Intel Corp. has revealed official performance advantage expectations for its next-generation microprocessors code-named Ivy Bridge. Thanks to new micro-architectural improvements, the world's largest chipmaker expects Core i 3000-series processors to deliver up to 25% better performance than existing Core i 2000-series "Sandy Bridge" chips in office applications and up to 199% improvements in graphics intensive apps.

Intel recently started to spread its official Ivy Bridge performance expectations among its partners, manufacturers of personal computers and resellers. The documents by Intel, which have leaked to the Internet, demonstrate that Intel rather high expectations for its next-generation Core i 3000-series microprocessors when it comes to general purpose performance and especially graphics performance. According to the documents, Intel Core i7-3770 (4 cores with HyperThreading, 3.40GHz, 8MB cache) will deliver the following advantages compared its predecessor Core i7-2600 (4 cores with HyperThreading, 3.40GHz, 8MB cache):

• +7% higher overall SYSmark 2012 score;
• +14% higher overall HDXPRT 2011 score;
• +15% higher Cinebench 11.5 score;
• +13% better ProShow Gold 4.5 result;
• +25% faster performance in Excel 2010;
• +56% faster performance in ArcSoft Media Expresso;
• +192% higher overall 3DMark Vantage score;
• +17% faster performance in 3DMark Vantage CPU benchmark;
• +199% faster performance in 3DMark Vantage GPU benchmark;

Thanks to improved performance of Ivy Bridge, Intel will not only be able to improve competitive positions of its chips compared to microprocessors by Advanced Micro Devices, but will likely manage to increase its share on the graphics adapter market thanks to more competitive performance of built-in Intel HD graphics engine versus entry-level discrete graphics processors.

Ivy Bridge will generally inherit Sandy Bridge micro-architecture and will sport a rather significant number of improvements. Firstly, it will have certain improvements that will boost its performance in general applications by around 20% compared to Core i "Sandy Bridge" chips (e.g., enhanced AVX acceleration). Secondly, the forthcoming chip will have a new graphics core with DirectX 11 and OpenCL 1.1 support, 30% higher performance compared to the predecessor as well as new video processor and display controllers. Thirdly, Ivy Bridge will feature PCI Express 3.0 x16 interconnection as well as PCIe 2.0 x4 controller. In fourth, the processor will support a number of power management innovations. The CPU is made using 22nm process technology.

Intel will release its code-named Ivy Bridge central processing units for desktops in March or April, 2012.

Intel did not comment on the news-story since the documents describing Ivy Bridge performance are not made available for general public.

Tags: Intel, 22nm, Ivy Bridge, Core, Sandy Bridge