It’s been just about two years since Intel launched 3rd Generation Ivy Bridge processors which you may recall offers built-in features that make surprisingly fast work of transcoding, converting video, or managing audio projects with supporting software titles. And of course, Hyper-Threading assists in nearly doubling the work of the physical cores. Ivy Bridge itself is a relatively cool, smooth operating processor when used at stock frequencies with after market cooling. The only time Ivy Bridge upsets users is when overclocking. Once you push past 4.5GHz, CPU coolers struggle to keep the little chip from becoming a frying pan. This is why so many enthusiasts still love the 2nd Gen Core i7-2500/2600/2700 K-SKU series if they ware looking for top clocks.

A couple weeks ago, Intel released their 4th Generation Haswell processor series. It continues to offer every feature but is architecturally different from Ivy Bridge. All the marketing data and other laboratory testing point to improved performance all around including new integrated Intel “Iris” HD graphics processing designed for supporting 4K displays. But does Haswell offer a new processor experience? Is Iris the boost needed to to move to 4K displays? And finally, is Haswell thermal friendly enough to overclock? These questions are what I’ve been taking the time to answer.