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Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition review - wicked-fast performance

by Tarinder Sandhu on 11 March 2010, 05:00

Tags: Intel Core i7 980X OC, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qawir

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System setup and notes

CPU Intel Core i7 980X EE Intel Core i7 975 EE Intel Core i7 930 Intel Core i7 920 ES AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE
Frequency 3.33GHz (25x 133MHz) 3.33GHz (25x 133MHz) 2.80GHz (21x 133MHz) 2.67GHz (20x 133MHz) 3.40GHz (17x 200MHz)
Cache 1.5MB L2, 12MB L3 1MB L2, 8MB L3 1MB L2, 8MB L3 1MB L2, 8MB L3 2MB L2, 6MB L3
Cores/threads 6/12 4/8 4/8 4/8 4/4
Process 32nm 45nm 45nm 45nm 45nm
Form factor LGA1366 LGA1366 LGA1366 LGA1366 AM3
Price £765 £765 £230 £215 £145
Motherboard ASUS P6T SE (X58)
 ASUS M4A89GTD (890GX)
BIOS revision 0704 (11/01/2010)
 0402 (09/02/10)
Mainboard software Intel Inf 9.1.1.1025  AHCI 1.2.0.164
NEC USB3 1.0.18.0
Memory 6GB (3 x 2GB) Crucial DDR3-1,067 CL7 4GB (2 x 2GB) Kingston DDR3-1,600 CL9
Memory timings and speed 7-7-7-20 1T @ DDR3 1,067 9-9-9-24-2T @ DDR3-1,600
Graphics card Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1,024MB
Discrete graphics driver Catalyst 10.2
Disk drive Kingston SSDNow V+ 128GB
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
PSU Corsair HX1000W

Tests

Benchmarks

SiSoft Sandra 2010 (16.26), aggregate bandwidth and memory latency
HEXUS.PiFast to 10m places
CINEBENCH R10 multi-CPU render, 64-bit
CINEBENCH R11.5 multi-CPU and single-CPU render, 64-bit
POV-ray 3.7.0 beta 35a
wPrime v2.02
Bibble v5.02 image-processing benchmark - 200 photos
x264 HD v3.0 media-encoding benchmark - both passes noted
7zip v4.65 built-in file-compression benchmark

Far Cry 2 v1.03 - 1,024x768 medium quality, DX9, and 1,680x1,050 HQ, DX10
H.A.W.X v1.02 - 1,024x768 medium/low quality

Power-consumption tests - idle and 2D load
Overclocking tests - Core i7 980X EE only

Testing notes

If you want to see how the Core i7 980X EE stacks up against a myriad of other CPUs, please head on over to here.

The ASUS P6T SE motherboard doesn't provide a two-multiplier jump when using Turbo Boost with single-threaded applications. Rather, it's limited to one, which is consistent no matter which program is run.

We're most concerned with the performance of the 980X EE against the 975EE. Both chips are supremely expensive and only make sense in base units costing £1,500-plus.

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