This past week Intel unveiled and released it's new Ivy Bridge CPUs. These CPUs are compatible with any of the available Socket 1155 motherboards- including Sandy Bridge ones! So users with existing Sandy Bridge compatible H61, H67 and Z68 motherboards have the option to upgrade to new Ivy Bridge CPUs.
Ivy Bridge feature improvements over Sandy Bridge include:
- Tri-gate transistor technology (less than 50% power consumption at the same performance level as 2-D planar transistors).
- PCI Express 3.0 support.
- Max CPU multiplier of 63 (57 for Sandy Bridge).
- RAM support up to 2800 MT/s in 200 MHz increments.
- Intel HD Graphics 2500/4000 with DirectX 11, OpenGL 3.1, and OpenCL 1.1 support.
- The built-in GPU is believed to have up to 16 execution units (EUs), compared to Sandy Bridge's maximum of 12.
- A new random number generator and the RdRand instruction, codenamed Bull Mountain.
- Intel Quick Sync Video.
- DDR3L low voltage for mobile processors.
- Multiple 4K video playback. Source: Wikipedia
Recommended Ivy Bridge CPUs
We recommend Ivy Bridge Socket 1155 CPUs featuring Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics. Other available CPUs not listed here have lower quality HD 2500 graphics.
 | Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5 Ghz | 4 Cores / 8 Threads Unlocked for Overclocking 8MB L3 Cache | Amazon Newegg |
| Intel Core i7-3770 3.4 Ghz | 4 Cores / 8 Threads 8MB L3 Cache | Amazon Newegg |
| Intel Core i7-3770S 3.1 Ghz | 4 Cores / 8 Threads 65w Lower Power 8MB L3 Cache | Amazon Newegg |
 | Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4 Ghz | 4 Cores / 4 Threads Unlocked for Overclocking 6MB L3 Cache | Amazon Newegg |
Recommended 7-Series Motherboards
We recommend these Gigabyte 7-Series motherboards based on their compatible audio and ethernet. Gigabyte UEFI motherboards also have an exclusive new feature of working with sleep/wake without a DSDT.
 | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H | Realtek ALC898 Audio Atheros/Intel Dual Ethernet DVI-D, DisplayPort, VGA, HDMI | Amazon Newegg |
 | Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H | Realtek ALC887 Audio Atheros Ethernet DVI-D, VGA, HDMI | Amazon Newegg |
 | Gigabyte GA-H77-DS3H | Realtek ALC887 Audio Atheros Ethernet DVI-D, VGA, HDMI | Amazon Newegg |
| Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3P | Realtek ALC887 Audio Realtek Ethernet DVI-D, VGA, HDMI | Amazon Newegg |
Other major manufacturers such as ASUS, ASRock, and MSI also have compatible audio and ethernet, but could have Power Management problems with locked MSR in their UEFI. View a list of some of these non-Gigabyte motherboard recommendations here.
PLEASE NOTE: Ivy Bridge CPUs and chipsets are not currently supported natively by Mac OS X. We can't recommend Ivy Bridge systems yet, as there is no official support. Hence, please don't view this as buying advice. We don't recommend using a patched kernel for the long-term. The vanilla kernel is a much more desirable solution for a stable system.
Can't wait to hear your experiences with these new CPUs and motherboards. Have fun!
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