Core i7-3960X About 47% Faster On Average Than Core i7-990X: Intel

[btarunr]

Slides of a key presentation to Intel's partners was leaked to sections of the media, which reveal Intel's own performance testing of the Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition, the top-model of the socket LGA2011 "Sandy Bridge-E" processor series. Meet the family here. In its comparison, Intel maintained the Core i7-990X Extreme Edition socket LGA1366 processor as this generation's top offering. It was pitted against the Core i7-3960X in a battery of tests that included some enthusiast favourites such as Cinebench 11.5, POV-Ray 3.7, 3DMark 11 physics, Pro-Show Gold 4.5, and some OEM favourites such as SPECint_rate base2006, SPECfp_rate base2006, and SiSoft SANDRA 2011B multimedia and memory bandwidth.

From these test results, the Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition is pitched to be about 47.25% faster on average, compared to Core i7-990X Extreme Edition. Intel is attributing the performance boost, apart from the normal IPC increase, to the 33% higher bandwidth thanks to the quad-channel DDR3 IMC, and the new AVX instruction set that accelerates math-heavy tasks such as encoding. The Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition is an upcoming socket LGA2011 six-core processor that is clocked at 3.30 GHz, with Turbo Boost speed of up to 3.90 GHz, with 12 threads enabled by HyperThreading technology, and 15 MB L3 cache. It will release by either late 2011 or early 2012.



Source: Donanim Haber

[mlee49]

Realistic interpretation:

A cherry picked 3960X LGA2011 is up to 47% faster than a stock 990x LGA1366.





Edit, I'd really like to see more benchmarks take advantage of the AVX encoding to flex it's muscle. When S.B. was released it sounded interesting, but hasn't made any real impact, I hope Intel can push this simple enhanced instruction set to the front of the marketing line.

[brandonwh64]

I have feelings that this chip will be epic but come with an even more epic price tag!

[antuk15]

Originally Posted by btarunr

Intel is attributing the performance boost, apart from the normal IPC increase, to the 33% higher bandwidth thanks to the quad-channel DDR3 IMC, and the new AVX instruction set that accelerates math-heavy tasks such as encoding.

So take that away and what we get?

Intel have said around a 20% increase per-clock over current Sandy Bridge CPU's for Ivy Bridge.

[Sasqui]

I see marketing hype, but underneath it appears to be rather impressive. Intel (in general) is fairly conservative with thier press releases.

[douglatins]

want/cant have

[brandonwh64]

Im pretty sure that some of the lower K models with 12MB cache will be able to match its performance with OC. Just like I7 920 did with the rest of the I7 line.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by antuk15

So take that away and what we get?

Intel have said around a 20% increase per-clock over current Sandy Bridge CPU's for Ivy Bridge.

Core i7-3960X is not based on Ivy Bridge.

[DriedFrogPills]

Originally Posted by antuk15

So take that away and what we get?

Intel have said around a 20% increase per-clock over current Sandy Bridge CPU's for Ivy Bridge.

i don;t expect that sort of increase from SB to IB after all Ivy is a tock not a tick

[mtosev]

I like. Wonder what price will that cpu have.I expect 800-900EUR

[RejZoR]

Also apps have to be specifically coded for AVX so the perfromance will be even lower for a while on apps that are just SSE aware... Eventually they'll catch up but that will take a while...

[Velvet Wafer]

Originally Posted by btarunr

Slides of a key presentation to Intel's partners was leaked to sections of the media, which reveal Intel's own performance testing of the Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition, the top-model of the socket LGA2011 "Sandy Bridge-E" processor series. Meet the family here. In its comparison, Intel maintained the Core i7-990X Extreme Edition socket LGA1366 processor as this generation's top offering. It was pitted against the Core i7-3960X in a battery of tests that included some enthusiast favourites such as Cinebench 11.5, POV-Ray 3.7, 3DMark 11 physics, Pro-Show Gold 4.5, and some OEM favourites such as SPECint_rate base2006, SPECfp_rate base2006, ans SiSoft SANDRA 2011B multimedia and memory bandwidth.

From these test results, the Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition is pitched to be about 47.25% faster on average, compared to Core i7-990X Extreme Edition. Intel is attributing the performance boost, apart from the normal IPC increase, to the 33% higher bandwidth thanks to the quad-channel DDR3 IMC, and the new AVX instruction set that accelerates math-heavy tasks such as encoding. The Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition is an upcoming socket LGA2011 six-core processor that is clocked at 3.30 GHz, with Turbo Boost speed of up to 3.90 GHz, with 12 threads enabled by HyperThreading technology, and 15 MB L3 cache. It will release by either late 2011 or early 2012.

http://www.techpowerup.com/img/11-07-22/110a_thm.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/img/11-07-22/110b_thm.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/img/11-07-22/110c_thm.jpg

Source: Donanim Haber

Interesting! A while ago, i heard, that Caches are like the "Fat" of a processor,which increases the Die Size (which equals to higher prices/lower yields) and Wattage by a lot, and that the ultimate goal when improving an Architecture is, to loose that Fat, but still boost the Performance... Intel seems to think very differently from that. IDK why.

[dumo]

Just hope this 3960X will pass >55X multi wall (average new batch of 2600K)...considering it probly will be priced @ 3X 2600K

[dirtyferret]

Originally Posted by brandonwh64

i have feelings that this chip will be epic but come with an even more epic price tag!

+1

[dirtyferret]

Originally Posted by dumo

Just hope this 3960X will pass >55X multi wall (average new batch of 2600K)...considering it probly will be priced @ 3X 2600K

the 990k is currently $1k on newegg, the 3960 may be as much as 5x 2600k since their is no competition at that CPU level but Intel itself.

[buggalugs]

Looks very promising.....

[Hayder_Master]

Wait for more benches, i want to see how much it's over than 2600k.

[Xaser04]

Originally Posted by DriedFrogPills

i don;t expect that sort of increase from SB to IB after all Ivy is a tock not a tick

Ivy Bridge is a Tick not a Tock. (Move down to 22nm from 32nm but the same basic architecture as SB).

Intel:

Tick = New process node + "old" architecture on new node

Tock = New architecture.

Realistically Ivy Bridge will off better performance at the same price point thanks to increased clocks speeds. The new AVX instruction set will no doubt give a boost in very specific programs (just like AVX does now for AV encoding) but I wonder how this will translate into real world performance.

As for LGA2011 - WANT!

[happita]

Originally Posted by Velvet Wafer

Interesting! A while ago, i heard, that Caches are like the "Fat" of a processor,which increases the Die Size (which equals to higher prices/lower yields) and Wattage by a lot, and that the ultimate goal when improving an Architecture is, to loose that Fat, but still boost the Performance... Intel seems to think very differently from that. IDK why.

That's true, but done right, cache can also increase performance as well. Leakage is the main issue when increasing the cache.

[Hayder_Master]

I like something they compare it with older intel extreme cpu, not like AMD when they say phenom fx better than core i7 950 by 50%, intel can say it's better than crappy phenom II by 300%.

[ensabrenoir]

Gonna have to collect a whole lot more cans to obtain all this unnecessary speed and power a.m. who.... the one up war continues. Please no more delays.... please

[Jonap_1st]

3960X? 3930K? its me or seems like Intel just get infected with AMD's naming issues..

[meirb111]

is it a k model or locked can't find that info here

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by mlee49

Realistic interpretation:

A cherry picked 3960X LGA2011 is up to 47% faster than a stock 990x LGA1366.

It "is up to" 111% faster. My statement included the term "on average", given the provided test results.

[TheMailMan78]

47% = 23.5% in the marketing world.