Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E) And X79 Platform Preview

[geekapproved]

Major disappointment, mind boggling model number scheme, ridiculous price, and the 4th socket change in 3 yrs. What else did ya expect? FAIL.

 

[Zeh]

SB-E is a terrible upgrade choice. Simply because games barely use everything the i5-2500k has to offer.
New CPUs can't sretch their legs in this console-ports wasteland.

 

[Guest]

What a major dissapointment! Intel really let the ball drop on the Platform here, why even bother releasing this yet, they should and could have waited to integrate PCI-E 3.0 and USB 3 as well as better SATA support like they had planned!

The SB-E is MEH, Chipset is poor and existing products simply negate any justification to purchase this!

for £118 you can get a 1055T, overclock it to 4GHZ and presto its faster than the 1100T here by a large margin!

I maintain, 2600k and 2500k are the only chips worthwhile to buy from Intel, 1050T and A8 are the only worthwhile chips from AMD!

From these four chips you can create a PC for any use, the rest of both manufacturers line up are just FUD!

 

[Guest]

You nerds can't seem to realise that your superiors, those who have jobs and do research in computational science, can and do use 6, 12, 128, 256... cores already. Just an example, Neural Networks software, Genetic Algorithms, ALife, Robotics, we can't get enough cores or enough memory throughput. So no, this is not FAIL like the pimply faced idiot geekaproved said, this is an excellent chip, with an improvement to cryptographic functions, and memory throughput needed in Computational Intelligence applications.

 

[Guest]

3d studio max bench? Plz? 🙁

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

[citation][nom]Cryptos123123[/nom]You nerds can't seem to realise that your superiors, those who have jobs and do research in computational science, can and do use 6, 12, 128, 256... cores already. Just an example, Neural Networks software, Genetic Algorithms, ALife, Robotics, we can't get enough cores or enough memory throughput. So no, this is not FAIL like the pimply faced idiot geekaproved said, this is an excellent chip, with an improvement to cryptographic functions, and memory throughput needed in Computational Intelligence applications.[/citation]
I think you guys have Sandy Bridge Xeons.

 

[Filiprino]

Intel dropped PCI-E 3.0 and USB 3.0 from X79. Well, that sucks a lot. Radeon HD7000 cards based on Graphics Core Next will be PCI-E 3.0 based. It was supposed to be a good match for Sandy Bridge-E.
And having the PCI-E controller integrated on the CPU means that SB-E Xeons won't have PCI-E 3.0.
That's what happens when there's no competition. Consumers lose.

 

[jprahman]

[citation][nom]Cryptos123123[/nom]You nerds can't seem to realise that your superiors, those who have jobs and do research in computational science, can and do use 6, 12, 128, 256... cores already. Just an example, Neural Networks software, Genetic Algorithms, ALife, Robotics, we can't get enough cores or enough memory throughput. So no, this is not FAIL like the pimply faced idiot geekaproved said, this is an excellent chip, with an improvement to cryptographic functions, and memory throughput needed in Computational Intelligence applications.[/citation]

That's all true, but not valid. The whole review focused on desktop versions, and honestly all the above criticism focuses on that aspect. I don't doubt that Sandy Bridge-E will have a big impact on the server market (although it'll have to compete with Bulldozer).

 

[mayankleoboy1]

@ chris angelini

thanks for the nice preview.
i only wanted to say that instead of using Metro2033 and AvP, which are proven GPU bottlenecked games, why dont you use some games that are more CPU limited? like civilisation5, WoW, BF:BC2, GTA IV and others?

 

[ilysaml]

most likey the Bulldozer will crush the 2600K and be on par with the Sandy Bridge-E

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]reynod[/nom]Nice review Chris !!Please cook up something good when the Zambezi NDA lifts ... I am keen to see how the memory controller and cache performs between SB-E / SB and Bulldozer (Zambezi).I realise you can't say much but as soon as you get production silicon would you mind spending a bit of time with that aspect of the review?AMD has been well behind in this aspect of their CPU designs so I am keen to see if they moved forward much ... along with the much touted AVX256 implementation.Cheers !![/citation]

Absolutely will reynod. Even hoping to come up with a good AVX test to compare architectures!

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]lgustavomp[/nom]3d studio max bench? Plz?[/citation]

As mentioned in the story, it'd crash without proper cooling, which we don't have yet ;-)

 

[cadder]

Sounds exciting, but yet another new socket? How many months will it take to get those motherboards on the market? (Do we even have fixed 1155 motherboards on the market yet?)

 

[upgrade_1977]

No comment...

 

[MetaDragon]

Aw man. I'm about to get the i7 2600k Quad core for my desktop, and now there is already a better one on the way? Ugh, that is so not fair. 😛

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]Yuka[/nom]I bet the A8 would even be competitive against the Phenom II and the Core i7.You should have included the i3, the i5 and the PhII 965/970 and the A8 in there. I'm sure every one would've noticed something we all tell everyday: "USD$1000 scam processor".Cheers![/citation]

Nice trolling or if you really seriously believe an simplified toaster of a CPU (A8) even stand a chance in any of those performance benchmarks then why not put your money on a pinto vs a Ferrari in a race... same odds of win!

The thing the A8 is good for is thats its being very power efficient - suitable for a phone/pad to provide some computational power when power is severely limited, in that regard its a good one... for real computing not so much!

 

[iamtheking123]

Am I the only one noticing that these should overclock higher than the 2600k because of the unlinked base clock? Everyone seems to be bitching about how the architecture hasn't changed much to improve performance but I'd say it's easy made up for with higher overclocking potential.

 

[falchard]

Its nice that Intel is updating its Xeon Platform. The Socket G34 from AMD is already a year old and aside from its processor, stomps the floor with 2P LGA1366 boards. The quad channel DDR3 will definetly be an improvement.

 

[verbalizer]

As a reminder, Thuban does poorly in F1 2010 until you disable two cores. If the game only works properly with a power-of-two architecture, what would disabling two cores on both Gulftown and SB-E achieve?

I love AMD and want them to succeed because it will be beneficial to all consumers.
but the Thuban sucked period, the Deneb beats it per core performance.
and with that being said all those comparison like the 1090T vs the 6-core Intel offerings or higher end quad
was a waste of time even performing all the benches and reporting results.
just isn't / wasn't a fair fight..
my i5-760 can whoop a Thuban's arse..

 

[verbalizer]

most likey the Bulldozer will crush the 2600K and be on par with the Sandy Bridge-E

your so off base that I can't even begin to blast you..

Aw man. I'm about to get the i7 2600k Quad core for my desktop, and now there is already a better one on the way? Ugh, that is so not fair. 😛

you must not be paying attention or just that illiterate.
i7-2600K is supreme until we see what Ivy is about.
Ivy has yet to be released and after this, I need to see some benches but for some reason,
I have more faith in Ivy after seeing this report.
Intel is going to take a nice verbal lashing from enthusiast
therefore I feel Ivy will be what it needs to be.

 

[flong]

Wow my 2600K is better or equal in most of the tests than the new Sandy Bridge E. That may change as the new CPU goes into production but SBE hardly seems to offer any incentive to upgrade. Add to that no integrated GPU, no Quick Sync and on an on. Right now there seems little palpable benefit to SBE. It is kind of like the 510 SSDs, quite a let down.

I wonder how well SBE will overclock compared to the 2600K?

 

[verbalizer]

Wow my 2600K is better or equal in most of the tests than the new Sandy Bridge E. That may change as the new CPU goes into production but SBE hardly seems to offer any incentive to upgrade. Add to that no integrated GPU, no Quick Sync and on an on. Right now there seems little palpable benefit to SBE. It is kind of like the 510 SSDs, quite a let down.

I wonder how well SBE will overclock compared to the 2600K?

me and you have threaded many times before including the current Bulldozer thread.
I honestly feel the SB-E is going to be a waste until Intel revamps this idea.
i7-2600K is all you need for now and to get me off that Ivy would have to be everything plus a bag of chips..

Am I the only one noticing that these should overclock higher than the 2600k because of the unlinked base clock? Everyone seems to be bitching about how the architecture hasn't changed much to improve performance but I'd say it's easy made up for with higher overclocking potential.

damn good point and I didn't even look at it...
but Intel chips are almost indestructible and yes it does make the overclocking easier with unlocked multi / unlinked base
but the i7-2600(K) is a (K) for a reason too..

 

[cmartin011]

Thats all? if the other features were included id see the point but... really thats all?

 

[silverblue]

It's only a refresh, not a new generation.

I think we should stop talking about Bulldozer until we get some solid news on its performance. I wouldn't want people to get ill over waiting for it, even if it can't be long now.

 

[cmartin011]

ill see what AMD has to offer before i would move to the a new intel platform... or wait till ivy bridge which got those nice tri gate 3d transistors in less they fail to include those too...