Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition

Intel has a long history of releasing the fastest processors on Earth, and it's continuing that tradition with the Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition. Rather than the next stage of the company's much-touted "tick-tock" development model, which alternates new production processes with new microarchitectures every year, this CPU is merely the enthusiast extension of Intel's most recent "tock": its "second-generation Core" (aka "Sandy Bridge") family. Until now, the chips in that line, like the Intel Core i3-2300, Intel Core i5-2500K, and Intel Core i7-2600K, were aimed at mainstream users. With its blistering performance and faint-worthy price ($990 list), the Core i7-3960X is targeted higher, at truly hard-core gamers and bleeding-edge types. Those who consider themselves members of those clubs will want this first chip in the Sandy Bridge?E (for "Extreme," of course) family, and want it soon, and in many ways it's worthy of their lust. But those who can't afford?or don't want to spend?that much money have some reasons to not fret.

The best way to think about the Core i7-3960X and the other members of the Sandy Bridge?E family is as a fusing of Intel's last two milestone releases. It combines the six cores of the company's "Gulftown" 32nm Nehalem-based enthusiast processors, such as the Intel Core i7-980X, Intel Core i7-970, and Intel Core i7-990X, with the microarchitecture and microarchitecture of the Sandy Bridge chips, thus uniting the former's scorching performance profile with the sense-and-sensibility capabilities of the latter.

This means, for example, that when Intel's Hyper-Threading technology is fully engaged, you have 12 processing threads at your disposal; given that the Core i7-3960X's base clock is 3.3GHz, you're looking at some serious performance just from that. Toss in version 2.0 of Intel's Turbo Boost technology from Sandy Bridge, which provides a speed supercharge whenever you're not maxing out your core usage, and you have a quick entr?e to 3.9GHz?no overclocking required. (Though because the multiplier on the Core i7-3960X is unlocked, actual overclocking won't be much of a problem.)

But there are some crucial differences between Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge?E as well. Heading up the list of things you don't get on the Core i7-3960X that you did on Sandy Bridge models is built-in video processing. This isn't that much of a surprise; Intel has a habit of leaving it off its high-end chips, undoubtedly assuming?quite correctly, we'd wager?that anyone able and willing to drop a grand on a processor will also have the resources and wherewithal to spring for a discrete video card. One big downside to this is that you automatically lose access to one of the best Sandy Bridge features: Quick Sync Video, which drastically reduces the amount of time you need to spend converting certain video files. Something else even more surprising is missing: Intel has applied that same graphics logic to the CPU cooler and is not bundling one, even a simple air model, with its Sandy Bridge?E chips. This is hardly the end of the world?basic coolers are not expensive?but it's an odd step to take.

As for the things you do get, they're pretty compelling. Chief among them, and likely of paramount interest to gamers, is 40 full lanes of PCI Express (PCIe): That means you can install two discrete PCIe x16 cards in either an SLI or a CrossFireX configuration and have them both running at top speed. That alone will seal the deal for some people. Then there's the native support for 1,600MHz memory, over four channels rather than the three we saw on Intel's previous top-tier X58 Express platform or the two that remain in use for regular Sandy Bridge hardware.

In order to take advantage of that technology, then, you'll need to buy either four or eight DIMMs?an inconvenience, and not necessarily an inconsiderable expense, but picking up two two-DIMM kits is a lot easier than picking and choosing to get the three DIMMs you wanted for X58. Speaking of which, you'll need to buy something else, as well: a new motherboard. As is typical for Intel, the Core i7-3960X and other new Sandy Bridge?E CPUs run on the new X79 Express chipset, and require a motherboard that supports it and is equipped with the necessary new LGA2011 socket. The need for this is apparent, as the Sandy Bridge design moves most functionality onto the CPU itself, and that requires a more robust foundation. But it still demands a major cash outlay.

The question is: Is the Core i7-3960X worth it? On one level, the answer is a resounding yes. Across the board, in every test we could throw at it, the processor walked away the champ. Our simple test system, which mated the chip with 8GB of 1,600MHz memory on an Intel motherboard, finished our Photoshop CS5 image manipulation test in a blazing 2 minutes 47 seconds. It converted a video in Handbrake astonishingly quickly: 1 minute 5 seconds. It blasted through our TrueCrypt benchmark at a rate of 302MBps. It drove the Futuremark 3DMark 11 to confident success by earning 36.5 frames per second (fps) in its daunting physics test. It proved to excel at both single- and multithreaded performance, by garnering superb scores of 1.57 and 10.56 respectively in our two CineBench R11.5 tests.

We weren't surprised that the Core i7-3960X roundly surpassed the Core i7-990X in our tests. But the spoilers proved to be the other Sandy Bridge chips, particularly the Core i5-2500K (far and away the value leader) and the Core i7-2600K (the performance leader). In CineBench, the Core i5-2500K earned 1.49 and the Core i7-2600K 1.54 on the single-threaded test?just the tiniest bit behind the Core i7-3960X. The Core i7-2600K was a reasonable seven seconds behind the Core i7-3960X in Photoshop (2:54) and just a stone's throw in its wake on our Futuremark PCMark 7 full-system benchmark (3,649 versus 3,708). In Handbrake, with Quick Sync Video disabled (because we were using a discrete video card, the AMD Radeon HD 6990), the Core i7-2600K managed a still-reasonable 1 minute 11 seconds.

The Core i7-3960X's gaming performance and features will big pluses to many users, but this chip's power usage shocked us. Idling at its stock clock it used only 99.2 watts?less than the Core i7-2600K (104 watts)?and at full load it only surpassed the Core i7-2600K by a reasonable amount (216.7 watts versus 183.5 watts)?still coming in below its six-core forbears the Core i7-980X (222.6 watts), the Core i7-970 (229 watts), and the Core i7-990X (233.2 watts).

There's no doubt about it: The Intel Core i7-3960X is a formidable chip, even if it requires setting up a new motherboard and stocking it with four DIMMs of DDR3 to make the most of it, and buying a separate cooler just so you can turn the thing on. Gamers and ravenous users of multithreaded apps will definitely get their money's worth, and because Intel is smartly aiming the Core i7-3960X at them, this new flagship CPU is certainly a worthy Editors' Choice. Though we'll be interested in how other Sandy Bridge?E processors fare (the six-core Core i7-3930K and the quad-core Core i7-3820 are in the works, but we haven't seen them yet), the Core i5-2500K and the Core i7-2600K hold their own extremely well?and sell for just a fraction of a cost. If you've already built a system around one of these that you're happy with, and you're not starving for all the additional bells and whistles, there's no reason not to feel good about what you have. But if you absolutely must have the speediest chip on the planet, that crown has now passed to the Core i7-3960X.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/4HSuW9NPXwQ/0,2817,2396280,00.asp

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