What can we expect with Ivy Bridge?

[drumsonly2002 3]

My inner nerd is not nerdy enough to figure out what Ivy Bridge can do for FSX using Mr. Google. Perhaps a lacking in google abilities, coupled with a touch of mathematical dyslexia, too much coffee, and impatience reading techno information hinders my quest with the universal question, "Will Ivy Bridge be a bag of chips and dip for FSX? (How is that for a short sentence, and I only had to use a spell checker five times!). So, what's the rub with Ivy Bridge? Will it provide the "A-Ha" moment for FSX we have been waiting for all these years? Or will it be another two grand of computer parts used as a door stop, the way many others are piling in my room waiting to be thrown out? What are your thoughts or ideas? Should we start shaking our piggy banks with hopes that some day our little piggy will come running home crying ... we.. we.. we can provide the funds so one can build a computer that can run FSX in all it's wonder and amazing glory? Or will it end up in trauma, tears, and turmoil, or other nasty words beginning with T? Well.... time for a snack, all this deep thinking is making me hungry. Keep well, keep informed, keep posting.

[dazz 69]

Hard to say at this point. It's supposed to perform similar to Sandy Bridge clock for clock, but should overclock better because of the 22nm process and Tri-Gate. How much better remains to be seen. It also brings PCIe 3.0.

[Noel 4,501]

Hard to say at this point. It's supposed to perform similar to Sandy Bridge clock for clock, but should overclock better because of the 22nm process and Tri-Gate. How much better remains to be seen. It also brings PCIe 3.0.

That is compatible w/ Anand Lal Shimpi's review. The somewhat higher transistor count goes for the on board GPU which isn't robust enough for FSX. I think clock for clock you could get another 5% and beyond that as dazz says is perhaps better overclockability and PCIe 3.0. Here is a summary by Anand:

Ivy Bridge will bring about higher clock speeds thanks to its 22nm process, however the gains will likely be minimal at best. Intel hasn't been too keen on pursuing clock speed for quite some time now. Clock for clock performance will go up by a small amount over Sandy Bridge (4 - 6%), combine that with slightly higher clock speeds and we may see CPU performance gains of around 10% at the same price point with Ivy Bridge. The bigger news will be around power consumption and graphics performance.

Ivy Bridge has three new features for overclocking:

The max CPU ratio is now 63x up from 57x

You can now adjust CPU ratios without a reboot, just via a register write.

DDR3-2800 will be the maximum DRAM frequency.

I'm a little disappointed w/ this profile in that it really sounds like IB was designed w/ mobile computers in mind, but hopefully better overclockability will make it compelling for me to do a major upgrade. Not sure quite yet though so will not be a early adopter. As a jump from my Q9650 I may be pleasantly surprised. Right now FSX runs plenty good enough to enjoy, even in the NGX! Just have to stay out of really big terminals w/ that bird!Noel

[SpiritFlyer 987]

From the wee bit that I have read, and in the absence of harder data, there appears to be less than a compelling reason to jump from the i7-2600K Sandy Bridge unit I now have to any Ivy Bridge. That being said, if there is a 5% gain, clock for clock, or even equal clock output, with an ability to clock higher, say from 5.0Ghz to perhaps 5.5 - 6Ghz, it would be nearly irresistable, especially if I can keep my 1155 MB and RAM. In any case, IMHO, both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge are persuasively compelling over any previous i7 quad or even hexacore. The i7-3770 looks like it will be a bargain if it is at, or under, the current i7-2600 to 2700K price range.Kind regards,