graphics standpoint alone (and we've only gotten a glimpse of what Intel has to offer, as we'll be following-up with Iris Graphics coverage), Haswell is an obvious leap forward in performance, capability and compatibility. Factor in Haswell's Quick Sync video transcode gains and core CPU performance-per-watt advantage and Haswell continues to show its value proposition. That said, Intel's 4th Generation quad-core desktop variant, the Core i7-4770K that we've shown you here today, doesn't offer huge gains over previous generation Ivy Bridge processor performance, at least with current software. To us, Haswell currently feels like its biggest play will be in the mobile space, at least until higher-end Haswell desktop CPUs come to market. Haswell mobile CPUs with Iris and Iris Pro Graphics engines, will undoubtedly shine brighter, especially when you look at performance-per-watt and battery life metrics.

I’m a fan of Haswell, even on the desktop. The performance gains over Ivy Bridge depend on workload, but in general you’re looking at low single digits to just under 20%. We saw great behavior in many of our FP heavy benchmarks as well as our Visual Studio compile test. If you’re upgrading from Sandy Bridge you can expect to see an average improvement just under 20%, while coming from an even older platform like Nehalem will yield closer to a 40% increase in performance at the same clocks. As always, annual upgrades are tough to justify although Haswell may be able to accomplish that in mobile. Even on the desktop, idle power reductions are apparent both at the CPU level and at the platform level. Intel focused on reducing CPU power, and it seems like Intel's motherboard partners did the same as well. Under load Haswell can draw more power than Ivy Bridge but it typically makes up for it with better performance. Overclockers may be disappointed at the fact that Haswell is really no more of an overclocker (on air) compared to Ivy Bridge. Given the more mobile focused nature of design, and an increased focus on eliminating wasted power, I don’t know that we’ll ever see a return to the heyday of overclocking.

The overall gist, then, it that rarely has a CPU mooted as a brand new architecture done so little to change the game for desktop computing. It's still a great CPU and the only option at this price point. It's just barely any better than the processor it replaces. Are we disappointed by Haswell? Yup, but we knew it was coming. We'd seen the architectural briefs that revealed modest changes to the CPU cores while Intel had confirmed it would be four cores. And the clock speeds were never likely to be much higher. The reality is that it's going to take some proper competition from AMD to wake Intel from its slumber. Intel's new Haswell chips are all about mobile computing prowess. And it shows. This desktop variant is only a very small step forward.

If you're building a new rig from scratch, sure, go with Haswell, as its minor price increase can be justified if you consider all the plusses: the performance, if only slightly better than Ivy Bridge, still makes it the fastest consumer CPU available; and there are a few more USB 3.0 and SATA 6G ports, and so forth. And, unless you find a sale going on, there's no reason to put money into the end-of-life LGA1155 platform. But if you're currently running an LGA1155 setup, there's certainly no compelling reason to upgrade to Haswell. That said, I find myself torn on how to rate this processor. On the one hand, it's the fastest consumer CPU. On the other hand, you could slip Haswell hardware into a two-year-old Sandy Bridge setup and the owner would never notice. On the gripping hand, is it fair to ding a product that's the best in its class because it's not as good as we wanted it to be? Ultimately, I can't blame Intel for prioritizing features that strongly favor mobile devices, because you don't have to be Nostradamus to see that's where the future of consumer computing is. If only it overclocked better...

In truth, for Haswell as an architecture, we only have half the story. The most interesting data might come when we start seeing Ultrabooks and all-in-ones that can take advantage of the added graphics horsepower of GT3 and the battery life improvements of the CPU design. For today though, Haswell and the Core i7-4770K have clearly become the best enthusiast level processor on the market.

After running the 4th Gen Core i7 4770K through its paces, I found that it is a strong successor to the mainstream crown that was held by the 3rd Gen Core i7 3770K. Priced at $339 and sure to drop the price point between the two processors is negligible at best based on current e-tail pricing. In the vast majority of tests run, the Core i7 4770K was quicker through the tests than the 3770K. Comparing the results in the gaming tests, though prove it is pretty much an even playing field between the pair as the video card itself is the limiting factor by design. Combining the Core i7 4770K with the latest Z87 chipset-based motherboard from Intel with its full featured Z87KLT-75K or the aftermarket partners is sure to get the end user the feature set they are looking for in terms of price and features. The Z87KLT-75K proved to be a solid board once I was able to get into the BIOS. I found the initial issue was with the system memory I use in my test systems. Albeit this memory is rated higher than the 4770K officially supports, I was able to get it using a set of low voltage memory so that I could set up the parameters manually, then flashing the BIOS and installing my test system 2133MHz rated memory that ran flawlessly afterwords, showing the memory controller is capable of running out of specification.

The Intel Core i7-4770K, based on Intel's Haswell microarchitecture, is a great chip if you need an upgrade, but performance gains are modest.

The Intel Core i7-4770K processor along with the robust features found on Z87 platforms make for a desktop solution that will last for years.

The new processor series codenamed Haswell is here to replace the Ivy Bridge series. There is a significant performance improvement, that's for sure, but is it enough to warrant changing from Ivy Bridge to Haswell? I would have to answer that question with a no. It is not worth it if you want to upgrade your PC to play games, or simply for general everyday tasks. On the other hand, there is a great improvement when it comes to the encoding tests, which would help many people out there. For those who want to upgrade and replace something older than the Ivy Bridge series, it is all based on the price and one's needs. All in all, after looking over all the results of the benchmarks, I am, to be honest, not that excited about the Haswell series. I do not know why, but it may be due to the low overclock we achieved. 4.2 GHz is ridiculous; it takes me back to when Clarkdale processors required 1.5V to reach 5 GHz. Still, I hope that my retail processor's poor overclock was a result of bad luck and nothing more.

While notebook and high end tablet users will likely benefit from the lion’s share of Haswell’s improvements, the desktop market certainly hasn’t been left out in the cold. The seemingly minor architectural changes have allowed the i7 4770K and i5 4670K to become the CPUs of choice for gaming and general computing scenarios. While neither offers any tangible performance improvements over comparable Ivy Bridge processors, they will provide a highly efficient heart for tomorrow’s computing needs while also satisfying the demands of overclockers.

For those of you on Core i7-2700K or older, Core i7-4770K makes sense as part of a two- or three-year upgrade cycle. Otherwise, I see little reason to spend money on a desktop processor upgrade, a new motherboard, and a compliant power supply. Save those few hundred dollars and put them toward a Haswell-based convertible, perhaps (or something based on Temash, if AMD’s partners can show us a compelling platform). In the meantime, we’ll be waiting on a manifestation of Haswell that more accurately shows off the spirit of Intel’s efforts.

The i7-4770K is 15 per cent more powerful than its predecessor and has much improved 3D graphics

So, now that we’ve seen what the Core i7-4770K is capable of, it seems (at least in our benchmark tests) that the chip offers, very roughly, about 30 percent better graphics performance and around 8 percent more CPU muscle compared to last year’s Core i7-3770K. (That's with the possible exception of QuickSync-enabled video encoding, which may show more gains for the Core i7-4770K.) That’s certainly nothing to sniff at (especially when it comes to graphics), but it’s not the kind of gains to make you upgrade both chip and motherboard if you're running a reasonably fast (Core i5 or i7) CPU from either of the previous two Intel generations. If you're still running a Core 2 Quad or a lower-end system that just doesn’t have the performance you need today, that's another story. As for those building a new system or considering buying a tower with this chip inside, it’s still a great option for those who want sterling performance for things like video editing and professional graphics work without shelling out for Intel's truly heavy silicon. Serious professionals who need the fastest performance possible for editing and encoding massive files will want to consider one of the much pricier Sandy Bridge-E processors. But for everyone else in the mainstream of performance computing, the Core i7-4770K is a very, very good chip. That said, if you see a system that’s discounted because it has a Core i7-3770K inside, there’s little reason not to opt for that instead and save some money, unless you want to do some gaming and don’t plan on using a dedicated graphics card.