Probably the hottest question for desktop users is how Ivy Bridge stacks up to Sandy Bridge at the same clock speed.

Luckily we came across some data that indicates that at the same 3.4 GHz clock, Ivy Bridge 22nm tends to work between seven and sixteen percent faster. Intel has compared internally old Sandy Bridge based Core i7 2600 processors with 8MB cache, four cores, eight threads and 3.4GHz and new soon to launch Ivy Bridge based Core i7 3770 clocked at the same 3.4GHz with 8MB cache and four cores and eight treads.

The smallest lead of seven percent was scored in ProShow 4.5 in slide show creation where Core i7 3770 ends up just seven percent faster. Cinebench 11.5 rendering tests show a 10 percent lead for Core i7 3770 Ivy Bridge while in Sysmark 2012 the overall Core i7 3770 score is ten percent higher than Core i7 2600. HDXPRT 2011 overall score test that focuses on consumer content creation ends up 12 percent faster on the new processor, while Excel 2010 Financial Analysis test can end up 16 percent faster.

Despite the same clock have in mind that performance lead of Ivy Bridge is mainly due to higher maximum turbo clock speeds, while some performance increase can be attributed to architectural improvements of the core redone in 22nm.

Core i7 3770 in turbo mode can get to 3.9GHz while Core i7 2600 stops at 100MHz less 3.8GHz. As you can see it is not miraculously faster, but it will get your performance slightly up, while at the same time keeping power consumption and thermals lower due to the new 22nm process.