Intel Sandy Bridge Extreme i7-3960X Processor Review

Angry · 11-15-11, 09:36 AM

Great review, Hokie.

As for the processor...."meh."

$1k is just to much to ask in my opinion, esp since the price hasnt dropped on a 990x.....

Brolloks · 11-15-11, 10:06 AM

My recommendation is unless you bench or do heavy encoding where time is of the essence this platform is not worth upgrading for, it is after all targeted as an Enthusiast platform, nice to play with but way to rich to aquire as a everyday rig or for gaming.
The 2500k/2600k remains imo still the best setup, very efficient and affordable.

David · 11-15-11, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brolloks

My recommendation is unless you bench or do heavy encoding where time is of the essence this platform is not worth upgrading for, it is after all targeted as an Enthusiast platform, nice to play with but way to rich to aquire as a everyday rig or for gaming.
The 2500k/2600k remains imo still the best setup, very efficient and affordable.

How's the (EVGA?) board working out for you?

Janus67 · 11-15-11, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brolloks

My recommendation is unless you bench or do heavy encoding where time is of the essence this platform is not worth upgrading for, it is after all targeted as an Enthusiast platform, nice to play with but way to rich to aquire as a everyday rig or for gaming.
The 2500k/2600k remains imo still the best setup, very efficient and affordable.

Completely agreed with this. The SB-E chips are not made for gaming of this generation and maybe not even the next until they start using heavily threaded applications. They are for workstation/benchmarking and not too much else at this point in my opinion.

bmwbaxter · 11-15-11, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angry

Great review, Hokie.

As for the processor...."meh."

$1k is just to much to ask in my opinion, esp since the price hasnt dropped on a 990x.....

Intels flagship processors never get a noticeable price drop. They just get bought out of stock then disappear.

Brolloks · 11-15-11, 10:21 AM

First thing I want to do this weekend is do clock for clock compatisons between a 2600k and 3930k to see if there is any gain with the new chipset, I would expect so with quad channel RAM and more cache but I don't expect more than 5-10%.

satandole666 · 11-15-11, 10:29 AM

I told myself I was probably going to upgrade from my 920 when 2011 rolled around. Now that it is here, I find myself thinking that the $700 for the K CPU and a motherboard would be better spent on a video card, SSD, and raid storage combo for my existing rig.

It isn't that this socket is bad, but it seems like anyone sitting on any generation of i7 quad core won't see much improvement in day to day tasks by upgrading to the newest release.

Intel is kicking so much ass that developers seem to be 3 or so years behind the hardware curve at this point. Insane...

Brolloks · 11-15-11, 10:35 AM

No doubt Intel's R&D is top class, I'm really impressed how they can punch out such step up technology in less than 12 months from each other, exciting for us who like to play with new stuff

ChasR · 11-15-11, 02:18 PM

Nice review.

A suggestion for future folding Benchmarks, resize the columns in HFM so we can at least see what WU the benchmark was run on. Performance on 2600Ks (4.8 GHz) on normal SMP WUs in Linux vary from 25K to 45K ppd depending on the WU. 43,500ppd on p7500 isn't really Impressive, while that performance on p6058 would be fantastic.

hokiealumnus · 11-15-11, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChasR

Nice review.

A suggestion for future folding Benchmarks, resize the columns in HFM so we can at least see what WU the benchmark was run on. Performance on 2600Ks (4.8 GHz) on normal SMP WUs in Linux vary from 25K to 45K ppd depending on the WU. 43,500ppd on p7500 isn't really Impressive, while that performance on p6058 would be fantastic.

Thanks, I'll do that. I haven't folded in a long time and had no idea the difference in WUs was so much, my apologies.

PanteraGSTK · 11-15-11, 03:27 PM

Great review. I'm in the same boat as everyone else thinking that unless you are a cruncher, bencher, or video encoder then you aren't getting much benefit over SB. I'm considering building a new pc, but with IB looming I'll keep being patient.

>HyperlogiK< · 11-15-11, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

These machines only really suit massive megamultitaskers or people who crunch lots and lots of data.

I'm sure Xeon-based datacrunching rigs based on these SNB-E chips will be very popular.

Of course I agree completely, I was referring only to enthusiasts. More power is always useful for enterprise data crunching.

ChasR · 11-15-11, 04:45 PM

Hokie,
Do you recall or can you look and see what WU the benchmark was run on?

wingman99 · 11-15-11, 04:48 PM

To much money for what you get and gaming is the same as SB.

tuigi69 · 11-17-11, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Thanks, I'll do that. I haven't folded in a long time and had no idea the difference in WUs was so much, my apologies.

There's a FAH benchmarking program running around the net. http://www.avid-edge.com/fah/FAHbench_v12.zip
It has a couple standard WU's that were "captured" (older) and the program allows you to select the WU and number of ticks (% of the WU) to fold. It'll allow you to bench a3's and a5's. The WU's are constant with the program so will allow everyone do directly compare performance using the program.

Eldonko · 11-17-11, 04:41 PM

Let me save you some time, Ive been running 2600k vs. 3960X head to head for a few weeks now. Clock for clock, SB and SB-E perf is the same for single thread and single GPU but SB-E dominates in things like rendering, video/audio editing, or anything multi-thread. SB-E also outperforms SB in multi-GPU by 2-5% depending on the test and the GPU (better GPU = more of an advantage). Add more video cards and the perf advantage of SB-E grows more. That is it in a nutshell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brolloks

First thing I want to do this weekend is do clock for clock compatisons between a 2600k and 3930k to see if there is any gain with the new chipset, I would expect so with quad channel RAM and more cache but I don't expect more than 5-10%.

tangletail · 11-22-11, 11:33 PM

Great but... that price.... deal breaker for me.

Sure the performance out does the BD on pretty much everything here but... the trends has been the same after AMD's Anthlon days. The thing that keeps me from ever buying the chip is it's price. That is still a bit ridiculous for me.

Power consumption is never a concern since it only adds two or three cents to my electric bill for a high end part, but I am not willing to shell out that kind of cabbage for something I don't even know a program will ever run. I will stick with my phenom and intel celeron for now :P.

Also, a quick hack for those who program. Turn off the freaking Intel Genuine on intel's instruction compilers. Not everyone is rich for a Intel part, and must suffice with AMD.

11-15-11, 09:36 AM	#101
Angry Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bluefield, WV	Great review, Hokie. As for the processor...."meh." $1k is just to much to ask in my opinion, esp since the price hasnt dropped on a 990x..... __________________ Main Rig.......................Game Server.........................Media Server..............Untangle Core i3 2100 ....... ........Phenom II X4 965...................Athlon II X4 620....... Athlon X2 2350-BE 2.1ghz MSI P67A-GD65 ..............Asus M4A79XTD........................GA-890GX.................MSI 785GTM-45 G.Skill 1333 4x2gb............16gb Partriot S5 DDR3 1333.......4gb DDR3 1600...........4gb OCZ DDR2 1066 EVGA GTX 670 FTW SLI........2x EVGA GTX 550Ti.........................Onboard 890gx 60gb OCZ Summit.................4x250gb WD RE Raid0 ViewSonic VX2453mh-LED
	QUOTE Thanks

11-15-11, 10:06 AM	#102
Brolloks Benching Senior on Siesta Premium Member #8 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Land of Long Horns	My recommendation is unless you bench or do heavy encoding where time is of the essence this platform is not worth upgrading for, it is after all targeted as an Enthusiast platform, nice to play with but way to rich to aquire as a everyday rig or for gaming. The 2500k/2600k remains imo still the best setup, very efficient and affordable.
	QUOTE Thanks

11-15-11, 10:21 AM	#106
Brolloks Benching Senior on Siesta Premium Member #8 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Land of Long Horns	First thing I want to do this weekend is do clock for clock compatisons between a 2600k and 3930k to see if there is any gain with the new chipset, I would expect so with quad channel RAM and more cache but I don't expect more than 5-10%.
	QUOTE Thanks

11-15-11, 10:29 AM	#107
satandole666 Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Columbus, OH	I told myself I was probably going to upgrade from my 920 when 2011 rolled around. Now that it is here, I find myself thinking that the $700 for the K CPU and a motherboard would be better spent on a video card, SSD, and raid storage combo for my existing rig. It isn't that this socket is bad, but it seems like anyone sitting on any generation of i7 quad core won't see much improvement in day to day tasks by upgrading to the newest release. Intel is kicking so much ass that developers seem to be 3 or so years behind the hardware curve at this point. Insane... __________________ i7 920 Gigabyte X58 Extreme 6gb OCZ DDR3 2000 7970 Fuzion/MCP655/3x120 rad
	QUOTE Thanks

11-15-11, 10:35 AM	#108
Brolloks Benching Senior on Siesta Premium Member #8 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Land of Long Horns	No doubt Intel's R&D is top class, I'm really impressed how they can punch out such step up technology in less than 12 months from each other, exciting for us who like to play with new stuff
	QUOTE Thanks

Intel Sandy Bridge Extreme i7-3960X Processor Review

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11-15-11, 02:18 PM	#109
ChasR Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Atlanta	Nice review. A suggestion for future folding Benchmarks, resize the columns in HFM so we can at least see what WU the benchmark was run on. Performance on 2600Ks (4.8 GHz) on normal SMP WUs in Linux vary from 25K to 45K ppd depending on the WU. 43,500ppd on p7500 isn't really Impressive, while that performance on p6058 would be fantastic. __________________ All ppd from friends and family. Many thanks to HayesK for his support and congrats on being the #1 Folder on Team 32. Special thanks to ChrisC and ColinC
	QUOTE Thanks

11-15-11, 03:27 PM	#111
PanteraGSTK Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: over there	Great review. I'm in the same boat as everyone else thinking that unless you are a cruncher, bencher, or video encoder then you aren't getting much benefit over SB. I'm considering building a new pc, but with IB looming I'll keep being patient. __________________ EVGA 750i SLI FTW, Q6600 @ 3200mhz 1.325v, vdroop mod, Kingston pc8500 4gb, 2x 8800GT in SLI, OCZ Vertex 3 120GB,WD 320GB for games, Xclio 650w psu, Scythe Infinity 2X Kingwin 80cfm 120mm fans, X-fi xtreme gamer, Windows 7 Ultimate Bill Gates over heard saying "If i had a penny for every time Windows Crashed... Oh wait, I do."
	QUOTE Thanks

11-15-11, 04:45 PM	#113
ChasR Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Atlanta	Hokie, Do you recall or can you look and see what WU the benchmark was run on? __________________ All ppd from friends and family. Many thanks to HayesK for his support and congrats on being the #1 Folder on Team 32. Special thanks to ChrisC and ColinC
	QUOTE Thanks

11-15-11, 04:48 PM	#114
wingman99 Member Join Date: Dec 2003	To much money for what you get and gaming is the same as SB. __________________ i5 2500K @5.0 GHz Motherboard Gigabyte Z68A-D3-B3 G.SKILL RipjawsX X.M.P. 1600MHz EVGA SuperClocked GTX 570
	QUOTE Thanks

11-22-11, 11:33 PM	#117
tangletail Member Join Date: Jun 2011	Great but... Great but... that price.... deal breaker for me. Sure the performance out does the BD on pretty much everything here but... the trends has been the same after AMD's Anthlon days. The thing that keeps me from ever buying the chip is it's price. That is still a bit ridiculous for me. Power consumption is never a concern since it only adds two or three cents to my electric bill for a high end part, but I am not willing to shell out that kind of cabbage for something I don't even know a program will ever run. I will stick with my phenom and intel celeron for now :P. Also, a quick hack for those who program. Turn off the freaking Intel Genuine on intel's instruction compilers. Not everyone is rich for a Intel part, and must suffice with AMD.
	QUOTE Thanks

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