Intel Haswell CPU’s and Chipset architecture’s unveiled.

Intel has recently unveiled it’s new CPU and Chipset line-up and it’s a very interesting compromise. The new CPU’s feature a much more tightly integrated Northbridge which has the notable side-effect of actually reducing the expense of motherboards. Interestingly the new CPU line does not target a substantial performance increase over the previous generation of chips as its primary marketing target, although the CPU’s are approximately 10% faster than their respective counterparts. For example the i4770K is around 10% faster than the i3770K. Instead the primary focus of these processors is on power efficiency.

The i3770K has a power requirement of around 77 watts, meanwhile i4770K has a power requirement of 84 watts. The major difference between the two lies in the integrated GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) built into the i4770K. The integrated GPU is codenamed iGPU4600 and it is a considerable step up from the iGPU4000 integrated into the i3770K. Of course Intel have unveiled a range of CPU’s with a range of integrated GPU components targeted at different segments of the market. For example the mobile equivalents are expected to extend battery life in Haswell equipped machines to around 8 hours or so.