Ivy and Sandy overclocked, Sandy Bridge ends up cooler

We’re dying to test some of the world’s fastest and most powerful processors. Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge are definitely on our list. So when we got the report that both chips have just been tested and overclocked until they burned, we were highly thrilled. Tech Report did some crazy overclocking in their labs using the Sandy Bridge Core i7-2600K and the Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K – both powerful chips.

Both processors were overclocked to 4.9 GHz (with air cooling) and behold, Ivy lost her temper, heating up 20 degrees more than Sandy who held her grip at 80 degrees Celsius. So, why do Ivy Processors appear to reach higher temperatures when compared to Sandy Bridge? According to Overclockers.com, a huge factor to consider is the interface between the CPU die and the heat spreader.

Ivy Bridge actually uses a thermal paste between both ends (die and heat spreader) which makes the transfer interface less efficient in suppressing heat. On the other hand, Sandy Bridge uses a fluxless solder on the lid of its CPU. It appears that this small change in Ivy’s thermal interface is the main culprit here. Surprisingly, Intel confirmed that the reason for Ivy Bridge’s higher thermal density is due to the different package thermal technology used on the chip.

This means that if you’re planning to overclock the Ivy Bridge, or any of both, you’ll need a solid cooling system to keep the temperature from breaking within its operational limits.

Gene Ryan Briones
Categories: Computers
Tags: CPU, Intel, ivy bridge