Hi all, Just a quick heads up that Tech Report have a full detailed review of the i7 3960X online. It is a bit of a beast. http://techreport.com/articles.x/21987 The video encoding benchmarks when overclocked are simply staggering. The power consumption is also simply staggering (when overclocked) but at least it can justify it, unlike Bulldozer. Looking forward to Bit's review now. No doubt my 2500k is quivering in the corner... EDIT: This does bode well for the significantly cheaper i7 3930K. You only lose 100Mhz off the turbo clock and 3Mb of L2 cache which will probably make bugger all difference in the real world. EDIT 2: Prices also up on Overclockers: £499.99 for the i7-3930K £799.99 (special offer) - £839.99 for the i7 3960X The 3960X does seem somewhat pointless unless the processors are specially binned for high overclocks.
Link is crapping out... I think they've reached their bandwidth limit. Try again later lol. Edit: finally got in - thanks for link.
No Probs. The TR site can be like that first thing in the morning (GMT). I think they must do a sever refresh or something overnight.
WTH? Even PCPro (another Dennis site!!!!) has a review up clicky. I'm taking this to mean the BT review will be so comprehensive it will be the review to end all reviews.
So it costs more than 3x a 2600k - but doesn't even deliver 50% performance improvement, let alone 200%. Looks like socket 1366 all over again. Most users will still be better off buying Sandybridge now, or waiting for Ivy Bridge. I'm not slagging off LGA2011 - it clearly is the best performing CPU in the desktop market. But it's price is just way too high.
Plus, I can't help noticing that TechReport's review puts the i2600k rig with only 8GB of RAM against the 3960X rig with 16GB of RAM (in quad channel to boot). Heck, it might be the RAM rather than the actual CPU that's responsible for the performance difference.
I agree that TR's review looks very much like it is biased towards the 3960X. The improvement over the 990X is really nothing special considering how many changes have been made since X58, yet TR dwell on the "supremacy" of this CPU as if it destroys the others. No it doesn't, lol. I think the 8-core hyperthreaded CPU will have a similar reception - beneficial only where the extra threads make a real difference, but too expensive for most to care about. 2600K is still the way to go for best value/performance at the enthusiast end of the spectrum.
That's true if people are looking for gaming as a major use, this was never going to be a chip that going to be an uber gaming chip. For other tasks though, well, there's enough improvement to warrant a change for some maybe. I'm not in that category though.
looks like standard Sandy-bridge, just with a few MOAR cores. edit: Anantech review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5091/...dy-bridge-e-review-keeping-the-high-end-alive
Hopefully not long till someone can post some FAH results, interesting to see. As with the cost of motherboards and ram being so much higher, it may be beneficial to just run multiple 2600k rigs when folding.
Well, it is called Sandy Bridge-E, with the E being for Extreme, and they are Intel's new flagship processors for the desktop market. So it's understandable that they are priced to replace the i7-980X and 990X, as that is what they do replace Just wait until they release the Xeon (8-core!) versions, then tell me you still think these are expensive. The processors I want to fit in an SR-3 are expected to wholesale at around the $1850-$1900 mark if bought wholesale, so I consider these to be budget performance chips Just not what most people think of as budget chips!
With an i7 980 coming in at £470 and the i7 3930k @ £499 and no extra performance, it doesn’t seem like a great step up, or am I missing something?
@rob, don't forget that SB clock-for-clock is a good bit faster than the 1366 CPUs, and SB overclocks better too. A good i7 980 might do 4.5GHz 24/7 (my i7 970 could), but a 3960X at 4.5GHz would trounce it... and the reviewers are hitting 4.6GHz+. It's definitely a better CPU, but perhaps not quite worth changing an entire system for.
No extra performance? Did you see the Video encoding performance on the 3960X overclocked? Gaming wise there is no point (yet) but there are certainly scenarios where the new SB-E chips shine.
