The Intel Haswell Refresh Review: Core i7-4790, i5-4690 and i3-4360 Tested
by Ian Cutress on May 11, 2014 3:01 AM ESTThe Haswell Refresh Processors
As a species that thrives on getting things done quicker or cheaper, a processor refresh should be welcomed. For the refresh, Intel is launching a total of 42 new SKUs, 24 of which are desktop but not all of them will make it into the land of retail. Prices for batches of a thousand will range from $42 to $303 on the desktop and $75 to $434 in mobile. Cutting to the chase, the new desktop SKUs are:
Intel Haswell Refresh CPU List (Desktop) | ||||||||
New SKU | Cores | Base | Turbo | L3 Cache | IGP | TDP / W |
Intel List Price |
|
Celeron G1840 | 2 / 2 | 2800 | - | 2 MB | HD (Haswell) | 53 | $42 | |
Celeron G1840T | 2 / 2 | 2500 | - | 2 MB | HD (Haswell) | 35 | $42 | |
Celeron G1850 | 2 / 2 | 2900 | - | 2 MB | HD (Haswell) | 53 | $52 | |
Pentium G3240 | 2 / 2 | 3100 | - | 3 MB | HD (Haswell) | 53 | $64 | |
Pentium G3240T | 2 / 2 | 2700 | - | 3 MB | HD (Haswell) | 35 | $64 | |
Pentium G3440 | 2 / 2 | 3300 | - | 3 MB | HD (Haswell) | 53 | $75 | |
Pentium G3440T | 2 / 2 | 2800 | - | 3 MB | HD (Haswell) | 35 | $75 | |
Pentium G3450 | 2 / 2 | 3400 | - | 3 MB | HD (Haswell) | 53 | $86 | |
Core i3-4150 | 2 / 4 | 3500 | - | 3 MB | HD 4400 | 54 | $117 | |
Core i3-4150T | 2 / 4 | 3000 | - | 3 MB | HD 4400 | 35 | $117 | |
Core i3-4350 | 2 / 4 | 3600 | - | 4 MB | HD 4600 | 54 | $138 | |
Core i3-4350T | 2 / 4 | 3100 | - | 4 MB | HD 4600 | 35 | $138 | |
Core i3-4360 | 2 / 4 | 3700 | - | 4 MB | HD 4600 | 54 | $149 | |
Core i5-4460 | 4 / 4 | 3200 | 3400 | 6 MB | HD 4600 | 84 | $182 | |
Core i5-4460S | 4 / 4 | 2900 | - | 6 MB | HD 4600 | 65 | $182 | |
Core i5-4590 | 4 / 4 | 3300 | 3700 | 6 MB | HD 4600 | 84 | $192 | |
Core i5-4590S | 4 / 4 | 3000 | 3700 | 6 MB | HD 4600 | 65 | $192 | |
Core i5-4590T | 4 / 4 | 2000 | - | 6 MB | HD 4600 | 35 | $192 | |
Core i5-4690 | 4 / 4 | 3500 | 3900 | 6 MB | HD 4600 | 84 | $213 | |
Core i5-4690S | 4 / 4 | 3200 | 3900 | 6 MB | HD 4600 | 65 | $213 | |
Core i5-4690T | 4 / 4 | 2500 | - | 6 MB | HD 4600 | 45 | $213 | |
Core i7-4785T | 4 / 8 | 2200 | - | 8 MB | HD 4600 | 35 | $303 | |
Core i7-4790 | 4 / 8 | 3600 | 4000 | 8 MB | HD 4600 | 84 | $303 | |
Core i7-4790S | 4 / 8 | 3200 | 4000 | 8 MB | HD 4600 | 65 | $303 | |
Core i7-4790T | 4 / 8 | 2700 | - | 8 MB | HD 4600 | 45 | $303 |
Every new desktop processor is a 100-200 MHz upgrade from the one named xx2x lower but at the same price point. Back when the initial processor price lists were announced, I made different comparisons from Celeron to i7 depending on what was relevant. For example, in the Celeron category:
Haswell Celeron | ||
Celeron G1840 2.8 GHz (New) |
Celeron G1830 2.8 GHz (Current) |
|
CPU Speed | 2.8 GHz | 2.8 GHz |
Cores | 2 | 2 |
Threads | 2 | 2 |
L2 Cache | 512 KB | 512 KB |
L3 Cache | 2048 KB | 2048 KB |
IGP | HD (Haswell) | HD (Haswell) |
IGP Frequency | ? | 1050 |
TDP | 53W | 53W |
Price at Launch | $42 | $52 |
Here we already have a Celeron processor with the exact same speed as one of the Haswell Refresh SKUs, but because it has been on the market for longer it is actually cheaper while providing the same specifications.
At the top end i7, the i7-4790 should actually be a replacement for the i7-4771 which was released in September 2013:
Haswell Core i7 | ||
Core i7-4790 (New) |
Core i7-4771 (Current) |
|
CPU Speed | 3600 MHz / 4000 MHz | 3500 MHz / 3900 MHz |
Cores | 4 | 4 |
Threads | 8 | 8 |
L2 Cache | 1024 KB | 1024 KB |
L3 Cache | 8192 KB | 8192 KB |
IGP | HD 4600 | HD 4600 |
IGP Frequency | 350 / 1200 MHz | 350 MHz / 1200 MHz |
TDP | 84W | 84W |
Price at Launch | $303 | $314 (OEM) / $320 (box) |
By releasing new mainstream processors into the desktop market, as well as the 9-series chipsets, Intel has afforded the system integrators another chance to sell newer systems and not to stagnate with older models.
For most of the performance enthusiasts reading this review, the question you might well be asking yourself relates to the Haswell Refresh overclockable CPU. At this point in time it is clear that the i5-4670K and i7-4770K models do not have refresh counterparts, both of which are also more marketable to system integrators as well as desired by home users. There is a simple explanation to this.
Nothing fundamentally changes with these refresh processors. It is the same design underneath. Now that Intel has been making Haswell wafers, the process is slightly more efficient over time (ironing out production) and the processor bins can all be shifted. If Intel were to release new overclockable CPUs that were a simple speed bump but ultimately had no performance gain of the current overclocking CPUs, there might be a backlash.
To that end, Intel is going to release ‘Devil’s Canyon’ in due course. Devil’s Canyon has no official SKU name yet (i7-4970K or i7-4770X are my best guesses) but it was announced back in March as having an improved package and better thermal interface material. It will probably be the same silicon underneath as the i7-4770K due to the nature of the refresh, perhaps with a small design tweak that does not require new masks. We will review the new overclocking processor when we receive a sample from Intel, hopefully under something suitably extreme.
Today’s Review: The Intel Core i7-4790, i5-4690 and i3-4360
Back when Haswell was launched, we had only the chance to test the top line overclocking processor, the i7-4770K. This time around I was thankful to get the opportunity to expand our testing to the i5 and i3 segments of the processor line to find where they each stand in terms of performance. For comparison points we have the i7-4770K from our launch review, an i7-4765T from our ASRock M8 review, and an i3-4330 we picked up along the way.
The Intel Haswell Refresh Review | ||||||
Core i7-4790 (New) |
Core i7-4770K | Core i7-4765T |
Core i5-4690 (New) |
Core i3-4360 (New) |
Core i3-4330 | |
Price | $303 | $340 | $303 | $225 | $149 | $140 |
Launch | 5/2014 | 6/2013 | 6/2013 | 5/2014 | 5/2014 | 9/2013 |
Cores / Threads | 4/8 | 4/8 | 4/8 | 4/4 | 2/4 | 2/4 |
Base Frequency |
3600 | 3500 | 2000 | 3500 | 3700 | 3500 |
Turbo Frequency |
4000 | 3900 | 3000 | 3900 | - | - |
IGP | HD 4600 | HD 4600 | HD 4600 | HD 4600 | HD 4600 | HD 4600 |
IGP Frequency |
350 | 350 | 350 | 350 | 600 | 350 |
IGP Turbo | 1200 | 1250 | 1200 | 1200 | 1150 | 1150 |
L3 Cache | 8 MB | 8 MB | 8 MB | 6 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB |
TDP | 84 W | 84 W | 35 W | 84 W | 54 W | 54 W |
Assuming all goes as planned, the small increases in frequency should provide a ~3% increase in benchmarks compared to the older Haswell processors.
Multi-Core Enhancement Isn’t Much Of An Issue
CPU benchmarking can be a bit of a nightmare in the current climate, especially on Intel platforms where turbo modes are possible. Back in 2012 I wrote an extensive news piece about Multi-Core Enhancement titled ‘The Debate About Free MHz’, wherein it is not actually Intel that set the CPU frequency for the processors but the motherboard. Where Intel might have a 3500 MHz base frequency and a 3900 MHz turbo frequency, a motherboard can detect that setting and override it for 3900 MHz on all cores by default. One motherboard went as far as increasing the multiplier +1 over the Intel specifications. The upshot of this is in multi-threaded performance benchmarks, where due to the extra frequency the final result is higher than Intel specifications. MultiCore Enhancement also means that the same CPU in different motherboards will give different results out of the box.
Most motherboard manufacturers that use this tactic (MSI, ASRock, GIGABYTE and ASUS all have this feature), as far as I can tell, limit the option to overclockable SKUs, and it is only implemented when XMP is implemented.
On top of this, Windows can also be a culprit. In different power modes, users can specify the percentage of maximum CPU frequency depending on what power mode is in play. This relates more to portable devices, but it is configurable with desktop systems as well.
For our review, as we only have one overclockable CPU in the test, we can adjust appropriately. For our testing we actually run SYSMark 2014 as our first benchmark, as the install prefers a fresh OS image to work with. This generates a consistent power profile which we maintain for the rest of the benchmarks. Had we run SYSMark mid-way through our testing period, it may have ended up with variable results, so we aim to keep our environment consistent and maintainable.
Test Setup
We would like to thank the following companies for providing test-bed support:
Thank you to OCZ for providing us with PSUs and SSDs.
Thank you to G.Skill and ADATA for providing us with memory kits.
Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an PSU, CLC and memory.
Thank you to ASUS for providing us with the AMD HD7970 GPUs and some IO Testing kit.
Thank you to MSI for providing us with the NVIDIA GTX 770 Lightning GPUs.
Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with keyboards.
Thank you to ASRock for providing us with the 802.11ac wireless router for testing and other components.
Test Setup | |
Processor |
Intel Core i7-4790 ES (4C/8T, 3.6 GHz to 4.0 GHz) Intel Core i5-4690 ES (4C/4T, 3.5 GHz to 3.9 GHz) Intel Core i3-4360 ES (2C/4T, 3.7 GHz) |
Motherboards |
ASRock Z97 Extreme6 ASUS Z97-Deluxe |
Cooling |
Corsair H80i Thermalright TRUE Copper |
Power Supply |
OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU |
Memory |
G.Skill RipjawsZ 4x4 GB DDR3-1866 8-9-9 Kit ADATA XPG 2x8 GB DDR3L-1600 9-11-9 Kit |
Memory Settings | 1600 9-11-9-27 1T tRFC 240 |
Video Cards |
MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB (1150/1202 Boost) ASUS HD7970 3GB (Reference) |
Video Drivers |
Catalyst 13.12 WHQL NVIDIA Drivers 335.23 WHQL |
Hard Drive | OCZ Vertex 3 256GB |
Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
Case | Open Test Bed |
Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit SP1 |
Following recent reviews, we have added several new benchmarks to our testing, including SYSMark and Unity-based testing methodology. At present we have only tested a few CPUs on these new benchmarks.
Power Consumption
For our power consumption tests, we take the system as a whole with a GTX 770 installed and test at idle, long idle (monitor turned off by the OS) and OCCT (artificial CPU load). We use the same PSU to keep efficiency on the same scale, although some of the data points are sub-20% efficienct for our power supply. This means that arbitrarily the qualitative comparison is more important than the quantitative comparison. Also of note is the Z97 motherboard we used for these tests implements an Adaptive voltage profile, meaning that artificial loads such as OCCT push the voltage higher than normal, increasing power consumption at load. Nevertheless the order of the results indicates a pattern from low power to high power.
As expected, the 84W i7-4790 requires the most power, similar to the i7-4770K and i5-4690 that are also 84W.
130 Comments
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mikato - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
Antronman- your stupid Bing link does not say that being an enthusiast means someone deeply involved in the construction of computers or extreme overclocking. Give me a break, master lamer. Just throwing out a link doesn't make something true. Pretty much everyone reading this article is an enthusiast. Not just that, but he is commenting and listing his computer specs. Come on. Go spread your lame BS somewhere else because I'm all out of patience for it this morning.royalcrown - Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - link
The one thing I'd upgrade on yours is the 660. Even coming from a 680, I was surprised at the difference between that and my current 780ti. IMO go for a vanilla 780, you'll be pleased I bet.mikato - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
"Because enthusiasts have the money, they will always buy the new parts because they're new."Nope. That is some kind of warped perception of reality. Do enthusiasts require the newest part to get through life? Do enthusiasts never build a computer to last a few years? Do enthusiasts have unlimited money, or pretty much care about nothing else in life besides the newest computer parts?
Please provide bing link to confirm your answers, lol.
jamescox - Sunday, May 11, 2014 - link
Not much of interest with this refresh. For most consumers, anything in the last few generations of cpus offer sufficient processing power. I don't think this is going to change until we get a major form-factor change to something more gpu centric. The overclocking chips coming out later may be of interest, but I don't know if I will buy one. I have been wondering if anyone will integrate a thin vapor chamber instead of just a "lid"; this seems like it would handle hot spots and such, but it may not be worthwhile.Samus - Sunday, May 11, 2014 - link
If my brand new H87 board doesn't run broadwell in 6 months, I'm going back to AMD on principle. Not since the 965/975x has a sequel processor not supported the previous gen chipset with the same socket (in that case, the Intel 30 series chipset, which supported 1333FSB.) That was 7 years ago.If Broadwell is simply a die shrink, why the hell would they abandon millions of 80-series motherboards other than to alienate people back to AMD?
KAlmquist - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
Actually, you are wrong about that. The B65, Q65, and Q67 chip sets only support Sandy Bridge, not Ivy Bridge.Samus - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
Ohh wow yeah...damn intel are bastards with this crap. A new chipset just to support a die shrink?Ramon Zarat - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
Artificial market segmentation is indeed an highly anti-consumer business practice, especially when abused to the extent Intel do it.hasseb64 - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
5 years ago, this release would have been a single news flash not an article, not blaming the sites, because there are no news/momentum in DIY-PC anymore.milkMADE - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
I think you meant i7 4790k...as the non k is 4790."To that end, Intel is going to release ‘Devil’s Canyon’ in due course. Devil’s Canyon has no official SKU name yet (i7-4970K or i7-4770X are my best guesses)"
4970k would make me think the successor to the 4960x ivybridge-e 6core.