Intel Core i7-3960X Review: Sandy Bridge-E And X79 Express

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]By the way, the 16 core Interlagos CPUs doubled the performance of the old 12 core Magny-Cours so they aren't worthless, quite the opposite. [/citation]
Doubled the performance in what? You're speaking in general terms, while on average that doesn't seem to be even remotely true.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5058/amds-opteron-interlagos-6200/1

 

[youssef 2010]

Great review as always, chris.

 

[yasir siddiqui]

wow thats very nice review.

 

[flong]

I'm not sure that there is much to brag about with this CPU. I mean how fast is fast? The 2600K overclocked is wicked fast and it costs less than $300. The 2500K is very fast when overclocked and it is less than $200.

Unless you have a specific application that benefits from the 3960X extra oomph, I don't see much to brag about.

 

[Guest]

Why you are testing with games that everyone knows are GPU hungry !?Use Deus Ex : HR for the game test http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/deus-ex-human-revolution-performance-benchmark,3012-7.html i think the CPU scaling is clearly visible for that game.

 

[monsta]

Great Review, good to see whats up and coming

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]dragonsqrrl[/nom]Doubled the performance in what? You're speaking in general terms, while on average that doesn't seem to be even remotely true.http://www.anandtech.com/show/5058 [...] gos-6200/1[/citation]

http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/231902878/latest-dell-poweredge-server-doubles-performance-behind-amds-16-core-opteron-chip.htm;jsessionid=SLDPQrQOwXQ4dC7AoIlSyA**.ecappj01

Theres your link.

 

[fwupow]

Why did Intel even bother? The performance benefit appears entirely negligible and you gotta buy a whole new platform that Intel will render obsolete as soon as they possibly can!

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]fwupow[/nom]Why did Intel even bother? The performance benefit appears entirely negligible and you gotta buy a whole new platform that Intel will render obsolete as soon as they possibly can![/citation]

There will probably be compatible Ivy Bridge E CPUs for the x79 in a year or two.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]http://www.crn.com/news/data-cente [...] *.ecappj01Theres your link.[/citation]
So based on this deceptively titled article, you claimed that Interlagos doubled the performance of Magny-Cours?

... you're kidding me right?

 

[Guest]

i like the comment about usb and sas ect these are CPU's not motherboars / mainboards, the crazy thing is 17 fools agreed with him plus this is just a music test and those apps would not give a good result as someone else said there not well programmed in the first place. i guess Tom's hardware is gone down a heap of notchs. lol.

 

[Novuake]

Seriously trolling going on...

 

[prophet15]

I need an answer please somebody explains. In the last paragraph on page 22, when the editor says "... you pay 253% more for the Core i7-3960X..." I guess this is wrong! because the fx 8150 cost $ 240 and the 3960X cost $ 1050, so is not 253% I think it's more...

 

[Guest]

It is totally meaningless to compare the price of the 3960X to the 2600K. The 3960X has a $400 price premium for being "extreme". The comparation should be made between the equally performing 3930K and the 2600K.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]14ccKemiskt[/nom]It is totally meaningless to compare the price of the 3960X to the 2600K. The 3960X has a $400 price premium for being "extreme". The comparation should be made between the equally performing 3930K and the 2600K.[/citation]

When this story came out, the -3930K was not available. After I wrote it, I bought a -3930K and followed up with this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3930k-3820-test-benchmark,3090.html. Enjoy!

 

[scienceomatica]

Tests that "Tom's hardware.com" put into practice, are quite "nonoptimized", and far from being able to exploit the potential of all six cores, It is particularly absurd to expect in the game tests. Improvement of 25-30 is the average value, even taking into account the tests that they conducted. If you notice there are no real good multithread tests Cinebench 11.5, PAR2, TrueCrypt, HD x264, Excel Monte Carlo etc. Do you really think that someone made a processor with six cores on the same architecture as 2600k, and that in relation to it is generally better 25-30. would bankrupt after a week!

 

[Guest]

awesome review, found all of my answers here!

Tanks

 

[Guest]

The loss of the additional built-in storage I/O is disappointing. Although many consumers probably don't need more than 6 SATA total, it's frustrating for those of us that have eight or so internal disks and would love to ditch the PCIe SATA card...

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Lord_Jeremy[/nom]The loss of the additional built-in storage I/O is disappointing. Although many consumers probably don't need more than 6 SATA total, it's frustrating for those of us that have eight or so internal disks and would love to ditch the PCIe SATA card...[/citation]Actually, eight internal ports is roughly the norm for enthusiast-level boards.

 

[Guest]

I don't know where your buying your cpu's mr. Author. Because the 8150 goes for 209$ on newegg and the 3960x goes for 1029$.

Now, I may not be good at math but isn't that little less than 500%.Not 253%?
5x the price for 40% more yuppies? Yikes

And one more thing. The i7 965ee was released in what, 2008? was 999$ then.
and still is.
Then
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i7/Intel-Core%20i7%20Extreme%20Edition%20I7-965%20AT80601000918AA%20%28BX80601965%29.html
Now
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Hyper-Threading-LGA1366-Extreme-Processor/dp/B001H5T7PQ


the phenom ii x4 965 125watt was released A YEAR LATER:
Then
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-Phenom%20II%20X4%20965%20Black%20Edition%20-%20HDZ965FBK4DGM%20%28HDZ965FBGMBOX%29.html

Now
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

For all intents and purposes, these cpu's are a pretty disturbingly close match. one of which is almost 750% cheaper or 900$ cheaper.

So It comes down to the question, of why would you suck the proverbial sack and by intel?

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Xaize[/nom]I don't know where your buying your cpu's mr. Author.[/citation]He probably got them from Newegg, double checked in Google product search, and triple checked in Pricegrabber. Did you not realize that prices may have changed in the four months since this review was published???