
Intel Core i7 4770 Haswell Processor
Scan code: LN50785
Manufacturer code: BX80646I74770
End Of Life
Intel Core i7 4770 Haswell Processor
Intel Core i7 4770, LGA 1150, Haswell, Quad Core, 3.4GHz Base, 3.9GHz Turbo, 1200MHz GPU, 84W, CPU, Retail
Scan code:
LN50785
Manufacturer code:
BX80646I74770
This product is no longer available to purchase.
Email me when the availability or price changes
Product Overview
Intel's 4th gen processor codename: Haswell offers superior performance over the previous generation Ivybridge by up to 10% clock for clock. This astounding performance boost results in performance improvements in multi-tasking, encoding, gaming and multithreaded applications. Intel's 4th generation processor has improved PCI-Lane 3.0 bandwidth which helps further boost performance of latest generation 3 graphics cards for the ultimate gaming experience.
For overclocking enthusiasts, Intel's 4th gen CPU has improved memory overclocking support, with up to and beyond 3000MHz possible with the very best memory kits. Memory bandwidth is critically important to Haswell compared to previous generations. High frequency memory performance significantly improves encoding, gaming and benchmarking tasks.
The biggest leap in Intel's Haswell processor is the onboard graphics which is now up to 2.6x faster than previous HD4000 found in the Ivybridge CPU. What this means is these latest processors can actually play the latest games in HD with low/medium settings applied. Of course if you want to experience True HD gaming at maximum details then a dedicated graphics card is still a must.
There are two words in your vocabulary that should never meet—Game and Over. You love playing, and you love winning, so you demand unmatched performance, the ability to customize your rig, and features that put you in control of the action. With Intel® technology, you step into a heart-pounding experience. Pick up your weapon, challenge your friends, and experience gaming at its best—because the only thing more amazing than Intel® technology is what you’ll do with it.
As a creative force and a professional, you must continually balance your vision with the deadlines of the real world. Intel® technology helps you keep up with your creativity with unmatched and customizable performance, and features that give you full control to optimize your workflow and maximize your productivity. So keep imagining, keep creating, and take your inspiration to the limit—because the only thing more amazing than Intel® technology is what you’ll do with it.
With PC and mobile converging quicker than ever before, Intel needs to reassert its presence in portable devices with an architecture that can scale across multiple platforms. That quest begins with the introduction of the fourth-generation Core processor family, codenamed Haswell.
Launched as a successor to last year's Ivy Bridge, Haswell follows Intel's tick-tock release schedu le, where a tick (Penryn 2008, Westmere 2010, Ivy Bridge 2012) primarily insinuates a shrink in manufacturing process, and a tock (Nehalem 2009, Sandy Bridge 2011, Haswell 2013) implies a major architectural refresh.
Yet, from a manufacturing point of view, not a whole lot appears to have changed. Looking at an overview of a quad-core desktop Haswell die, the chip is very similar to incumbent Ivy Bridge; it's built using the same 22nm Tri-Gate process and continues to carry 1.4 billion transistors, albeit in a slightly larger 177m² die (up from 160mm²).
Optimising Power
Intel has taken a multifaceted approach to enhancing efficiency in Haswell as both a processor and a platform. At a silicon level, the company has introduced fine-grained control over which parts of the die are turned on or off. As we know, existing Ivy Bridge processors - that feature up to four IA cores, a graphics processor and a memory controller all hooked up to a ring-based interconnect - allow for the CPU and GPU to go idle, but other components remain active.
With Haswell, the philosophy is that if you don't need it, it ought to be turned off. In order to make this happen, Intel has added more power gating and decoupled the ring-based interconnect and L3 cache from the IA cores, allowing, for example, the GPU access to the ring bus without waking the IA cores. Expanding on this granularity, ultra-low-power Haswell mobile processors will be equipped with deeper C-States (C8, C9, C10) that allow practically everything to be turned off when idle. In addition, fourth-generation processors are said to switch between states 25 per cent faster than their third-generation predecessors.
Taking into account connected systems as a whole, Intel has also created a more suitable middle ground between the ACPI specification's S3/S4 sleep and S0 active states by introducing new active-idle states dubbed S0i1 and S0i3. With previous-generation platforms, putting a computer to sleep and waking back up was achievable in just a couple of seconds, but the experience wasn't as quick as, say, on a smartphone or tablet.
Architecture Improvements
Haswell's primary ambition may be to drive down power consumption, but it wouldn't be a new Intel architecture without performance improvements on both the CPU and GPU fronts.
One of Haswell's most striking enhancements is that the number of back-end execution ports has been upgraded from six to eight. This is the first increase in execution ports we've seen since Conroe, and the new additions give Haswell a fourth port for math logic and a fourth for store address calculations.
Ensuring that the wider back-end is well fed, Intel has also made further branch prediction improvements to ensure fewer cache misses. As you might expect, faster buffers and faster access to level one memory are also a priority. Each Haswell core continues to be served exclusively by a 64KB L1 cache and a 256KB L2 cache, with a third last-level cache of up to 8MB shared across all cores, the graphics processor and system agent.
This time around, L1 store bandwidth is doubled from 16 bytes/cycle to 32 bytes/cycle, and interface bandwidth between the L1 and L2 caches has doubled from 32 bytes/cycle to 64 bytes/cycle. Although Haswell is officially described as new micro-architecture, it's clear that it has a lot in common with earlier generations and the focus has been on getting the most out of a tried-and-trusted system.
Iris Graphics
In order of performance, Haswell's IGP will be available in at least half-a-dozen models; Iris Pro 5200; Iris 5100; HD 5000; HD 4600; HD 4400 and HD 4200. The reason for this is that, unlike Ivy Bridge's HD 4000 IGP, the graphics in Haswell have been deliberately designed to be scalable. The amount of scalability is reflected in the number of execution units, in what Intel calls a slice, and the operating frequency of each core will be dependant upon processor positioning.
The top-of-the-range Iris Pro 5200 is said to have 40 execution units, while the middle-of-the-pack HD 4600 is believed to have 20. This compares to 16 such units in the best Ivy Bridge chips, but remember, the execution units themselves have been overhauled for Haswell and can't be compared directly.
Making matters even more interesting, and illustrating Intel's need to push graphics performance, certain Haswell IGPs will be paired with a dedicated eDRAM frame buffer that will be accessible to both the CPU and GPU, and will further benefit performance in either workload.
New Chipsets
All of the architectural advancements in Haswell have resulted in the need for a new LGA1150 socket and, therefore, a new supporting 8-series chipset headlined by the Z87. The new chipset natively supports more high-speed USB and SATA interfaces, and it is designed to be physically smaller, making it easier for motherboard manufacturers to create Z87 solutions that are more compact, less-cluttered and more efficient.
Overclocking
To satiate the needs of overclockers, Intel has borrowed from the X79 platform and reintroduced base clock ratios. What this means is that, like Sandy Bridge Extreme, Haswell processors will run at a choice of three base clocks: 100MHz, 125MHz and 166MHz, with a bit of extra wiggle room thrown in. This means that you should be able to overclock every Haswell chip - even a mid-range Core i5-4570 might run at 4GHz, provided it's stable when the default 32x multiplier is partnered to a 125MHz base clock.
Of course, the premium multiplier-unlocked parts offer extra incentive. Intel allows an 80x multiplier at 100MHz, up to 64x at 125MHz and up to 48x at 166MHz. There are various ways of getting to 8GHz, but while neither Sandy Bridge nor Ivy Bridge offered such flexibility, remember that, as always, your overclocking mileage will vary.
Desktop Haswell Processor Suffixes
No suffix - standard processor aimed at the mainstream
K - multiplier unlocked, providing greater overclocking potential for enthusiast users
P - no integrated graphics processor
R - high performance Intel Iris graphics, BGA package
S - "performance optimised lifestyle," features a lower CPU base frequency and a reduced TDP
T - "power optimised lifestyle," features a lower CPU base frequency, a lower Turbo Boost frequency and a greatly-reduced TDP
Summary
An examination of the Haswell architecture suggests that fourth-generation processors will be up to 20 per cent faster than the previous generation in CPU-intensive tasks, and up to 50 per cent faster in IGP-intensive tasks, when evaluated over a wide range of benchmarks. A more efficient architecture and a revamped integrated graphics processor are the primary instigators for this performance increase.
Yet, while performance is up, Haswell's greatest strength lies in the energy-saving department. Intel's latest chips, designed for a new breed of ultra-thin, ultra-efficient PCs, are without doubt the most advanced to date, and will scale across a wide range of devices ranging from tablets to servers. Features Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
Dynamically increases the processor's frequency as needed by taking advantage of thermal and power headroom when operating below specified limits.
Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology
Intel Core i7 delivers two processing threads per physical core. Highly threaded applications can get more work done in parallel, completing tasks sooner.
Built-In Visuals - Intel® HD Graphics
Enhanced 3-D1 performance for immersive mainstream and casual gaming. Can support up to three UltraHD* (4K) displays and collage display.
Intel® Wireless Display
Wirelessly stream HD / 3-D video and games to your TV or projector for presentations and entertainment.
Intel® Quick Sync Video
Delivers fast conversion of video for portable media players, online sharing, and video editing and authoring.
Intel® Clear Video HD
Visual quality and color fidelity enhancements for HD playback and immersive Web browsing.
Intel® InTru™ 3D
Stereoscopic 3-D Blu-ray* playback in full 1080p resolution over HDMI* 1.4 and premium audio.
Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions
A set of new instructions to improve software performance for floating point-intensive applications such as audio processing, audio codecs, and image and video editing applications.
Integrated Memory Controller
An integrated memory controller offers stunning memory read/write performance through efficient prefetching algorithms, lower latency, and higher memory bandwidth.
Intel® Smart Cache
The shared cache is dynamically allocated to each processor core, based on workload. This significantly reduces latency, improving performance.
Intel® Virtualization Technology4
Allows one hardware platform to function as multiple “virtual” platforms. Offers improved manageability by limiting downtime and maintaining productivity by isolating computing activities into separate partitions.
Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions
New AES instructions add hardware acceleration to AES algorithms and speeds up the execution of AES applications.
Thermal Solution for Boxed Processors
Includes a four-pin connector for fan speed control to help minimize the acoustic noise levels generated from running the fan at higher speeds for thermal performance.
For overclocking enthusiasts, Intel's 4th gen CPU has improved memory overclocking support, with up to and beyond 3000MHz possible with the very best memory kits. Memory bandwidth is critically important to Haswell compared to previous generations. High frequency memory performance significantly improves encoding, gaming and benchmarking tasks.
The biggest leap in Intel's Haswell processor is the onboard graphics which is now up to 2.6x faster than previous HD4000 found in the Ivybridge CPU. What this means is these latest processors can actually play the latest games in HD with low/medium settings applied. Of course if you want to experience True HD gaming at maximum details then a dedicated graphics card is still a must.
There are two words in your vocabulary that should never meet—Game and Over. You love playing, and you love winning, so you demand unmatched performance, the ability to customize your rig, and features that put you in control of the action. With Intel® technology, you step into a heart-pounding experience. Pick up your weapon, challenge your friends, and experience gaming at its best—because the only thing more amazing than Intel® technology is what you’ll do with it.
As a creative force and a professional, you must continually balance your vision with the deadlines of the real world. Intel® technology helps you keep up with your creativity with unmatched and customizable performance, and features that give you full control to optimize your workflow and maximize your productivity. So keep imagining, keep creating, and take your inspiration to the limit—because the only thing more amazing than Intel® technology is what you’ll do with it.
With PC and mobile converging quicker than ever before, Intel needs to reassert its presence in portable devices with an architecture that can scale across multiple platforms. That quest begins with the introduction of the fourth-generation Core processor family, codenamed Haswell.
Launched as a successor to last year's Ivy Bridge, Haswell follows Intel's tick-tock release schedu le, where a tick (Penryn 2008, Westmere 2010, Ivy Bridge 2012) primarily insinuates a shrink in manufacturing process, and a tock (Nehalem 2009, Sandy Bridge 2011, Haswell 2013) implies a major architectural refresh.
Yet, from a manufacturing point of view, not a whole lot appears to have changed. Looking at an overview of a quad-core desktop Haswell die, the chip is very similar to incumbent Ivy Bridge; it's built using the same 22nm Tri-Gate process and continues to carry 1.4 billion transistors, albeit in a slightly larger 177m² die (up from 160mm²).
Optimising Power
Intel has taken a multifaceted approach to enhancing efficiency in Haswell as both a processor and a platform. At a silicon level, the company has introduced fine-grained control over which parts of the die are turned on or off. As we know, existing Ivy Bridge processors - that feature up to four IA cores, a graphics processor and a memory controller all hooked up to a ring-based interconnect - allow for the CPU and GPU to go idle, but other components remain active.
With Haswell, the philosophy is that if you don't need it, it ought to be turned off. In order to make this happen, Intel has added more power gating and decoupled the ring-based interconnect and L3 cache from the IA cores, allowing, for example, the GPU access to the ring bus without waking the IA cores. Expanding on this granularity, ultra-low-power Haswell mobile processors will be equipped with deeper C-States (C8, C9, C10) that allow practically everything to be turned off when idle. In addition, fourth-generation processors are said to switch between states 25 per cent faster than their third-generation predecessors.
Taking into account connected systems as a whole, Intel has also created a more suitable middle ground between the ACPI specification's S3/S4 sleep and S0 active states by introducing new active-idle states dubbed S0i1 and S0i3. With previous-generation platforms, putting a computer to sleep and waking back up was achievable in just a couple of seconds, but the experience wasn't as quick as, say, on a smartphone or tablet.
Architecture Improvements
Haswell's primary ambition may be to drive down power consumption, but it wouldn't be a new Intel architecture without performance improvements on both the CPU and GPU fronts.
One of Haswell's most striking enhancements is that the number of back-end execution ports has been upgraded from six to eight. This is the first increase in execution ports we've seen since Conroe, and the new additions give Haswell a fourth port for math logic and a fourth for store address calculations.
Ensuring that the wider back-end is well fed, Intel has also made further branch prediction improvements to ensure fewer cache misses. As you might expect, faster buffers and faster access to level one memory are also a priority. Each Haswell core continues to be served exclusively by a 64KB L1 cache and a 256KB L2 cache, with a third last-level cache of up to 8MB shared across all cores, the graphics processor and system agent.
This time around, L1 store bandwidth is doubled from 16 bytes/cycle to 32 bytes/cycle, and interface bandwidth between the L1 and L2 caches has doubled from 32 bytes/cycle to 64 bytes/cycle. Although Haswell is officially described as new micro-architecture, it's clear that it has a lot in common with earlier generations and the focus has been on getting the most out of a tried-and-trusted system.
Iris Graphics
In order of performance, Haswell's IGP will be available in at least half-a-dozen models; Iris Pro 5200; Iris 5100; HD 5000; HD 4600; HD 4400 and HD 4200. The reason for this is that, unlike Ivy Bridge's HD 4000 IGP, the graphics in Haswell have been deliberately designed to be scalable. The amount of scalability is reflected in the number of execution units, in what Intel calls a slice, and the operating frequency of each core will be dependant upon processor positioning.
The top-of-the-range Iris Pro 5200 is said to have 40 execution units, while the middle-of-the-pack HD 4600 is believed to have 20. This compares to 16 such units in the best Ivy Bridge chips, but remember, the execution units themselves have been overhauled for Haswell and can't be compared directly.
Making matters even more interesting, and illustrating Intel's need to push graphics performance, certain Haswell IGPs will be paired with a dedicated eDRAM frame buffer that will be accessible to both the CPU and GPU, and will further benefit performance in either workload.
New Chipsets
All of the architectural advancements in Haswell have resulted in the need for a new LGA1150 socket and, therefore, a new supporting 8-series chipset headlined by the Z87. The new chipset natively supports more high-speed USB and SATA interfaces, and it is designed to be physically smaller, making it easier for motherboard manufacturers to create Z87 solutions that are more compact, less-cluttered and more efficient.
Overclocking
To satiate the needs of overclockers, Intel has borrowed from the X79 platform and reintroduced base clock ratios. What this means is that, like Sandy Bridge Extreme, Haswell processors will run at a choice of three base clocks: 100MHz, 125MHz and 166MHz, with a bit of extra wiggle room thrown in. This means that you should be able to overclock every Haswell chip - even a mid-range Core i5-4570 might run at 4GHz, provided it's stable when the default 32x multiplier is partnered to a 125MHz base clock.
Of course, the premium multiplier-unlocked parts offer extra incentive. Intel allows an 80x multiplier at 100MHz, up to 64x at 125MHz and up to 48x at 166MHz. There are various ways of getting to 8GHz, but while neither Sandy Bridge nor Ivy Bridge offered such flexibility, remember that, as always, your overclocking mileage will vary.
Desktop Haswell Processor Suffixes
No suffix - standard processor aimed at the mainstream
K - multiplier unlocked, providing greater overclocking potential for enthusiast users
P - no integrated graphics processor
R - high performance Intel Iris graphics, BGA package
S - "performance optimised lifestyle," features a lower CPU base frequency and a reduced TDP
T - "power optimised lifestyle," features a lower CPU base frequency, a lower Turbo Boost frequency and a greatly-reduced TDP
Summary
An examination of the Haswell architecture suggests that fourth-generation processors will be up to 20 per cent faster than the previous generation in CPU-intensive tasks, and up to 50 per cent faster in IGP-intensive tasks, when evaluated over a wide range of benchmarks. A more efficient architecture and a revamped integrated graphics processor are the primary instigators for this performance increase.
Yet, while performance is up, Haswell's greatest strength lies in the energy-saving department. Intel's latest chips, designed for a new breed of ultra-thin, ultra-efficient PCs, are without doubt the most advanced to date, and will scale across a wide range of devices ranging from tablets to servers. Features Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
Dynamically increases the processor's frequency as needed by taking advantage of thermal and power headroom when operating below specified limits.
Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology
Intel Core i7 delivers two processing threads per physical core. Highly threaded applications can get more work done in parallel, completing tasks sooner.
Built-In Visuals - Intel® HD Graphics
Enhanced 3-D1 performance for immersive mainstream and casual gaming. Can support up to three UltraHD* (4K) displays and collage display.
Intel® Wireless Display
Wirelessly stream HD / 3-D video and games to your TV or projector for presentations and entertainment.
Intel® Quick Sync Video
Delivers fast conversion of video for portable media players, online sharing, and video editing and authoring.
Intel® Clear Video HD
Visual quality and color fidelity enhancements for HD playback and immersive Web browsing.
Intel® InTru™ 3D
Stereoscopic 3-D Blu-ray* playback in full 1080p resolution over HDMI* 1.4 and premium audio.
Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions
A set of new instructions to improve software performance for floating point-intensive applications such as audio processing, audio codecs, and image and video editing applications.
Integrated Memory Controller
An integrated memory controller offers stunning memory read/write performance through efficient prefetching algorithms, lower latency, and higher memory bandwidth.
Intel® Smart Cache
The shared cache is dynamically allocated to each processor core, based on workload. This significantly reduces latency, improving performance.
Intel® Virtualization Technology4
Allows one hardware platform to function as multiple “virtual” platforms. Offers improved manageability by limiting downtime and maintaining productivity by isolating computing activities into separate partitions.
Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions
New AES instructions add hardware acceleration to AES algorithms and speeds up the execution of AES applications.
Thermal Solution for Boxed Processors
Includes a four-pin connector for fan speed control to help minimize the acoustic noise levels generated from running the fan at higher speeds for thermal performance.