Intel Core i7-4960X Review: Ivy Bridge-E, Benchmarked

Results: Media Encoding

Most of the video transcoding apps we use to test with are well-threaded, and TotalCode Studio (formerly MainConcept) is no exception. The Core i7-4960X takes the lead, followed by both Sandy Bridge-E-based chips. The quad-core competition trails behind as Core i7-4770K occupies fourth place.

The same applies to HandBrake, though Haswell isn’t quite as far behind Core i7-3930K in this benchmark.

iTunes (above) and LAME (below) are different in that they’re both single-threaded, which is why Haswell takes first place. Core i7-3970X and -4960X trade blows. We’d actually expect Ivy Bridge-E’s IPC advantage to carry it ahead more definitively, but that just doesn’t happen.

Regardless, these last two benchmarks gently make the point that the upcoming Ivy Bridge-E-based processors excel in well-threaded workloads and trail slightly to Haswell in lighter tasks.