Most major technology companies know that you can't stand still and maintain your position at the top, and Intel demonstrates every year that it understands this well. Almost as soon as the last digit of the year changes, the processor giant is announcing a new variation on its CPU design. The new processor for 2012 was delayed past the usual January launch point, but it's finally arrived: Intel's third-generation Core processor, or to use its development code name, Ivy Bridge.
These chips build on a lot of the advancements of last year's new design, the second-generation Core (AKA "Sandy Bridge") chips, but introduce some new capabilities and features that might make them worthy of your consideration whether you're planning on a simple upgrade or are looking at an entirely new PC. Here's our list of the ten essential pieces of information about Ivy Bridge, one of the releases that will have a major impact on the computers you buy and use throughout 2012 and beyond.
1. Intel's latest "tick." Ivy Bridge marks the latest phase in Intel's ongoing "tick-tock" development cycle, whereby an updated production process one year is followed by a new microarchitecture the next, and so on. As a "tick," Ivy Bridge represents a process improvement: In this case, a reduction to 22nm - the first on the market.2. Sandy Bridge extended. If you get an Ivy Bridge processor, you acquire almost all the game-changing features that were present in last generation's Sandy Bridge models. These include Smart Response, for easily caching data to a solid-state drive; Quick Sync Video, for faster video transcoding; Wireless Display, for transmitting your screen over the air to your HDTV; and Turbo Boost 2.0, which temporarily increases processing speed if your CPU has the necessary electrical and thermal head room.
3. CPUs gain a new dimension. Ivy Bridge processors introduce Intel's new Tri-Gate transistor technology, which replaces the traditional two-dimensional "planar" design with one that uses conducting channels on three sides of a vertical "fin" structure. This reduces current leakage, which in turn lets the chips use less power and better maintain performance.
4. Better power usage and battery life. As mentioned above, one of the benefits of this new production process is that it gives the CPU the ability to deliver more performance while drawing less power. In our tests, we found that a desktop loaded with the Core i7-3770K, when all four of its cores were pushed to their limits, used more than 30 watts less power than that chip's immediate predecessor, the Core i7-2700K. Expect this to translate to laptop battery life as well.
5. Improved graphics come standard. Sandy Bridge chips brought integrated video systems directly onto the processor die, but they had some limitations (slow speed and support for at best DirectX 10.1 among them). Ivy Bridge chips do away with many of these with improved video courtesy of Intel HD Graphics 2500 and 4000, which respectively improve on the performance of Sandy Bridge's Intel HD Graphics 2000 and 3000 and support state-of-the-art DirectX 11 rendering. Though you'll still want to pick up a discrete video card if you're serious about gaming, this is a big step forward for Intel.
6. More overclockable. Supporting version 1.3 of Intel's Extreme Memory Profile, real-time core ratio changes, and improved overrides for processing, graphics, and memory functions, Ivy Bridge offers options for tweaking your system's performance over and above what you can get from either Sandy Bridge or Sandy Bridge Extreme CPUs. In our testing, we had no trouble pushing the Core i7-3770K from 3.5GHz to 4.6GHz using a stock fan and heat sink; with time, determination, and more aggressive cooling, you should have no trouble doing even better. You will, however, need a motherboard with the Z75 Express or Z77 Express chipset.
7. Compatible with Sandy Bridge. Intel has, not entirely unjustifiably, earned a reputation of forcing people to upgrade their motherboards to run almost every new processor line on the market. But that's not the case with Ivy Bridge CPUs: Because they also use the LGA1155 socket, you can put one in a Sandy Bridge motherboard and still have it work - all you'll need to do is update your firmware, BIOS, and video drivers. Only four motherboards using the 6 Series chipsets support Ivy Bridge (H61, H67, P67, and Z68), but if your computer already uses one of those you already have everything you need.
8. Spans the mainstream spectrum. Ivy Bridge chips have made their initial appearance only in the midrange space, at least as far as desktops are concerned. The 14 CPUs Intel has just released are all Core i5 or Core i7 models, all of which stop at the four-core, eight-thread threshold (unlike higher-end Sandy Bridge Extreme chips, like the Core i7-3930K and the Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition, each of which marshals six cores and 12 threads). The one exception to this particular rule? The Core i7-3920XM mobile chip, part of the Extreme Edition family, which offers four cores, eight threads (with Hyper-Threading), 8MB of cache, and a 2.9-GHz clock speed (with Turbo Boost taking it up to the 3.6GHz-3.8GHz range).
9. Ultrabook designs are coming... Intel ran into some problems in trying to produce Ivy Bridge CPUs for ultrabooks, so don't expect to see those for a couple of months yet. When they do arrive, the chips will be lower-voltage, dual-core models.
10. ...but Ivy Bridge is available now. Processors like the Core i7-3770K are now available in the market, and PCs of all styles using the new chips can be purchased from major manufacturers. To get an idea of what to expect from systems using the new technology, check out PCMag's reviews of two Ivy Bridge-equipped desktops, the Velocity Micro Raptor Z90 and the Asus Essentio CM6870.
