Core i7-3970X Extreme Review: Can It Stomp An Eight-Core Xeon?
After one year of dominating the enthusiast space, Intel's Core i7-3960X is being replaced. The new Core i7-3970X features higher clock rates, but also imposes a 150 W TDP. Just for kicks, we're putting it up against another 150 W CPU: the Xeon E5-2687W.
Test Setup And Software
| 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 |
| Row 1 - Cell 0 | 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 |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | 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 |
| Row 3 - Cell 0 | 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 |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | AMD FX-8350 (Vishera) 4.0 GHz (20 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3+, 8 MB Shared L3, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 5 - Cell 0 | AMD FX-8150 (Zambezi) 3.6 GHz (18 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3+, 8 MB Shared L3, Turbo Core enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | AMD Phenom II X4 980 BE (Deneb) 3.7 GHz (18.5 * 200 MHz), Socket AM3, 6 MB Shared L3, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | 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 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | 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 |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i5-3570K (Ivy Bridge) 3.4 GHz (34 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | Intel Core i5-3470 (Ivy Bridge) 3.2 GHz (32 * 100 MHz), LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost enabled, Power-savings enabled |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | 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 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional (Socket AM3+) AMD 990FX/SB950 Chipset, BIOS 1.9 |
| Row 14 - Cell 0 | 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: 0.9.8Video: 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 StreamsFrames: 210, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously: on |
| Cinebench | Version 11.5 Build CB25720DEMOCPU 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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