A refresh for Haswell
Devil’s Canyon is available this month and we get hands on for a review and overclocking test.
Intel is not very good at keeping secrets recently. Rumors of a refreshed Haswell line of processors have been circulating for most of 2014. In March, it not only confirmed that release but promised an even more exciting part called Devil's Canyon. The DC parts are still quad-core Haswell processors built on Intel's 22nm process technology, but change a few specific things.
Intel spent some time on the Devil's Canyon Haswell processors to improve the packaging and thermals for overclockers and enthusiasts. The thermal interface material (TIM) that lies in between the die and the heat spreader has been updated to a next-generation polymer TIM (NGPTIM). The change should improve cooling performance of all currently shipping cooling solutions (air or liquid), but it is still a question just HOW MUCH this change will actually matter.
You can also tell from the photo comparison above that Intel has added capacitors to the back of the processor to "smooth" power delivery. This, in combination with the NGPTIM, should enable a bit more headroom for clock speeds with the Core i7-4790K.
In fact, there are two Devil's Canyon processors being launched this month. The Core i7-4790K will sell for $339, the same price as the Core i7-4770K, while the Core i5-4690K will sell for $242. The lower end option is a 3.5 GHz base clock, 3.9 GHz Turbo clock quad-core CPU without HyperThreading. While a nice step over the Core i5-4670K, it's only 100 MHz faster. Clearly the Core i7-4790K is the part everyone is going to be scrambling to buy.
Another interesting change is that both the Core i7-4790K and the Core i5-4690K enable support for both Intel's VT-d virtualization IO technology and Intel's TSX-NI transactional memory instructions. This makes them the first enthusiast-grade unlocked processors from Intel to support them!
As Intel states it, the Core i7-4790K and the Core i5-4690K have been "designed to be used in conjunction with the Z97 chipset." That being said, at least one motherboard manufacturer, ASUS, has released limited firmware updates to support the Devil's Canyon parts on Z87 products. Not all motherboards are going to be capable, and not all vendors are going to the spend the time to integrate support, so keep an eye on the support page for your specific motherboard.
The CPU itself looks no different on the top, save for the updated model numbering.
Core i7-4790K on the left, Core i7-4770K on the right
On the back you can see the added capacitors that help with stable overclocking.
The clock speed advantage that the Core i7-4790K provides over the Core i7-4770K should not be overlooked, even before overclocking is taken into consideration. A 500 MHz base clock boost is 14% higher in this case and in those specific CPU-limited tasks, you should see very high scaling.
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Always get to get 2 different
Always get to get 2 different chips from 2 different countries. Send the 1 back the doesn’t OC as good. I expect an easy 5ghz on all 4 cores full time oc turbo disabled.
If broadwell’s version of devils canyon can hit a good 5.4ghz or so I may even give up on x99 and build a badazz mini itx gaming rig in the ncase m1 with a 45mm double thick 120mm rad in push pull for the cpu and a 45mm double thick 120mm radiator in push pull for the GPU (Preferable the GTX 880 or 980 maxwell flagship) or maybe just a triple slot version since the ncase m1 can handle triple slot gpu’s even tho it’s a mini itx case. And with maxwell being so incredible power efficient a triple slot gpu in that architecture would have the fans running so slow from that massive of a heatsink it would be so quiet. Like tripling the amount of heat the gpu can dissipate with what it needs to dissipate =’s very low rpm quiet gpu fansn
Stock speeds really dont
Stock speeds really dont matter much in a K part because 100% of the time it will be OCed or else it would not be a K part. If Intel wanted to push performance to average person they could have made 4790 non K @ 4GHz also. The way i see it these K CPUs are getting less and less impressive. 4.7GHz OC even if not a amazing one still shows how far this CPU can go. 200-300Mhz more will not make it a amazing overclocker unless 90% of the CPUs can achieve it. Feels like Intel is killing overclocking with this CPU. I mean a 300MHz OC, why even bother. Why spend money in high end MB, cooling for this CPU.
It’s about time they
It’s about time they addressed the die to heat spreader issue post sandy bridge is this Tim better than soldered ? Energy efficiency are always good, but that better be a bad binned part compared to average were looking for a cool <>5ghz, and the fact there’s been transistor count or logic improvement on the cpu side excluding energy efficiency and igpu for so long, makes one worry they lost the skill to advance it, and they’re for core count increase to resolve the power advancement issue for them, Moore law since sandy bridge has been skewed.
Devils canyon: It’s about
Devils canyon: It’s about time they addressed the die to heat spreader issue post sandy bridge is this Tim better than soldered ? Energy efficiency is always good, but that better be a bad binned part compared to the average, were looking for a cool <>5ghz, and the fact there’s been no transistor count or logic improvement on the cpu side excluding energy efficiency and igpu for so long, makes one worry theyve lost the skill to advance the xx design, and they’re waiting for core count increase to resolve the power advancement issue for them or the need to enhance the design, Moores law since sandy bridge has been slooowwed. And the use of the stream units in the igpu is dependant on people coding for it ? Whereas plain increases in x86 could from logic enhancement that is largely static at the moment. Corrected version
Thanks for the review, I have
Thanks for the review, I have mine on order from micro center.
where’s the gaming benchmark
where’s the gaming benchmark we love to see?
“Performance of the Core
“Performance of the Core i7-4790K is impressive, even if you choose to not overclock at all. The 500 MHz clock speed increase (at both base and Turbo speeds) when compared to the Core i7-4790K makes the choice between the two parts pretty much a no-brainer. ”
I think you meant “when compared to the Core i7-4770K”.
I think the proper comparison
I think the proper comparison should be the 4790 (non-K). For an extra $38 (list) you get a guaranteed 400 MHz boost (that’s almost linear scaling!) and the unlocked multi on top.
Best value in a long time, IMHO.
If you still have the
If you still have the engineering sample, do you know if the lid is soldered on or not? I want to know if this can be de-lidded asap.
A big Thank You for including
A big Thank You for including a 2600k in your review. Mine is still in service and it looks like it’ll stay at least until Skylake. It’s tough to find comparisons between old and new so it’s great you included it.
Any take on why only Core #1 got really hot during overclocking?
ok..maybe someone could help
ok..maybe someone could help me out understanding something.
currently running 2 pcs ..1 gaming with an i5 3570k and gtx 780 and 1 streaming box for twitch with an i7 970. I want to give my 1 i7970 system to a friend who is disabled and loves to game but his system is dying. I want to re-purpose my i53570k for an Htpc.
Looking to build a system that i can play Swtor, ESO, BF4 and be able to Twitch Stream at 720p 60fps smoothly or 900p at 45 fps using Fast settings.(no worries on upload speeds..i have that covered at 15mb up)
looking at the Haswell 4790k x264 second pass it does VERY well against the 4960x 6 core. I was denating on going Haswell e 6 core at release but maybe i wont have to..
would the 4790k do what i want and give me good in game performance with my gtx780 + 27″ 2560 x 1440 monitor) AND stream to twitch at 720p 60 fps or 900p 45 fps at fast encoding settings? (i use xsplit and obs..havent really settled on 1 yet)
well one thing, the reason
well one thing, the reason why you where limited on the overclock is that you used asus motherboard, I’ve never had any asus board compete with a msi gaming or a power version of any of their motherboards, and that isn’t using the auto overclock, try better componets when trying to overclock
I have just purchased this
I have just purchased this CPU and currently shopping around for an aftermarket cooler (as Intel’s HSFs are crap). I’ve run across a few forums where bad CPU thermal throttling occurs, including this one with nice details on testing procedures:
https://communities.intel.com/thread/54032?start=45&tstart=0
Ryan, have you heard about this? Thanks.