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

Colin McRae's DiRT 3


In DiRT 3, we decided that we would just run the game at full resolution and simply compare that against what we got with our FX-8150 which was supposed to improve game performance because of its core optimizations. In DiRT 3 at full settings at 1920x1080 we got an average of 66 FPS with a minimum of 62 and a max of 73. This was in contrast to our results with the FX-8150 which scored an average of 66FPS with a minimum of 51 and a maximum of 75. In this game, it appears as though there is really no benefit to the Core i7-3960X and that the FX-8150 actually has a higher maximum FPS than the much more expensive Intel processor. Here, AMD's Game program shone under the limelight and produced clear results.

Metro 2033


In Metro 2033 we ran the game at an ultra-low resolution (800x600) in DX9 which yielded an average FPS of 153.5 with a minimum FPS of 76 and a maximum of 201FPS. With the CPU overclocked to 4.8GHz, it managed to crank up to 171.06 average, a minimum of 118 and a max of 208. With everything set to ultra and the resolution at 1920x1080, we managed to get an average frame rate of 59.4 with a minimum of 24 and a max of 109 which is still playable with only one graphics card. With the FX-8150, we managed an average FPS of 50 and a minimum FPS of 23 with a max of 92. So, it appears in Metro 2033 there is actually quite a difference in terms of performance depending on the CPU as the average frame rate at max settings went up 20% from 50FPS to almost 60FPS.

Battlefield 3
Since Battlefield 3 is such a new title, we haven't really had a chance to compare this processor against anything else that we've tested but we fully plan on having Battlefield 3 as part of our test suite here at BSN* when it comes to testing game performance.



When we set BF3 to Ultra pre-set settings and ran the game at 1920x1080 resolution we managed an average FPS of 78.048 and a minimum of 64 FPS with a maximum of 109 FPS. In reality, we'd really like to be able to test the multiplayer rather than the single player, but the multiplayer varies far too much from game to game in order for us to reliably compare our results from card to card and cpu to cpu. Although, single player performance should be a relatively good measurement of what the engine's performance will be on your system and shouldn't deviate too far from single player performance.