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

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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.

137 Comments Comment from the forums
  • naihan 17 July 2013 04:29
    Boring. Call me when X99 platform is available.
    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere 17 July 2013 04:30
    Probably would have been nice to be 8-core. Isn't the actual die on these things just a cut-down 12-core chip? Think I read that somewhere.

    EDIT: Minor error:
    surface alongside Haswell-based 9-series chipsets

    Shouldn't that be Broadwell?
    Reply
  • designasaurus 17 July 2013 04:46
    There's a rumor going around that Ivy-E is going to have a soldered heatspreader instead of using thermal paste. Obviously this would be a big differentiator for enthusiasts picking between Haswell and Ivy-E. Given your access to Ivy-E, do you guys at Tom's have any opinions on this rumor?
    Reply
  • killerchickens 17 July 2013 04:46
    I bet it overclocks like a beast. :)
    Lol now time to spend $1000 to save on my power bill.
    Reply
  • ingtar33 17 July 2013 05:35
    about all i'd expect. shame really, but it looks like the enthusiast market is at a standstill till AMD starts to compete again.
    Reply
  • sna 17 July 2013 05:46
    too early to judge...

    The 6 cores ivyBridge-e "K" version is the real thing.

    and I dont get it , how Tomshardwae fails to say about the SandyBridge-e not having PCIE 3.0 support , while the ivy-E has PCIe 3.0 support . this is a Big factor here.
    Reply
  • ingtar33 17 July 2013 05:56
    11172422 said:
    too early to judge...

    The 6 cores ivyBridge-e "K" version is the real thing.

    and I dont get it , how Tomshardwae fails to say about the SandyBridge-e not having PCIE 3.0 support , while the ivy-E has PCIe 3.0 support . this is a Big factor here.

    they did say it. You didn't read the beginning of the review. Of course pci-e 3.0 is a gimmick and not a reason to buy a new 2011 mb and ib-e chip... and it will remain a marketing gimmick untill gpus can actually be bottlenecked by pci-e 2.0 x16... high end gpus barely bottleneck on pci-e 2.0 x8 atm... it will be a little while (another generation or 3) before gpus will NEED pci-e 3.0.

    Reply
  • Someone Somewhere 17 July 2013 06:24
    official PCI Express 3.0 compliance (remember, Sandy Bridge-E only claimed 8 GT/s signaling support), and 22 nm manufacturing.

    That's pretty much saying it did it unofficially.

    Besides, you have to look hard to find something bottlenecked by PCIe2.0x8; even high-end GPUs won't run into bandwidth limitations.
    Reply
  • CommentariesAnd More 17 July 2013 06:28
    WOW !!!!!!! So Intel is expecting someone to spend another 1000 bucks just for a 10-20% boost. Yay!!!!!!!! This is Ivy Bridge-E. I am getting it , YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Reply
  • shin0bi272 17 July 2013 06:29
    still no gaming benchmarks eh? I guess I'll save my money and stick with my i7-920 for a little bit longer.
    Reply