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Review: Intel Core i7-5960X (22nm Haswell)

by Tarinder Sandhu on 29 August 2014, 17:00

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacicr

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Testing methodology

Comparison Processor Configurations

CPU
Intel
AMD
Core i7-5960X
Core i7-4960X
Core i7-3960X
Core i7-4790K
Core i5-4690K
FX-9590
FX-8350
CPU TDP
140W
130W
130W
88W
88W
220W
125W
Socket
LGA 2011-v3
LGA 2011
LGA 2011
LGA 1150
LGA 1150
AM3+
AM3+
Fabrication
22nm
22nm
22nm
22nm
22nm
32nm
32nm
Motherboard
Asus X99 Deluxe
Gigabyte X79-UD3
Asus Z97-A
Asus Crosshair V
BIOS
5501
F20
1304
1703
Chipset Driver
Intel 9.4.2.1019
AMD Catalyst 14.4
Memory
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB)
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB)
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB)
Memory Timings
15-15-15-36-2T @ 2,133MHz
9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz
9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz
9-10-9-27-2T @ 1,866MHz
Graphics Card
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB
Graphics Driver
ForceWare 340.52 WQHL
Disk Drive
Crucial MX100 512GB
Power Supply
Corsair AX760i (760W)
Cooling
Noctua NH-D15
Operating System
Windows 8.1 64-bit

CPU and Memory Benchmarks

HEXUS PiFast Our number-crunching benchmark stresses a single core by calculating Pi to 10m places
Cinebench R15 Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses all cores
wPrime 2.1.0 Another number-crunching benchmark that stresses all available CPU cores/threads
AIDA64 v4.60.3120 Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency

Multimedia Benchmarks

HandBrake 0.9.9.1 Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores (64-bit)

System Benchmarks

PCMark 8 v2.0.228 System-wide examination that uses the Home preset, run with OpenCL acceleration
3DMark v1.3.708 DX11, run at the Fire Strike default test
SiSoft Sandra 2014 SP3 Aggregate score that takes a composite of 12 system-wide benchmarks

Gaming Benchmarks

BioShock Infinite DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 3,840x2,160, ultra quality
Batman: Arkham Origins DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 3,840x2,160, enhanced quality
Total War: Rome II DX11, 1,920x1,080 and 3,840x2,160, ultra quality

Miscellaneous Benchmarks

Power Consumption While idling and when running HandBrake and Batman: Arkam Origins

Notes

We have tested every platform and CPU from the ground up. The seven CPUs all use a discrete EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB graphics card.

All CPUs are run with their maximum supported memory frequencies, and all benchmarks were the latest build as of 23/08/2014.

Games are run at both 1080p and 4K, to see if resolution makes much of a difference. We expect the Core i7-5960X to be the fastest CPU for multi-core benchmarks, but it will be interesting to see how it fares in gaming and when overclocked.