Shows it running 2133MHz dual-channel memory with CL6 timings

Nov 24, 2011 22:21 GMT  ·  By

With Sandy Bridge-E out and about, Intel is now focusing its efforts on its upcoming Ivy Bridge architecture and such a chip was recently put through a few benchmarks by a user on a Chinese hardware forum.

The chip in question was an engineering sample Ivy Bridge processor that included four computing cores clocked at 2GHz, 6MB of Level 3 cache and required 1.056V in order to operate (as reported by CPU-Z).

Its maximum TDP was set at a rather low 65W, compared with the 95W of Intel’s current quad-core standard voltage parts based on the Sandy Bridge architecture, but its most surprising feature was the B3 stepping that the core is based upon.

This is for the first time that we see this revision used in Intel’s engineering sample Ivy Bridge CPUs and suggests that the company is getting closer to the launch of these chips.

Furthermore, the presence of this new revision also means that the ES processor should provide a nice estimate for the performance that retail Ivy Bridge parts are capable of.

And the results don’t disappoint, as the Coolaler Forums, the source of this news, show the chip running a dual channel memory kit at 2133MHz with some impressive CL6 timings. This enabled it to reach 16GB/s read and 13GB/s write in the AIDA64 memory benchmark.

The maximum Turbo frequency of the Ivy Bridge processor was set at 2407.1MHz and the CPU was installed on a Gigabyte Z68X-UD7 motherboard with BIOS F9 and also on a Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 motherboard with BIOS F5e, confirming its compatibility with the current LGA 1155 boards.

Ivy Bridge is the code name used for the 22nm die shrink of the current Sandy Bridge chips and features basically the same architecture, but with a few minor tweaks and improvements.

This includes a new on-die GPU that will come with full DirectX 11 support as well as with 30% more EUs than Sandy Bridge, in order to offer up to 60% faster performance that current Core CPUs according to Intel.

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Intel Ivy Bridge B3 stepping ES CPU
Intel Ivy Bridge B3 stepping ES CPU AIDA64 memory benchmarkIntel Ivy Bridge B3 stepping ES CPU AIDA64 memory benchmark
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