Intel X79 testing it all - 3930K - 3960X - 3820 and 3x ASUS Matrix Platinum + RIVE

[SoF]

Hi,

thanks to ASUS I could bench the probably best custom design of GTX 580 in tripple configuration (again).
7970 is still not that well available (at reasonable prices) and I wait for some real good custom PCBs to appear.
Finding a good chip wasn't exactly easy...5.5 GHZ CPUs are not easy to get "out of the retail box"...
Additionally I needed 14cm SLI-bridge which was nowhere in the boxes...ebay saved the day




---------------------------------------------------------

during selection I went through all chips available for socket 2011:

1st Core-i7 3930K @"minimal h2o" (corsair h50)

Seriously Intel, a 500€ CPU without a boxed - cooler...hoped to get something nice like with GT

So my old Corsair H50 had to do the job...



Results were not really satisfying...

5166 max boot
~5130 benches
~4800 vantage

results and screens...

2nd chip - Core-i7 3960X

So I went for a 3960X retail, I think it is C1...



didn't liked warm temperature and crapped out around
5100 boot / 1m on the corsair cooling

but on singlestage it showed some potential

5460 max boot
5450 6 cores single-threaded benches + old 3D marks
5450 3dm 06 cpu test 6/6
5100 vantage (with LN2 maybe 5400?)

Core i7-3820

Only to check if 3820 might be a chip for 01, 05 and 06 tripple-card but serious fail

5072 max boot
~5040 benches
4500 @1.3V prime with h50...

---------------------------------------------------------

So I ended up benching the 3960X at mostly 5450-5455...Vantage / 3DM11 due to high temps on singlestage only at "low" speed:





24313 - 3D Mark 2011 Entry 2nd global / 2st hw 3x GTX 580

7742 - 3D Mark 2011 Extreme 3rd global 3x GPU/ 2nd hw 3x GTX 580

7221 - Unigine Heaven DX9 - 2nd global 3x GPU/ 1st hw 3x GTX 580

41773 - 3D Mark 2006 19th global 3x GPU / 2nd hw 3x GTX580

61583 - 3D Mark Vantage - 23rd global / 11th hw 3x GTX 580

some basic screens - no high vtt/vccsa needed until DDR3-2380...mainly depends on IMC...can do it or not:




more pictures from the setup...





One pin decided to give up, so I will bench socket 2010 from now on (still working fine)...




All who are not addicted to 3 or 4 cards can skip X79 and wait for Ivy - will be much more fun CPU-wise. Everything is still heavily CPU-bound...
SB-E is just Sandy with more PCI-E lanes, 2 additional cores and 125 BCLK...same binning process ^^

Ivy will be much more fun, we all know already - see you in ~6-7 weeks


best regards
SoF