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.
“It’s not “budget” but most
“It’s not “budget” but most people’s standards but getting this kind of performance with a $339 CPU helps everyone and Intel’s good will gesture to the community at least indicates that the lack of competition on the high-end of the market isn’t totally damning us all.”
There is something wrong with this sentence.
Fixed the typo, thanks!
Fixed the typo, thanks!
Thanks for the review. Decent
Thanks for the review. Decent pricing, for an Intel part, but they do not seem to be binning these chips for overclocking like some people were hoping or expecting. Funny to see the 8350 still topping the performance per dollar charts despite its age and lack of price drops. Really demonstrates the lack of progress in the higher end of late.
Couple of potential typos:
On the Test Setup page, you list the A10-5800K but it does not appear in any of the benchmarks.
In the conclusion, second to last paragraph, you write: “It’s not “budget” but most people’s standards”, I think you meant “by most people’s standards”.
Eh, the performance for
Eh, the performance for dollar rankings have never included the average power usage in the calculation. In reality 4690 > 8350 for perf/$ in the long run.
so clock for clock how much
so clock for clock how much improvement we are going to see from sandy bridge to this new line up?
Same as Sandy to Haswell, IPC
Same as Sandy to Haswell, IPC is not any better on these than regular Haswell.
Correct, it’s the exact same
Correct, it's the exact same architecture, just higher clocks (than we have seen before) and new TIM and added caps.
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/Offtopic
Why do you use the
/Offtopic
Why do you use the X series when comparing price performance ratio’s of S2011 CPUs, hell i would not even recommence a S2011 CPU for 95% of the people that buy them.
And i know my 3930K + R4E dose not have the best price performance ratio, but using 3970X and 4960X CPUs that no one in his right mind would buy over the x930K series is just muddying the waters.
Well, to be honest, these are
Well, to be honest, these are the parts we have in-house for testing.
But the comment is noted and we'll try to include more of the product range when doing future reviews. Maybe for Haswell-E, for example.
I really like that Intel went
I really like that Intel went with a much higher default clock on this one, not just a 100 MHz bump, and agree with your assessment that that makes the 4790K a great choice even if you never plan to overclock. 400 MHz extra for just $25 over the regular 4790? Who wouldn’t buy the K?
Interesting results, though the (sometimes) stilted scaling and conspicuously higher idle power consumption look a bit odd. Hope the latter will be fixed by newer UEFIs, and is not an inherent trait of DC Haswells!
I wouldn’t worry about the pricing, the 4770K will be sold off, with the 4790K replacing it at the same price soon.
Personally, I can’t wait to see when (if?) Gigabyte updates my Z87’s UEFI to include DC support.
if they don’t then its
if they don’t then its gigabyte that decided to, I have an Asus Z87 board and they have bios for DC cpu out.
The K parts miss some of the
The K parts miss some of the virtualization features the non-Ks have..
While that was true for the
While that was true for the old Ks, VT-d and TSX-NI are enabled on the new DC Ks:
http://ark.intel.com/compare/80807,80806,75123
_
BTW: How cool is it that the ARK-references for the i7 Haswell refreshes could be read as “eighty-eighty-six” and “eighty-eighty-seven”? /geek-out 😉
Wow that’s good to know.
Wow that’s good to know.
That is good to know! I want
That is good to know! I want a i666 inside my system now!
Ryan,
What would your temps
Ryan,
What would your temps on the 4770k have been had you put it at 4.7GHz (the same as the 4790k) and reduced the voltage to the bare minimum to sustain that frequency?
If the temperatures in that case would be in the 70’s or 80’s, which is warm but still acceptable, I really don’t see the point in this product from an overclocking prospective.
I would agree with that
I would agree with that statement if my overclocking results were to be the definitive results, but it is possible that the 4770K that I got happens to be a GREAT overclocking part and the 4790K I got happens to be a poor overclocking part. There is still a lot of luck in this business.
The point is that they cost
The point is that they cost the same, but the 4790k has better thermal properties, which is huge for overclocking. Even if it can’t clock higher, it can reach the same speeds with much more stability without requiring a risky delid.
Ryan, any chance you could
Ryan, any chance you could tell us what the fastest stable OC you got was without a voltage bump? It’d be interesting to see that OC temp without voltage increases…
The only data I have on that
The only data I have on that is at 1.2v, which is where I started overclocking testing. On that, I could hit 4.5 GHz, but no more.
“Temperatures during load of
“Temperatures during load of Core i7-4970K at 4.7 GHz”
4790K or 4970K?
I would think it weird for this Haswell refresh to get a model number that’s higher than my Ivy-E 4930K.
Fixed, thanks for pointing
Fixed, thanks for pointing that out…
Can you pls cut the IHS and
Can you pls cut the IHS and see if there is a weak TIM or is it soldered as SB, pls?
YES, er… YES!
YES, er… YES!
Could you run tests using a
Could you run tests using a z87 motherboard also? Would really like to see if there are any limitations on using the new chips with a z87 board.
http://geekthem.com/future-of
http://geekthem.com/future-of-intel-based-smartphone-chip/
Why am I not seeing 8core cpu
Why am I not seeing 8core cpu for decent price yet.
fuk this shit, fuk intel, goto devil canyon hell.
Hopefully they skip Broadwell
Hopefully they skip Broadwell on the PC. Can’t see them releasing Broadwell this year if they’re dropping a Haswell “Refresh” this late. Not to mention it’s going to be a disappointment for desktops anyways.
Can’t even get excited for the Haswell 8 core part being that it’s only for the $1,000 model. My fricken $500 i7 3930K is an 8 core part with 2 cores disabled. No reason why they shouldn’t offer an 8 core part for the $500 range either. Intel being Intel.
Lel, “[Intel]8core cpu for
Lel, “[Intel]8core cpu for decent price”
Are you high?
Ryan,
Could you maybe make a
Ryan,
Could you maybe make a test with an overclocked Sandy bridge chip versus an overclocked Devil canyon?
Why it doesn’t matter this
Why it doesn’t matter this has already been said the architecture is the exact same with only overclocks being different.
4Ghz SB = 100%
4Ghz IVB = +5% over SB
4Ghz HSW = +5% over IVB
There seems to be a big
There seems to be a big difference between the cores on the Core i7-4790K 84c on core 1 and 58c on core 4 that seem a bit strange i know there is normally a difference but 26c seems way to much
Anyway to know how to buy
Anyway to know how to buy chips that have a good yield? Bought two 3770k’s at the same time, and I think they are from a poor yield. Can’t get either one past 4.4ghz with high-end water cooling.
step one: live in a country
step one: live in a country with good distance selling regulations
Step two: buy CPU from vendor 1
step three: put it in a system, if it sucks send it back
Repeat step two and 3(vendor+1) until you get the desired OC
How would you like it if you
How would you like it if you sold something new-in-box and then had a buyer return it used and now worth $50 less? It’s a dick move and leads to retailers setting super-strict return policies and restocking fees and other shit that hurts people who want to do a legitimate return.
You could always do the nice
You could always do the nice thing and order tray versions, no box to rip open, no apparent damage to the shop.
Of course, chances are tray versions were already picked clean by the nice people at said shop. 😉
>$50 less
What planet are
>$50 less
What planet are you on? $10 less is more accurate.
And if it’s a legitimate return, like damage or wrong item, it has no effect on the returns process. You’ve been able to return items you don’t want for decades.
Please, read back your incoherent babbling before you post.
Hence why Germany is planning
Hence why Germany is planning to modify its Distance Selling Directive based off a new EU Directive – because of shitty people like you abusing vendors like that.
>because of shitty people
>because of shitty people like you abusing vendors like that.
wow, top retard. Go read the proposed legislation, it’s not even in force now so how could I be abusing vendors?
It is from today on, way to
It is from today on, way to be uninformed scum.
Great advice. It seems
Great advice. It seems obvious, what with the silicone lottery, but I didnt think of it, and have not read a similar comment.
What BIOS did you use for
What BIOS did you use for these tests? ASUS recently (a few days ago) updated the BIOS for it’s Z97 line to aid in Devil’s Canyon compatibility and overclocking. If you were using the stock BIOS that might make a difference.
Thanks for the review
Thanks for the review Ryan.
It’s a bit underwhelming to see it only go to 4.7 GHz. I just hope that your sample is a dud and doesn’t resemble the average OC of those chips. But as I’ve seen in several forums those CPUs don’t have much headroom left on them.
Do you think that DC chip
Do you think that DC chip that did 5.5GHz on air at Computex was a cherry-picked part?
They used LN2 chilled Air, ie
They used LN2 chilled Air, ie they ‘cheated’.
It’s still air coolng, just how cold the air is re-defined…
LN2 Pot -> Vapour -> Liquid Cooler Raidator or High end Air Cooler
Not many media who were not there physically paid attention to what was going on.
Going by what was said on the video stream of the event, supposedly Intel set the rules.
Hay everebody its worth to
Hay everebody its worth to uprgrade from i7 3770k to i7 4790k ?
No
No
Not so Impressive
Not so Impressive Temperatures
for a “next gen” TIM..
At 1.33 volts that’s pretty
At 1.33 volts that’s pretty good for just an engineering sample.
At 1.33 volts that’s pretty
At 1.33 volts that’s pretty good for just an engineering sample.
At 1.33 volts those are good
At 1.33 volts those are good temps for an engineering sample. Until mass-production of graphene is possible, TIMs will not be getting much better. Quantum mechanics and entropy dispersion have their limits.