Benchmarks

Cinebench 11.5 – CPU Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA 2011 – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks
CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 – Convert 145MB MP4 to avi
PCMark 7 – System Benchmark
3DMark 11 – Performance and Extreme preset Overall and Physics Score
Games – Crysis 2, DiRT3, Metro 2033

Other Software
Core Temp 0.99.5
LinX stress Test
CPUID HWMonitor

Overclocking

Intel is very keen to point out that overclocking will be much more in-depth than simply adjusting a multiplier as with skt 1155 Sandybridge CPU’s. The Sandybridge-E is essentially an enhanced high-end version of its younger brother and while architecturally different from the X58 platform which has a plethora of overclocking options available, X79 is also more complex than P67/Z68 systems. The top two processors (3960X and 3930K) both have unlocked multipliers with a maximum multiplier of 57x. The lower specced i7-3820 will unfortunately have its multiplier locked and thus only has the Turbo ratio to rely on. Therefore if you like to dabble in the dark art of overclocking you would be best served by either the 3960X of 3930K processors. Below we see a stock shot of the CPU in idle state with SpeedStep enabled:


As previously stated, overclocking on the X79 platform is a little different from previous generations in that the CPU base clock is determined by DMI Clock x Base Clock Ratio. Some motherboard manufacturers will inevitably create a clock generator that will do this calculation for you thus making the process a little easier (as with our test bench motherboard, the MSI X79A GD65(8D).


Memory overclocking has been expanded with the addition of another ratio, theoretically allowing the X79 platform to overclock memory to DDR3 2400 at a ram ratio of x9.
Other than the ram ration there are essentially three main settings that can be adjusted: CPU Ratio, CPU Core Ratio and CPU Base Clock. As with skt1156 Sandybridge processors, the CPU ratio yields the biggest bulk of the overclocking as this multiplies the bus speed so for example 40x CPU ratio x 100 bus speed would result in a clockspeed of 4000MHz. The bus speed is in essence the Baseclock and thus this can be fine tuned to extract the maximum amount from the CPU. Couple the base clock with the CPU core ratios of 1.00, 1.33 and 1.67MHz and you can (hopefully) extract the absolute maximum. MSI recommend a maximum +/-10% overclock on the base clock at each ratio so it will be interesting to see exactly how this affects our overclock.


Here we see the CPU in its stock format with Turbo Boost II enabled and thus a resulting speed weighs in at 3.6GHz. This clockspeed can theoretically rise up to 3.9GHz on this processor on individual cores when placed under stress or drop to 1200MHz when idle with the CPU features enabled. When overclocking, especially when attempting to find a stable overclock it is best to disable such settings though as this can affect stability at the highest point. Therefore we did just that and set about achieving our highest STABLE overclock.

Initially we simply could not get the CPU to overclock at all. I feared that the multiplier was locked as despite setting the core multiplier anything higher than 33 failed to latch and despite altering a variety of settings in the UEFI BIOS, nothing would allow us to break the 33X barrier. Ultimately a BIOS update was required and while this BIOS was also a little buggy, it did allow us to adjust the multiplier AND get it to stick. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the baseclock which refused to go anything above 100MHz.

Voltage was another hurdle to traverse as being a totally new processor, I was not sure how far I could push things. Couple this with the astronomical price point of £900 and fear of destroying the chip before the NDA had passed perhaps made me err on the side of caution. I initially settled for a maximum 1.4v Vcore to achieve the maximum overclock but due to the Vdroop (despite the load line calibration level set to maximum) I nudged a little passed this mark to ensure the 1.4v was attained for the duration of the stress testing.


After many hours, lots of head scratching and numerous experimental settings, I eventually hit a brick wall at 4.8GHZ. While this is a fantastic achievement, especially considering all 6 cores (along with hyperthreading) were enabled, failing to reach the ‘golden’ 5GHz mark was frustrating. It is never easy overclocking on a new platform, especially when there is so little concrete information available so getting this far was a victory and testament to the ease of use of the MSI BIOS. This overclock was rock solid stable however nudging the CPU ratio one notch higher to x49 resulted in stability issues, often being unable to boot. With other motherboard issues plaguing my attempts to push the envelope further, 4.8GHz was the figure I settled for on this occasion but I have no doubts at all with a more mature BIOS, higher results can and will be attained. As with all overclocking, each result is dependent on the components used so while we achieved this result, there are no guarantees this will be the case with an identical setup.

Temperature & Power Consumption

Temperatures
As mentioned earlier in the review, Intel are going to be selling a rebranded all-in-one watercooling solution from Asetek. They wouldn’t make such a move unless the feared CPU temperatures could become an issue. The watercooling solution is aimed specifically for the enthusiast market and thus the overclocker.


The temperature as stock is excellent, hitting an average 28.5 across all six cores, just 5.5c above ambient (23c) temperature. Obviously, temps should be good at the very low voltage of just 0.816v.


Placing the CPU under stress using Intel LinX software we see a maximum temp of 45.5c which again is very good considering the clockspeed had risen to 3.6GHz.


Upon maximum overclock and with the Corsair H100 set to medium setting, the temp rose dramatically, peaking at an average 64c. Still well within the comfort zone though and with a clockspeed set to 4.8GHz along with a Vcore of just above 1.4v this is fantastic achievement.

Power Consumption
Despite being Ultra high end, I had hopes that the test setup would consume less power than our old i7 Core i7 test setup. I did not however expect the results to be so fantastic.




When idle (and with eco settings enabled) the whole setup consumed just 119W. This value rose slightly when clocked to 4.8GHz but was still well below the copetition whose clockspeeds were much lower. The good news continued as we put the system under stress with the stock clocked i7-3960X consuming the least amount of power out of all the setups tested. Obviously running such a high overclock will consume a much larger amount of power but this was still less than the stock clocked i7 990X and i5 2500K setups. Consideration however should be given to the fact that each setup has varying hardware and thus the power readings are an indication only as it is impossible to truly give a like for like power usage comparison as to the best of our knowledge an Intel i7 3960X will not fit in an AMD motherboard and vice-versa! Nonetheless, this is a fantastic achievement from Intel.

SiSoftware Sandra

AIDA64

x264 HD V4.0

Cinebench 11.5

Futuremark PCMark 7 & 3DMark 11

*Note* Other systems were omitted due to varying GPU’s being used which would have had an adverse affect on the results.

Gaming Benchmarks

*Note* Other systems were omitted due to varying GPU’s being used which would have had an adverse affect on the results.

Conclusion

There can be no doubting the performance of the i7-3960X. It truly is a monster. Our results have shown it tops the tables in everything you can throw at it from CPU arithmetic to memory bandwidth. Whatever your need, the Intel i7-3960X will satisfy your craving for outright performance. Throughout our suite of benchmarks, the i7-3960X consistently took apart the competition which is testament to the awesome processing power this new range of CPU’s have to offer. That however is just for starters.

Experiencing the power of this processor while overclocked was nothing short of spectacular. There are few components that make my jaw drop these days but witnessing this processor in action was truly awe inspiring. My face was akin to the famous Scream mask such was the blistering speed the processor produced. It wasn’t only the CPU speed either as having quad channel memory made the whole setup blisteringly quick. While it is debateable if a home user would ever need such extravagances and masses of bandwidth after all, it wasn’t so long ago that we (me included) ridiculed those looking for 4GB of ram. Who would ever need such a ‘huge’ amount of physical memory? Indeed times change along with peoples requirments.


If you have ever sat waiting for Photoshop to process huge batch files or indeed gone to make a cup of tea as Winrar was taking an age then you will certainly see the benefits of such a setup. With HD video editing now much more mainstream, working with larger files requires more speed and more memory if we are to keep the cobwebs at bay while processing these files. This is where a the Intel core i7-3960X comes into its own.

The bad news however is the price of this beast. Estimated to be around the £900 mark it is anything but cheap and no doubt will be out of reach for the majority of enthusiasts. Extreme Edition chips have traditionally held a premium and this version is no different. While it will soon be succeeded by the hugely anticipated ‘Ivy Bridge’ range of processors, this will not deter those who are looking for the absolute pinnacle of processing power which at present is the Intel i7-3960X Sandybridge-E processor and for that reason alone is deserving of the Vortez Elite and Platinum awards.

Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net. Thanks to Intel for providing todays review sample.