Core i7 5960X Haswell-E Review DDR4 Performance

**hiwa** · 08-30-2014, 03:33 AM

haswell-E NDA is over and here is our review and comparison between 4960X and 3960X VS latest 8 cores 5960X

With Haswell-E, Intel is not just launching a few new high-end desktop CPUs but a completely new platform. In combination with X99 and DDR4, Haswell-E is big step forward for Intel. On top of all this there are now eight core CPUs available for endusers, which is something enthusiasts as well as professionals have been waiting for.

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With their new Core i7-5960X, Intel is introducing the next generation of their high end dekstop processors. Along with the new CPUs the worlds largest chip maker is also launching the X99 platform, which is the sucessor of X79. On top of that there is even DDR4 being introduced at the same time. The launch of Haswell-E is therefore quite a leap forward for Intel, since there is a completely new plattform being introduced, which is derived from Intels enterprise portfolio.

In this review we're going to have a closer look at what performance level Intel is capable of offering with their Core i7-5960X. As you might already know this CPU features no less than eight cores and 16 threads, which is two cores and four threads more than what you got with the predecessor Core i7-4960X. In this case we're expecting to see improvements in quite a few benchmarks, since there are several applications out there, which benefit from a higher core count.

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Conclusion

There is not a shadow of a doubt that the new Core i7-5960X is a monolith of a CPU and since Haswell-E is more than just an incremental CPU upgrade, the entire bundle is rather interesting. The package Intel has made with their new CPUs, X99 chipset and DDR4 memory is definitely a step forward. As we've shown in this review it was piece of cake running our Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2800 memory at DDR4-2133 CL15-15-15-35 as well as at DDR4-3000 CL15-15-15-35. The only thing necessary in order to Corsair modules pass DDR4-3000 was setting the voltage to 1.35 volt.

Upgrading X79 was almost overdue and with X99 Intel is showing a chipset, that offers a decent feature mix. Motherboard makers get a solid feature mix in order to build new high-end models and so far the only thing they're in need to add additional chips for is USB 3.0 port. The PCH now natively offers up to ten SATA 6Gbps ports which allows for great storage flexibility by for example RAIDing all these drives. Other than that most motherboard makers are using some of the PCI Express lanes through which the SATA ports are connected to add SATA Express ports as well as M.2 sockets with up to x4 (20Gbps) bandwidth. On another note we'd like to mention again, that there are crucial differences between the Core i7-5960X/5930K and the Core i7-5820K regarding the number of PCI-Express 3.0 lanes supported. With the Core i7-5820K Intel wants to address more value-minded customers, which made them cut 12 lanes off the 40 you get with the 5960X/5930K, which makes you end up with a CPU that offers 28 lanes. This way Intel wants to close the gap in between the Core i7-4790K and their high-end desktop segment. Time will tell whether this was a smart move or not. We think it was a reasonable addition to the portfolio and it allows users to benefit from the new platform without the need of robbing a bank. On the other side, there is the very high-end Extreme-CPU that now also has a unique selling point, since there are eight cores. In the past the high-end X and K CPUs always had the same core count and the only differences could be seen with clock speeds and cache size. In the end you were paying quite a lot more for a CPU that's only a tiny little bit quicker. With the new i7-5XXX generation Intel has chosen a different approach, since their Extreme Edition CPU now gets eight cores whereas the other HEDT processors feature six cores.

Let's talk a bit about performance now. At the time of launch we only had a Core i7-5960X for testing and we're looking forward to also provide you with test results regarding the Core i7-5930K as well as the Core i7-5820K. Comparing the Core i7-5960X to its predecessors clearly shows that performance in multi-threaded benchmarks goes up, because the additional two cores and therefore four threads but in the case of single-threaded software there is simply not enough clock speed in order to outperform the previous generations. We also generated test data with different memory speeds. Increasing the DDR4 memory clock from DDR4-2133 MHz to DDR4-3000 MHz with CL15-15-15-35 latency shows a little improvement. At this stage we've certainly not reached the end of the line regarding DDR4 clock speeds and we're expecting memory kits to hit the market that offer DDR4-4000 MHz. You certainly won't see miracles regarding performance improvements with such memory but a few percent more every here and there that is definitely possible if we look at our test data.

Intel's new HEDT processor lineup does not just consist of expensive and fast CPUs. The world's largest chip maker has been thinking about how to address different markets in more appropriate ways than before. Giving the Extreme Edition CPU a true unique selling point is therefore as important as making the entire X99 platform more affordable by offering the cut-down Core i7-5820K. If you look only at the raw specs and the resulting performance figures the Core i7-5960X is clearly made for applications that benefit from multicore architectures. In our opinion it's a pity that Intel did not play more with their Turbo mode. We would like to see the CPU clock go up to 4.0 GHz or maybe even a bit more than that when there is load on only one core. The way it's now the Core i7-5930K as well as the Core i7-5820K score a few percent better in the case of single-threaded benchmarks.

Last but not least there are the prices: The Core i7-5960X is going to set you back 999 US-Dollar, the Core i7-5930K is to cost 583 US-Dollar and the Core i7-5820K sells at 389 US-Dollar. Prices of motherboards will range from 250 US-Dollar to 500+ US-Dollar and 16 Gigabyte of decent memory will be priced at roughly 319 US-Dollar. Especially the prices of DDR4 memory might be dropping quite a bit during the first half year after launch, but still it's clearly visible that Intel's HEDT lineup is occupying the premium market segment. Overall we can say, that if you want the best of the best regarding CPU, platform as well as memory then Intel's new Haswell-E should definitely be considered and it's especially multithreaded applications that will benefit the most from this new platform.