Quote Originally Posted by Halk View Post
I just want to check my understand is correct on this explanation. Essentially at stock IB is more efficient than SB, a touch faster clock for clock and uses less power. However when you go past a mild overclock the efficiency fades and by the time you're at 4.5Ghz you're drinking more power than SB, and the smaller, more compact CPU is struggling with the heat.

So IB is still a fair choice for moderate folks who aren't likely to go beyond a 1 Ghz overclock, and who may run it at stock for a year or two until something arrives that actually taxes it?
This seems exact. My tipical 24/7 oc is around 4.2 to 4.4ghz but i like to bench sometime and being stuck at 4.6-4.8ghz with a high end air is bad VS a 2500/2600K that can reach 5ghz on air. Even Water dont seems to really help with IB, you need exotic cooling to get more mhz.