A reference notebook powered by Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processor has been benchmarked by a Bulgarian website by the name of Laptop.bg and the findings look promising for mobile users. The system in question is reportedly running a quad-core i7-3610QM processor clocked at 2.3GHz and turned in results that were eight to 22 percent better than a comparable Sandy Bridge i7-2670QM at 2.2GHz.
The die-shrunk processor performed exceedingly well in Cinebench 10 and 11, thoroughly trouncing current Sandy Bridge chips in both single and multi-CPU tests. Another test called Fritz Chess Benchmark allegedly turned in a score of 11,555 kilo nodes per second, toppling the previous high of 10,267 from the Sandy Bridge 2670QM.
In a real-world test using Adobe Photoshop CS5, Ivy Bridge was once again the fastest chip tested but the margin of victory was much smaller - only two seconds faster than its counterpart. 3DMark 2005 numbers using the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 were promising but 3DMark 2011 performance was lacking. Testing in Resident Evil 5 at modest graphics settings resulted in an average frame rate of 22.9 which isn't quite enough to be deemed 'playable'.
Intel is expected to launch Ivy Bridge on April 29 which will include several Core i5 and i7 chips for desktops and three i7 processors for notebooks. Furthermore, dual-core mobile CPUs are expected in the first week of June in addition to several more quad-core desktop parts. Early reports show a lack of low-voltage parts which suggests we might not see Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks until later this spring.