Intel Core i7-5960X, -5930K, And -5820K CPU Review: Haswell-E Rises

[SirTrollsALot]

Hmm so for gaming, we're looking at either the 5820 or 4690..

How would the cost of said systems compare, assuming we could create them as equal as possible? Would the performance benefits of the 5820 justify the additional cost?

I'm still running on my old x58 i7 920, but it's starting to BSOD on CPU intensive games (although I suspect its my mobo that's the issue)...

I wanted to build a new system this year, but don't want to make the same mistake I did with the x58 and be left with something that simply can't be upgraded after a year or so. At the same time, I don't want to buy into old tech if that too won't last..

I have had a good run with my x58 mind, but am wary Intel may do what they did with my Gen 1 i7, and change something fundamental with the platform/DDR4 to mean I'll be 'stuck' with whatever I buy now...

my i7930 was kicking ass too, but yeah my six your old Evga SLI3 finally died... If they still made x58 boards I buy another in a hearthbeat... I guess thats the thing... Perhaps I should buy two "skylake" mobo for my next build and and put the other in cryonics! I dropped about $250 on my current AMD build... And it works fine... Intel is getting greedier!

Also I like to add, I think the $400 of the 5820K is bullshit... $300 is pushing it for me on CPU's

 

[ingtar33]

Um I'm a total noob. Can someone tell me approximately how much of an increase in performance I'd see using any of these over my i5 4670k? My CPU is not overclocked.
I'm running a 780 ti and Gskill Ripjaw 1600 RAM.

Honestly, you're not going to see much difference if any at all. Hyperthreading has very little to do with gaming let alone 8 cores or even 6 cores. Most games don't even utilize more than 2-3 cores or in some cases all 4, but not typical. When it comes to gaming benchmarks the component that is doing all the heavy lifting here is the GPU obviously. With a 780 ti you're not bottlenecked by your 4670k. The only time you start to see major differences in framerate is going to be when your CPU is the bottleneck. Then that's where overlocking comes in handy or depending on how old your CPU is, just simply upgrading. Going from your current Haswell to the "E" Enthusiast series won't net you anything worth the cost of any one of these sku's.

Just remember, these CPU's are designed for those who have money burning a hole in their pockets to purchase just because they can. They're alternatives to the Xeon lineup and for gaming are completely pointless. The only benefit you actually get is more PCI Express lanes, but again with your single 780 TI, not worth the cost. Even if you go SLI, you still would be running 8x/8x with the lowest price 5820k due to having 28 lanes. I'd save your money until Intel really offers something worthwhile.

it looks like just due to the ddr4 ram alone (which has x2 the bandwidth normal ddr3 has) you'll see a 10%-15% increase in performance at the same clock speed....

 

[Gurg]

As newer generations of GPU technology emerge, more graphically intensive games, and higher (4k/8k) resolutions become more common, it defiantly does make a difference. Even 2x GTX 780s become bottlenecked by 8x8x when gaming at 4k. Though I agree the 5820 is practical, for some, I defiantly don't agree that it is for gamers, never-the-less, extreme gaming enthusiasts.

When will these newer GPU techs, graphic intensive games and 4k/8k become more common? By then Intel will be hawking at least a 6000x series CPU using the same motherboard or a newer 7000x using a newly designed motherboard obsoleting the 5960x. My wild guess is that a 5820k will probably more than suffice until then.

 

[Nuckles_56]

As newer generations of GPU technology emerge, more graphically intensive games, and higher (4k/8k) resolutions become more common, it defiantly does make a difference. Even 2x GTX 780s become bottlenecked by 8x8x when gaming at 4k. Though I agree the 5820 is practical, for some, I defiantly don't agree that it is for gamers, never-the-less, extreme gaming enthusiasts.

When will these newer GPU techs, graphic intensive games and 4k/8k become more common? By then Intel will be hawking at least a 6000x series CPU using the same motherboard or a newer 7000x using a newly designed motherboard obsoleting the 5960x. My wild guess is that a 5820x will probably more than suffice until then.

Hopefully by the time that happens, we will have GPU's which are able to play at 4k at high to ultra settings on just a single card

 

[Gurg]

I think this article is too complicated to be useful. We need 2 more data points in particular. How much more does the entire system cost with motherboard and memory. Only real way to see if it's worth it vs Devil. Secondly, we need to know what the maximum reliable over clocking headroom is for each processor. Last thing why is the 5820 faster then the 5930.

I want to do a upgrade and I calculated out, just the mobo, ram, and CPU, this comes out to pass $1K
Asus X99 Deluxe $400
i5 5820K $200
16GB DDR4 (4x4GB) $230
And it doesn't even have a CPU fan!
Why 5820K faster, maybe Intel added some magical blue pixie dust because they believe that's the CPU that will bring them the most profit.

will i5 5820K could be $200?
and do you think it will be release on 1Q-2Q 2015?

First off its an i7-5820k and no... Its a $400+ processor.. Intel is not going to give away a CPU for $200 that beats the 4790k. *face palm*

Actually the 5820K is a $300 CPU vs $279 for a 4790k at MC.

 

[InvalidError]

Hopefully by the time that happens, we will have GPU's which are able to play at 4k at high to ultra settings on just a single card

That might happen with 16nm GPUs possibly as soon as next year if they manage to reduce the GPUs' dependence on raw memory bandwidth by roughly half. If they cannot, then it will have to wait until they can integrate something like 512MB-1GB of on-package ultra-fast memory.

 

[Gurg]

Hmm so for gaming, we're looking at either the 5820 or 4690..

How would the cost of said systems compare, assuming we could create them as equal as possible? Would the performance benefits of the 5820 justify the additional cost?

I'm still running on my old x58 i7 920, but it's starting to BSOD on CPU intensive games (although I suspect its my mobo that's the issue)...

I wanted to build a new system this year, but don't want to make the same mistake I did with the x58 and be left with something that simply can't be upgraded after a year or so. At the same time, I don't want to buy into old tech if that too won't last..

I have had a good run with my x58 mind, but am wary Intel may do what they did with my Gen 1 i7, and change something fundamental with the platform/DDR4 to mean I'll be 'stuck' with whatever I buy now...

my i7930 was kicking ass too, but yeah my six your old Evga SLI3 finally died... If they still made x58 boards I buy another in a hearthbeat... I guess thats the thing... Perhaps I should buy two "skylake" mobo for my next build and and put the other in cryonics! I dropped about $250 on my current AMD build... And it works fine... Intel is getting greedier!

Also I like to add, I think the $400 of the 5820K is bullshit... $300 is pushing it for me on CPU's

Read closer its not just the CPU cost; its the cost of newly designed LGA 2011-3 motherboard and DDR4 Ram that are also needed to run it. Total cost is about $1000

 

[SessouXFX]

Looks promising... But if you only want to game 90% of the time, why would you want a Haswell-E over the other Haswells?

I'm not going to knock anyone for choosing this as their next gaming platform. At one point, I was thinking the same. But I realized, it's better to just be realistic about what I really wanted to do and consider the other things I could do with a 4790K too. But again, to each his own. It's certainly a step up from IvyB-E...

 

[cangelini]

I was wondering how often you writers read the comments? Just wondering.

Always!

 

[cangelini]

Out of curiosity why were so many of the gaming tests only done at 2560x1440? Seems like you would be more GPU bound at this resolution. I'm not sure it really matters but I do like gaming at 1080p for the very high frame rates was curious if these would push frame rates higher. Otherwise nice review.

Wanted to pick a realistic resolution that someone with a $400+ CPU would run at. Actually started with 4K, but would have had to rely on graphics drivers not yet optimized for SLI/CrossFire in the process, which was just one more variable to consider.

 

[randomizer]

I kinda wish an old Nehalem chip was in there to compare with. I have to jump around between reviews from different years to do comparisons with my i7 920 :lol:

 

[Coolant]

Now test 295x2 crossfire

 

[saturn85]

is there a plan to benchmark these 3 processor with folding@home?

 

[Cash091]

Why do they call these their "5th generation" of Intel core processors if they're refreshes of the Haswell processors? I get that they have revolutionary technology within but with the release of broadwell so soon I doubt that anyone would buy these processors..

They always count their core-E chips as "next-gen." They have been doing it since Sandy Bridge anyway. The SB-E were 3xxxK chips even though SB were 2xxxK. At least these are coming out BEFORE Broadwell, not like the IB-E chips.

 

[red77star]

Compared to SB-E or IB-E this is waste of money and no really performance gain. I have SB-E overclocked 4.8GHz therefore i5960K doesn't touch it since overclocking on those sucks. This whole deal would make sense if they made i5930K to be cheaper 8 core processor and i5820K to be what i5930K is now but that's too good for consumers according to assholes from Intel. After all, I can drop Xeon 8 Core to X79 motherboard heck even Xeon 10 or 12 Core. (eVga x79 board supports it). Socket change wasn't needed and this whole thing could be done on existing x79 boards.

 

[loki1944]

So, not really much of an improvement for gaming then, as usual it seems. 1-6 fps is not what I consider justifiable for dropping this amount of doubloons on.

 

[SessouXFX]

The only reason you'd create a rig for Has-E, is because you crunch numbers for a living or you're just an absolute fanatic about having the very best rig possible. For everyone else, go with the Refresh or hang out until Broadwell comes down the block.

 

[de5_Roy]

The only reason you'd create a rig for Has-E, is because you crunch numbers for a living or you're just an absolute fanatic about having the very best rig possible. For everyone else, go with the Refresh or hang out until Broadwell comes down the block.

first batch of bdw (core.. (AHE)M...) will make hsw-e look like 'worth buying'.

 

[RedJaron]

Compared to SB-E or IB-E this is waste of money and no really performance gain. I have SB-E overclocked 4.8GHz therefore i5960K doesn't touch it since overclocking on those sucks.

You're not taking into consideration the IPC improvements between SB-E and HW-E. HW-E can do more work per cycle so the slightly lower clocks aren't a problem. Also consider the extra PCIe lanes, USB support, DDR4, as well as the newer instruction sets in the CPU and there's a fair amount of improvements here.

 

[mapesdhs]

... Also consider the extra PCIe lanes, USB support, DDR4, as well as the newer instruction sets in the CPU and there's a fair amount of improvements here.

Not enough to warrant an upgrade from an oc'd SB-E. Btw, SB-E also has 40 PCIe lanes, just a slower
speed, though PLEX switches, etc., solve this in many cases (Asrock X79 Extreme11, ASUS P9X79-E WS,
that sort of thing).

Even an oc'd 5960X is not that much quicker than an oc'd 3930K, especially not given the cost. It's faster
(of course it is), but not that much faster. Power consumption is what may make the difference for the
lesser 5K CPUs; add that to the equation and perhaps then it would make sense, unless the total rig draw
was high anyway.

Ian.

 

[Fedor]

Like several others have mentioned, I would very much like to hear why the 5820 beats the 5930 in the gaming tests. This makes no sense at all, given that it is a slower chip, and all else should be equal as far as we know. On other sites this is not the case, so it would be good to get to the bottom of this, right now we might be drawing the wrong conclusions.

 

[TechyInAZ]

that neat! all the processors are cool but the one that caught my attention is the i7 5820K. A hexa core for only around $60 more than a 4790K! Ill take that over a 4790K.

 

[Jesusv]

Such a beauty. This past week has been very stressful in my personal life and while this machine will not fix my problems it would certainly make me forget and feel happy. *Sigh* A man can dream.

 

[Jesusv]

for some giggles how come you didn't add the Pentium 4 in the test? I mean you mentioned the Pentium 4 and compared it to the new haswell 5-series. Not that it would matter to anyone, I am sure hardly anyone is still using a Pentium 478 setup anymore, but none the less it would be interesting to see it compared with the rest of the newer toys of today.

I still have an socket 478 Pentium 4 2.8Ghz HT computer that is used everyday. I have recently updated it to Windows 7 SP1 x86 (last Windows it will ever run since Windows 8.1 not compatible). The Windows performance rating is of 3.4 (CPU rated 3.4) and runs decent. It can play Minecraft and watch youtube videos at 360p. I'll like to see how it stacks up against a Haswell cpu!!

 

[rantoc]

Find it strange that the slower clocked 5920k (in any non overclocked scenario) runs faster that the 5930k in TH's tests while many other sites shows a different picture especially with higher GPU power involved than a single card. Sure the test board recongizes the chip properly and run at its rated speed rather than have it overclocked?