AMD has the clock rate on its side. But Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture boasts superior IPC throughput. We pit the 4.2 GHz FX-4170 against Intel's new 3.3 GHz Core i3-3220 in an effort to determine which CPU is the better buy for $125.
Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture does give us improved graphics performance. However, aside from a slight boost to instruction-per-cycle (IPC) throughput, the new design offers little more to enthusiasts shopping for a stronger processor. As a result, the new 3.3 GHz Core i3-3220 is fairly similar to the older Core i3-2120, which also ran at 3.3 GHz.
The situation is a little different when you look at AMD's mainstream line-up. The company recently introduced its FX-4170, which features a base close 600 MHz faster and a Turbo Core frequency up to 500 MHz faster than FX-4100. Granted you step up to a 125 W thermal ceiling when you embrace AMD's dual-module solution, and you pay $10 more. But we expect enthusiasts chasing performance to gladly make those compromises when a better experience is available. So, is it?
New action in the budget-oriented processor space makes for an interest re-match. Ever since introducing its Sandy Bridge design, Intel has enjoyed a quantifiable advantage in the gaming space, its Pentium G860 beating AMD's Phenom II X4 955 and FX-8120 in our suite using high-end graphics (Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?) Conversely, we've shown that an FX-4100 can keep pace with Intel's Core i3-2100 when you use a less expensive GPU, which becomes the bottleneck in games (AMD FX Vs. Intel Core i3: Exploring Game Performance With Cheap GPUs).
So, with the introduction of the Core i3-3220, we thought it'd be prudent to revisit both companies' $125 offerings to see how they do in terms of gaming and productivity.
The match-up we have is both interesting and asymmetrical. The two processors are capable of executing four threads concurrently. Intel achieves this with two physical cores equipped with its Hyper-Threading technology to exploit underutilized resources, while AMD's FX-4170 employs two Bulldozer modules sporting a pair of integer cores, a shared floating-point unit, and a bunch of other shared resources. The FX-4170 includes 8 MB of shared L3 cache, while the Core i3 has 3 MB. AMD's FX-4170 operates at a base clock rate 900 MHz higher than Intel's offering, and it can accelerate a full 1 GHz higher under the influence of Turbo Core. The Core i3-3220 doesn't benefit from Intel's Turbo Boost technology at all, but instead relies on an architecture able to execute more instructions per cycle than AMD's. The entire FX family comes equipped with an unlocked ratio multiplier, useful for overclocking, while all of Intel's Core i3s don't accommodate overclocking at all, really.
If you consider the specifications on their own, the Core i3-3220 looks completely outclassed. But because the Ivy Bridge design enjoys far superior IPC than AMD's best effort, each core is made all the more effective, despite a substantial frequency deficit. To that point, there's also a colossal disparity in the power these two chips dissipate. The FX-4170 has a 125 W TDP, while the Core i3-3220, manufactured at 22 nm, has a 55 W ceiling. That's less than half of the FX.
Test System And Benchmarks
We're using the same memory and storage subsystem on both platforms in order to normalize as many variables as possible. In addition to the Core i3-3220 and FX-4170, we're also including Intel's Core i5-3550 in our benchmark results. This gives us a reference point in order to gauge how these $125 budget-oriented CPUs measure up to a $200 model.
Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture does give us improved graphics performance. However, aside from a slight boost to instruction-per-cycle (IPC) throughput, the new design offers little more to enthusiasts shopping for a stronger processor. As a result, the new 3.3 GHz Core i3-3220 is fairly similar to the older Core i3-2120, which also ran at 3.3 GHz.
The situation is a little different when you look at AMD's mainstream line-up. The company recently introduced its FX-4170, which features a base close 600 MHz faster and a Turbo Core frequency up to 500 MHz faster than FX-4100. Granted you step up to a 125 W thermal ceiling when you embrace AMD's dual-module solution, and you pay $10 more. But we expect enthusiasts chasing performance to gladly make those compromises when a better experience is available. So, is it?
New action in the budget-oriented processor space makes for an interest re-match. Ever since introducing its Sandy Bridge design, Intel has enjoyed a quantifiable advantage in the gaming space, its Pentium G860 beating AMD's Phenom II X4 955 and FX-8120 in our suite using high-end graphics (Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?) Conversely, we've shown that an FX-4100 can keep pace with Intel's Core i3-2100 when you use a less expensive GPU, which becomes the bottleneck in games (AMD FX Vs. Intel Core i3: Exploring Game Performance With Cheap GPUs).
So, with the introduction of the Core i3-3220, we thought it'd be prudent to revisit both companies' $125 offerings to see how they do in terms of gaming and productivity.
| AMD FX-4170 | Intel Core i3-3220 | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture: | Bulldozer | Ivy Bridge |
| Manufacturing Process: | 32 nm | 22 nm |
| Cores (Threads): | 4 (4) | 2 (4) |
| Base Clock Rate (Maximum Turbo): | 4.2 (4.3) GHz | 3.3 GHz |
| Processor Interface: | Socket AM3+ | LGA 1155 |
| L3 Cache: | 8 MB | 3 MB |
| Thermal Envelope: | 125 W | 55 W |
| Online Price: | $120 (Newegg) | $130 (Newegg) |
The match-up we have is both interesting and asymmetrical. The two processors are capable of executing four threads concurrently. Intel achieves this with two physical cores equipped with its Hyper-Threading technology to exploit underutilized resources, while AMD's FX-4170 employs two Bulldozer modules sporting a pair of integer cores, a shared floating-point unit, and a bunch of other shared resources. The FX-4170 includes 8 MB of shared L3 cache, while the Core i3 has 3 MB. AMD's FX-4170 operates at a base clock rate 900 MHz higher than Intel's offering, and it can accelerate a full 1 GHz higher under the influence of Turbo Core. The Core i3-3220 doesn't benefit from Intel's Turbo Boost technology at all, but instead relies on an architecture able to execute more instructions per cycle than AMD's. The entire FX family comes equipped with an unlocked ratio multiplier, useful for overclocking, while all of Intel's Core i3s don't accommodate overclocking at all, really.
If you consider the specifications on their own, the Core i3-3220 looks completely outclassed. But because the Ivy Bridge design enjoys far superior IPC than AMD's best effort, each core is made all the more effective, despite a substantial frequency deficit. To that point, there's also a colossal disparity in the power these two chips dissipate. The FX-4170 has a 125 W TDP, while the Core i3-3220, manufactured at 22 nm, has a 55 W ceiling. That's less than half of the FX.
Test System And Benchmarks
We're using the same memory and storage subsystem on both platforms in order to normalize as many variables as possible. In addition to the Core i3-3220 and FX-4170, we're also including Intel's Core i5-3550 in our benchmark results. This gives us a reference point in order to gauge how these $125 budget-oriented CPUs measure up to a $200 model.
| Socket AM3+ | LGA 1155 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD FX-4170 (Zambezi), 4.2 GHz Base Clock Rate, 4.3 GHz Turbo Core | Intel Core i3-3220 (Ivy Bridge), 3.3 GHz, Hyper-Threading enabled | |||
| Motherboard | Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5Socket AM3+, Chipset: AMD 990FX | ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Performance LGA 1155, Intel P67 Express PCH | |||
| Networking | On-Board Gigabit LAN controller | ||||
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance, 2 x 4 GB, 1866 MT/s, CL 9-9-9-34-2T | ||||
| Graphics | AMD Radeon HD 7970 925 MHz GPU, 3 GB GDDR5 at 1375 MHz | ||||
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar Black 750 GB 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s | ||||
| Power | ePower EP-1200E10-T2 1200 W ATX12V, EPS12V | ||||
| Software and Drivers | |||||
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 x64, Service Pack 1, KB2645594 and KB2646060 installed | ||||
| DirectX | DirectX 11 | ||||
| Graphics Drivers | AMD Catalyst 12.8 | ||||
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Battlefield 3 | Campaign Mode, "Operation Swordbreaker" 60-Second Fraps Run Ultra Quality Defaults (4x AA, 16x AF), 1920x1080 |
| DiRT Showdown | Run with -benchmark example_benchmark.xml, Modified to two laps and no competing cars Ultra Quality Preset, 8x AA, 1920x1080 |
| Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | Update 1.4.27, Celedon Aethirborn Level 6, 25 Seconds Fraps DX11, Ultra Details, 8x AA, 16x AF, FXAA enabled, 1920x1080 |
| StarCraft II | Custom map "Tom's Hardware Guide", 60 seconds Fraps Ultra Details, Extreme Quality, 1920x1080 |
| Metro 2033 | Full Game, Built-In Benchmark, "Frontline" Scene DX 11, High Preset, 4x MSAA, 4x AF, PhysX/DOF Disabled, 1920x1080 |
| Audio/Video Encoding | |
| iTunes | Version 10.4.1.10 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format |
| Lame MP3 | Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version 0.95: "Big Buck Bunny" (720x480, 23.972 FPS) 5 Minutes, Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile) |
| MainConcept Reference | Version: 2.2.0.5440: MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, Two-Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| Productivity | |
| Adobe Photoshop CS5 | Version 12.1 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 | Version 12.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080 |
| WinZip | Version 15.5 Pro: THG-Workload (650 MB) to ZIP, command line switches "-a -ez -p -r" |
| WinRAR | Version 4.1: THG-Workload (650 MB) to RAR, command line switches "winrar a -r -m3" |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.22: THG-Workload (650 MB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5" |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version 10.0.102.82: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| 3DMark 11 | Version: 1.0.1.0, Benchmark Only |
| SiSoftware Sandra 2012 | Version 2011.10.17.80, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark |
No comments:
Post a Comment