REVIEW: Intel Core i7-3960X and Intel X79 DX79SI

Cinebench R11.5



In Cinebench R11.5 we weren't quite sure what to expect, but once we got our set up running correctly we were amazed at the numbers we were seeing.

With the Turbo-enabled Core i7-3960X, we got a score of 10.36 - nearly double that of the Nehalem generation and nearly double that of the currently the fastest AMD processor FX-8150, which scored only 5.86.

If you look at the benchmark screen shot itself you can see other scores we posted with the Core i7-3960X and the 9.68 score represents the processor without Turbo Boost enabled and the 9.53 score represents the Core i7-3960X running with only 4GB of RAM at 1866MHz in dual channel mode. This was done to show the differences in performance between different memory and processor configurations.

We also overclocked the Core i7-3960X to 4.86GHz and managed to get an amazing score of 14.06 in Cinebench R11.5. What is amazing is the fact that a six-core, twelve-thread processor operating at 4.86GHz beat eight-core sixteen-thread Xeon system running at 3.33GHz. A single piece of silicon blasted two pieces of silicon, quad-channel memory trumped six-channel memory. In the end, architecture is still king.




Futuremark 3DMark 11



Since we're mostly interested in CPU performance we will focus more on the Entry Level (E) lower resolution score of 3DMark 11 and check on the CPU (physics) score as well. In 3DMark 11 we saw the Core i7-3960X score an E9005 with a Physics score of 11096.

This is in contrast to our recently benchmarked FX-8150 which scored a combined score of E7896 and a physics score of 6481, barely 60%. This doesn't bode well for the FX-8150 even though it does cost just a quarter the price. However, a Core i7-3930K can be had for a little under twice the price of the FX-8150. Note that both of these scores were taken with the exact same graphics card and the driver version.

PCMark 7



In PCMark 7 we ran the Intel Core i7 3960X and DX79SI through a full battery of tests and got a PCMark score of 4415. This compares against the recent test we did of the FX-8150 which scored a 4206 yielding an improved score of about 200+ points purely on switching out the motherboard, CPU and RAM which admittedly are all pretty hefty upgrades in terms of price. So, in that sense PCMark 7 doesn't really show that the extra money spent on a Core i7 3960X really yields that much of a difference in PCMark 7.