| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processors | Intel Core i7-3970X (Sandy Bridge-E) 3.5 GHz (35 * 100 MHz), LGA 2011, 15 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E) 3.3 GHz (33 * 100 MHz), LGA 2011, 15 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Intel Core i7-3930K (Sandy Bridge-E) 3.2 GHz (32 * 100 MHz), LGA 2011, 12 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Intel Xeon E5-2687W (Sandy Bridge-EP) 3.1 GHz (31 * 100 MHz), LGA 2011, 20 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| AMD FX-8350 (Vishera) 4.0 GHz (20 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3+, 8 MB Shared L3, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi) 3.6 GHz (18 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3+, 8 MB Shared L3, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| AMD Phenom II X4 980 BE (Deneb) 3.7 GHz (18.5 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3, 6 MB Shared L3, Power-savings enabled | |
| AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (Thuban) 3.3 GHz (16.5 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Intel Core i7-3770K (Ivy Bridge) 3.5 GHz (35 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 8 MB Shared L3, Hyper-Threading enabled, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Intel Core i5-3570K (Ivy Bridge) 3.4 GHz (34 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Intel Core i5-3470 (Ivy Bridge) 3.2 GHz (32 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Intel Core i5-2550K (Sandy Bridge) 3.4 GHz (34 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled | |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WiFi (LGA 2011) Intel C606, BIOS F4m |
| ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional (Socket AM3+) AMD 990FX/SB950 Chipset, BIOS 1.9 | |
| Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H (LGA 1155) Intel Z77 Express, BIOS F17 | |
| Memory | G.Skill 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600, F3-12800CL9Q2-32GBZL @ DDR3-1600 at 1.5 V |
| Hard Drive | Crucial m4 256 GB, SATA 6 Gb/s |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 2 GB |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master UCP-1000 W |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Graphics Driver | Nvidia GeForce Release 306.97 |
We've transitioned over to Gigabyte's X79S-UP5-WiFi motherboard for benchmarking LGA 2011-based processors. Armed with Intel's C606 chipset, this board is designed to accommodate Intel's Xeon E5 processors. Not all motherboards include this support. So, if you plan to do a little Xeon testing of your own, make sure your platform features the requisite firmware to recognize Intel's more business-oriented processor family.
| 3D Game Benchmarks And Settings | |
|---|---|
| Benchmark | Details |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | Game Settings: High and Ultra Quality Settings, Anti-Aliasing: FXAA, V-sync: Disabled, 1680x1050, 1920x1200, 2560x1600, Custom Demo, 25-second Fraps run |
| Battlefield 3 | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti Aliasing: Disabled and 4xMSAA (Deferred)/High (Post), Anisotropic Filtering: 16x, Vertical Sync: Off, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, Demo: Going Hunting, 90-second Fraps run |
| World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria | Game Settings: Ultra Quality Settings, Anti Aliasing: 1x AA and 8x AA, Anisotropic Filtering: 16x, Vertical Sync: Disabled, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, Demo: Crushblow to The Krazzworks, DirectX 11 |
| Audio Benchmarks And Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| iTunes | Version: 10.4.1.10, 64-bit Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min., Convert to AAC audio format |
| Lame MP3 | Version 3.99 Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| Video Benchmarks And Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.9.8 Video: Big Buck Bunny (720x480, 23.972 frames) 5 Minutes, Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile) |
| MainConcept Reference v2.2 | Version: 2.2.0.5440 MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| Application Benchmarks And Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| WinRAR | Version 4.20 RAR, Syntax "winrar a -r -m3", Benchmark: 2012-THG-Workload, 1.35 GB |
| WinZip | Version 17 WinZip Commandline Version 3, ZIPX, Syntax "-a -ez -p -r", Benchmark: 2012-THG-Workload, 1.35 GB |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.20 (x64) LZMA2, Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5", Benchmark: 2012-THG-Workload, 1.35 GB |
| Adobe Premiere Pro CS 6 | Hollywood Sequence to H.264 Blu-ray, Output 1920x1080, Maximum Quality |
| Adobe After Effects CS 6 | Create Video which includes three Streams Frames: 210, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously: on |
| Cinebench | Version 11.5 Build CB25720DEMO CPU Test single- and multi-threaded |
| Blender | Version: 2.63, Cycles Engine Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, Resolution: 1920x1080, Anti-Aliasing: 8x, Render: THG.blend frame 1 |
| Adobe Photoshop CS 6 (64-Bit) | Version: 11 Filtering a 16 MB TIF (15 000x7266), Filters:, Radial Blur (Amount: 10, Method: zoom, Quality: good) Shape Blur (Radius: 46 px; custom shape: Trademark sysmbol) Median (Radius: 1px) Polar Coordinates (Rectangular to Polar) |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version: 10 Professional Build (10.0.102.82) Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
| 3ds Max 2012 | Render Space Flyby, 1440x1080, from Y: RAM Drive |
| Adobe Acrobat X Professional | PDF Document Creation (Print) from Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 |
| SolidWorks 2010 | PhotoView 360, 01-Lighter Explode.SLDASM Benchmark File, 1920x1080 Render, 1.44 Million Polygons, 256 AA Samples |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Google Chrome Compile, Scripted |
| Synthetic Benchmarks And Settings | |
| Benchmark | Details |
| PCMark 7 | Version: 1.0.4 |
| 3DMark 11 | Version 1.0.3 |
| SiSoftware Sandra | Version: 2013 Beta Processor Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth, .NET Arithmetic, .NET Multimedia |
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Summary
- Core i7-3970X Extreme: Six Cores And Up To 4 GHz
- Test Setup And Software
- Benchmark Results: PCMark 7
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11
- Benchmark Results: Sandra 2013
- Benchmark Results: Content Creation
- Benchmark Results: Adobe CS 6
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: Compression Apps
- Benchmark Results: Media Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3
- Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: World of Warcraft: Mists Of Pandaria
- Power Consumption And Efficiency
- Core i7-3970X: Faster, But Less Efficient At The Same Price
Ask a Category Expert
Same thing goes for the 3960X compared to the 3930K....not worth the extra 100mhz for $400....
Same thing goes for the 3960X compared to the 3930K....not worth the extra 100mhz for $400....
They don't have much of a choice when it comes to the i7's. With the 32nm Sandy Bridge-E Intel has to make a choice between prioritizing clocks or core count within a 150W TDP, based on the target workload for a particular processor. For Xeon's the choice is easy, more cores. For desktop applications the choice isn't as clear, but I think most users would still benefit more from a higher clocked 6-core than a lower claocked 8-core. That's slowly changing though.
Intel also doesn't want a situation where their LGA 1155 processors outperform their $1000 extreme edition in lightly threaded workloads, which is yet another reason to favor 6-core for now.
I'd personally like to see an 8-core i7, even if it means lower clocks, but I don't think that'll happen until Ivy Bridge-E. At 22nm Intel probably won't have to make a choice, we'll get the best of both worlds.
why would they....they don't need to do it at this time....amd's top cpu is still very slow when compared with even intels mid rannge cpus
Stability test.
Run the i7 for one month under Prime95. It will crash. Run the Xeon for one month under Prime95. If it crashes, then you got a defective Xeon because they're not suppose to crash under 24/7 workload.
Why would you even include the 8350? It is 1/6th the price of this CPU. I couldn't imagine what a modern AMD desktop CPU would consist of at the $1000+ price range.
Or set the TDP to 195W and add a warning stating that Intel's stock coolers won't be sufficient for the thermal load.
The i7 isn't supposed to crash under 24/7 workloads any more than a Xeon is. The footnote to this statement however has everything to do with thermal envelopes. The primary reason why Intel charges $1000 more for a Xeon is because Xeons can operate stably at higher temperatures. This is very, very important because cooling costs lots and lots of money when you need to cool hundreds of server racks and rendering farms all year round and there can't be any downtime. Ever. Because lost time equals lost money. They say every minute of downtime means a million dollars lost, so you pay extra to ensure a sudden heat wave doesn't wipe out your business. (Though some companies could certainly use better flood protection as to not rape their customers for lost profits, but I digress.)
lol....here is the answer...a lsow cpu, lol
Not correct
Your talking about a processor (i7) vs a platform (Xeon, since the Xeon's usually require ECC memory, server boards, usually server OS etc) -- 99.999% of the time crashes/issues are NOT processor related.
Crashes are usually from things like non JEDEC standard spec ram, poorly written SSD firmware, bad drivers and so on - not a processors fault.
I recall seeing a picture of a tiny server room flooded with raw sewage from a busted pipe. The management of the small business attempted to ignore the laws of physics and told the IT that there will be no shutdowns.
I'm pretty sure there was a smell of magic smoke accompanying the sewage odor shortly afterwards.
"Complete Tom's Hardware Suite" Chart... ugh I hate being color blind, must concentrate harder.
The 3DMark 11 benchmark was a "Performance" run I'm guessing. Couldn't find that anywhere.
If the i7 fails, then it's no less faulty than the Xeon. They're the same chips, just with different feature sets.
Same chips still. Binning doesn't change what they're made of. Similar to how the Tahitis in the 7970 GHz Edition are better binned than those in the regular 7970, but they're still the same chips.