Intel Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge Linux Performance

When running these tests plus various other tests, the average temperature of the Intel Core i7 3770K with a stock Intel heatsink fan and Arctic Silver 7 thermal-paste was 58°C. The Intel Core i7 3960X with its stock water-cooling setup was at 53°C overall and the Core i5 2500K with the same stock Intel HSF as the i7-3770K averaged out to 61°C. Aside from the Sandy-E water cooler, all of the Intel CPUs were using the same heatsink fan.

This is only one of many Intel Ivy Bridge Linux articles to be published on Phoronix, but from these results plus other numbers that are set to be published soon, the Ivy Bridge performance is terrific. The raw performance of the Intel Core i7 3770K is terrific as is the power-per-Watt compared to other Intel and AMD hardware, with this high-end Ivy Bridge winning in a far majority of the conducted benchmarks. While the Ivy Bridge HD 4000 graphics results under Linux are in another article, those numbers too are also fantastic for being an open-source driver and illustrate a huge improvement over Sandy Bridge.

As far as the Linux support goes for Ivy Bridge at launch, it is in terrific shape. I'm very happy with the level of support and anyone picking up one of the new Ivy Bridge processors (and even a new Intel 7-Series Panther Pont motherboard) shouldn't really have any Linux snafus to worry about for this Intel 2012 platform launch if using a modern Linux distribution. While any modern release will do, you generally want the latest compiler, kernel, and graphics packages for the best performance. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS has been tested the most and it has shaped up extremely well for this new Intel hardware.

Stay tuned to read much more about Intel Ivy Bridge on Linux. It has been a delight to work with the Intel Core i7 3770K. I am already planning on picking up a new Intel Ivy Bridge notebook for my own purposes due to the great open-source graphics performance, power efficiency, and overall capabilities. Intel really hit the head on the nail this time for Linux users, especially with the graphics performance on their Mesa DRI driver that speaks volumes.

My only real criticism I've had so far about the Intel Ivy Bridge on Linux is just the few missing features like no OpenCL support on the HD 4000 graphics core right now nor support for some of the more niche features like Intel WiDi, Anti-Theft Technology, etc.

Many thanks to Intel Corp for sending out the Intel Ivy Bridge hardware in advance of the launch to provide these Linux tests and for their continued great -- open-source -- Linux support.