Intel's new Ivy Bridge processors deliver significantly improved graphics performance when compared to the previous generation Sandy Bridge processors. Since Sandy Bridge has no support for DirectX 11, we could not include it in the benchmarks for this review. So let's do some math: Back in 2011 we saw that NVIDIA's GeForce GT 430 was 2.67 times faster than the Core i5-2500K's HD graphics 3000. Today GT 430 is just 1.71 times faster than Core i7-3770K HD Graphics 4000 in this review. So Ivy Bridge Graphics is 56% faster compared to the previous generation (=2.67/1.71*100-100). This is a pretty impressive gain that easily tops what we are seeing generation-to-generation on current discrete graphics cards. Intel has also introduced DirectX 11 support to their new IGP family, which means it now supports all the latest games.
Looking at FPS numbers in our results, which were done at low quality settings, it becomes clear that you can't run all games with HD Graphics 4000 - no matter how low you set the details. Other titles, including Battlefield 3, Crysis 2 and World of Warcraft are "playable" now. This doesn't mean that you get the full experience that a typical gaming rig can provide, but it might still be enough for rare gaming sessions. More casual games that focus less on graphics, like Star Craft II, run pretty good at 60 FPS+.
Last year saw the introduction of AMD's Lllano Fusion graphics, which shattered the limits of features and performance that integrated graphics could provide. Intel's new graphics generation has gotten much closer, yet cannot beat AMD's last year offerings in terms of performance. Also AMD has a massive price/performance advantage. Basically you can build an entire AMD Llano system for the price of the i7-3770K CPU alone.
In the past, Intel's drivers have had a bad reputation for lacking features, game support, or stability. I'm happy to report that this is no longer the case. During our testing I couldn't find a single issue or rendering error.
Thanks to the outstanding CPU performance of Ivy Bridge, the Core i7-3770K will be great to build a high-performance productivity machine that handles all desktop and media playback tasks easily using integrated graphics. Casual gaming at low resolution, low details might be ok too, but everybody who calls himself "gamer" should really look at a discrete graphics card. Combining the awesome CPU power of the 3770K with a gamer-class AMD or NVIDIA card will give you a much better gaming experience than relying on the low performance of the Intel HD Graphics 4000. Gamers on a tight budget should not blow all their money on a fast processor alone. It might be better to consider a more affordable processor like the i5-2310 and pair it with a Radeon HD 6870 (both are currently price/performance kings) so they end up with a balanced system that can handle most games at decent settings.