Intel Core i7-5960X, -5930K And -5820K CPU Review: Haswell-E Rises

Measuring DDR4 Power Consumption

DDR4-2133: 32 GB Crucial Value RAM

Let's kick this off with DDR4's lowest data rate, 2133 MT/s, with no overclock whatsoever applied. There are no heat spreaders on our Crucial modules. Voltage is set at 1.2 V, representing significant savings compared to DDR3 and even DDR3L.Ideally, that'll translate into less heat and lower power consumption.

At idle, we measure 32 degrees Celsius at the hottest point. Not bad.

Under load, the temperatures hover around 37 degrees Celsius, which is decent as well.

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Power Consumption: Crucial DDR4-2133
32 GB (Four Modules)11.85 W
16 GB (Two Modules)5.94 W
8 GB (One Module)2.98 W
4 GB (Rated)1.49 W

DDR4-2666: 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws

A higher clock rate and red heat spreaders are added to G.Skill's take on DDR4, but the modules are still rated for 1.2 V. How do those changes affect temperatures and power consumption?

At idle, we measure approximately 28 degrees Celsius after 20 minutes. Despite a more aggressive data rate, that's a reduction of four degrees!

Under load, the temperature we measure lands around 33 degrees. Again, that's about four degrees Celsius less.

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Power Consumption: G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-2666
16 GB (Four Modules)6.14 W
8 GB (Two Modules)3.06 W
4 GB (One Module)1.52 W

DDR4-2800: 16 GB Corsair Vengeance

The data rate increases again, and the heat spreader is now black. Still, Corsair maintains the standard's 1.2 V setting. Unfortunately, the XMP profile for the kit's peak performance level changes the BCLK setting from 100 to 131 MHz, which directly affects the processor's frequency as well.

We measure approximately 28 degrees Celsius at idle after 20 minutes, which is the same four-degree improvement over Crucial's baseline.

The temperature remains at approximately 32 degrees Celsius under load, which represents another slight reduction (despite the highest data rate in our test).

The power consumption we measure from Corsair's DDR4-2800 kit is slightly less than the 2666 MT/s modules as well. In reality, there's basically no difference between the two kits.

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Power Consumption: Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2800
16 GB (Four Modules)6.09 W
8 GB (Two Modules)3.03 W
4 GB (One Module)1.51 W

DDR4 memory offers significantly-reduced power consumption, even at higher data rates. Depending on the kit you end up buying, consumption is down between 25 to 40 percent compared to DDR3.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
  • dovah-chan
    Oh boy here we go...
    Reply
  • Merry_Blind
    Affordable 8-cores from Intel are finally coming. Awesome.
    Reply
  • B4vB5
    Chris and Igor @ TomsHW,

    Bit disappointed to not see a comparison with the Xeon E5-1650v2(or 1660v2), as the 2600 is a bit overkill comparing prices. Some of us just need a workstation with ECC ram and not just a free-for-all(ie someone else is paying) Xeon 2600 fest.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    Out of curiosity why were so many of the gaming tests only done at 2560x1440? Seems like you would be more GPU bound at this resolution. I'm not sure it really matters but I do like gaming at 1080p for the very high frame rates was curious if these would push frame rates higher. Otherwise nice review.
    Reply
  • ohim
    14063555 said:
    Affordable 8-cores from Intel are finally coming. Awesome.

    1000$ is affordable to you ? :))

    14063653 said:
    Out of curiosity why were so many of the gaming tests only done at 2560x1440? Seems like you would be more GPU bound at this resolution. I'm not sure it really matters but I do like gaming at 1080p for the very high frame rates was curious if these would push frame rates higher. Otherwise nice review.


    Though you have a point here, the guy buying such CPUs most likely will game at above 1080p .. but this would have implied using 2 GPUs at least in the test.
    Reply
  • chiefpiggy
    Why do they call these their "5th generation" of Intel core processors if they're refreshes of the Haswell processors? I get that they have revolutionary technology within but with the release of broadwell so soon I doubt that anyone would buy these processors..
    Reply
  • envy14tpe
    I need this system to play Minecraft. with that aside, Intel finally has made a jump in i7s value and performance.
    Reply
  • therogerwilco
    Meh, looks like I'll be keepin my uber delid'd oc'd 4770k a bit longer
    Reply
  • srap
    "Single-threaded software is so last decade, though."
    I have a hunch that we will never see anything like this in the comment sections of AMD reviews. Not sure why :D
    Reply
  • CaptainTom
    Yeah the real winner of a cpu here is definitely the 5820K. If I were building now, that is what I would use.
    Reply