Legit Reviews

We're sure you've been wondering how well Intel's next generation LGA-1155 CPU will perform, especially if you've already got a Sandy Bridge system, or planning on getting one. Well, benchmarks of an early engineering sample of Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge CPU have appeared on the web, but don't expect any miracles, at least not at this stage.

What we're looking at is a measly 1.8GHz dual core CPU with Hyper Threading and it's been put up against a Core i5-2400 which was clocked down to 1.8GHz for comparisons sake. It's still not an entirely fair comparison as the i5-2400 has two additional cores, but it gives us a first indication on what to expect.

The benchmarks aren't very exciting per say, as we've got a run of CPUmark 99, Super PI and Finally Cinebench 11.5. In CPUmark 99 the Ivy Bridge CPU scores 278 vs. 276 for the Core i5-2400, but this is a very outdated benchmark by now. Moving on to Super PI it took 22.198 second to finish on the Ivy Bridge and 20.806 seconds on the Core i5-2400. Do remember the Core i5-2400 is heavily underclocked here. Finally in Cinebench 11.5 the Ivy Bridge scores a mere 1.81 points for the CPU compared to 2.61 for the Core i5-2400, but the Ivy Bridge CPU has two cores less which is important to remember.

A score of around 1.8x in Cinebench 11.5 is roughly equivalent to that of a Core 2 Duo E8500 at 3.16GHz, hardly an impressive showing for a CPU that's still some 8-9 months out. However, it's important to remember that this is a B0-stepping CPU and that we're potentially looking at a revision or two more before Intel deems the Ivy Bridge core production ready. We're also looking at very low clock speed and what is likely to be a Core i3 part here. We'll just have to wait patiently to see what Intel will deliver next year, as it's far too early to draw any conclusions from a CPU that's not even nearly ready as yet.

Sttm wrote:So Ivy Bridge is socket 1155? Or will they drop another pin so you have to get a new Mobo.