IntelCore i7-5960X Extreme Edition Review
We’ve known for quite a while that there would be a
Haswell-based Extreme Edition processor that brings quad-channel memory support
and more than twice as many PCI-E lanes as the recently launched Devil’s Canyon
processors. Despite our utter lack of suspense regarding its existence, however,
the Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition still impressed us once we put it through its
paces.
Perhaps knowing how much we’ve been anticipating the launch
of this processor and platform, Intel shipped the 5960X (and an Intel 730
Series SSD) in a nifty, hand-painted, hexagonal Containment Unit, which
dramatically lights up and reveals the goods with some serious sci-fi flair.
The 5960X is a 22nm chip that consists of 2.6 billion
transistors and measures 356mm2. This is an octo-core processor with
Hyper-Threading enabled, giving it the muscle to handle 16 threads at once. If
you regularly work (or play) with applications that can utilize more than a
handful of threads, then this processor was built with you in mind. When
compared to Intel’s quad-core Corei7-4790K, this processor offers up to 79% more
multithreaded performance.
The core clock of this chip is set to what at first seems
like a modest 3GHz, especially considering that fact that last year’s Ivy
Bridge-E Core i7-4960X is clocked at 3.6GHz and has a 4GHz Turbo Boost clock.
But don’t forget there are 33.3% more cores under the heat spreader of this beast,
and the maximum TDP is 140 watts, a mere 10 watts higher than that of the
4960X. With Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, this processor will ramp up to 3.5GHz
when there’s room in its thermal envelope to do so. The chip also features a
large 20MB Intel Smart Cache shared between all cores and SSE4.2, AVX 2.0, and
AES instruction set extensions.
Other features that will surely appeal to power users
include 40 available PCI-E 3.0 lanes to support up to four discrete graphics
cards (contingent on motherboard support for four-way CrossFireX and/or SLI).
DDR4 and quad-channel memory also come along for the ride, and Intel supports
DDR4-1333/1600/2133 for a maximum theoretical memory bandwidth of 68GBps.
During testing, we noticed that scores between the Haswell-E
Core i7-5960X and the Ivy Bridge Core i7-4960X were not very different when the
benchmark was largely dependent on another component (such as in the game
tests). Regarding CPUbound tests however, the new processor pulled ahead impressively,
scoring 14% better in Cinebench 11.5 and 23% better in POV-Ray 3.7. Memory
bandwidth is still very similar compared to Ivy Bridge-E, but this will change
in Haswell-E’s favor as faster and lower-latency memory becomes available next
year.
If you’re currently running an Ivy Bridge-E system, you
won’t see huge leaps in performance unless you’re consistently saturating a
dozen threads with the applications you run. On the other hand, for those who
have reached the upper limits of what a dual-channel/quad-core platform can
deliver, upgrading to the Core i7-5960X makes a lot of sense.
Specs:Clock speed: 3GHz (base), 3.5GHz (turbo); 8 cores; Unlocked multiplier; Socket LGA2011-v3; Quad-channel memory; 20MB Intel Smart Cache; Hyper-Threading; Turbo Boost; 22nm; 140W Max TDP
Test system specs: Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-X99-UD5; Graphics: PNY XLR8 GeForce GTX 780 Ti Customized Overclocked; RAM: 16GB Crucial DDR4-2133; Storage: 240GB Intel 730 SSD; OS: Windows 8.1 Enterprise (64-bit)
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