Hardware Intel Haswell-E; Intel Core i7-5960X Review, X99 Chipset and DDR4

The 5960X is actually alot cheaper than I was expecting, and the performance is actually quite good and it's going to be a struggle to wait till next year to get one, when I get my annual bonus.

The overclocking in terms of speed seems poor but considering it's a 8 core cpu I think Intel can be forgiven for that, but still 50% overclock is decent.

 

Good for professional users I suppose as they have a genuine need for more cores, but for the likes of me, my 4690K will do just fine until the 4C/8T Broadwell chips come out next year...I think I'll upgrade to one of those, double up to 16GB of RAM and that'll be it for the next 3-4yrs.

With a GPU upgrade every 18mths or so, I really can't see me needing anything more.

 

Am I being slow, but are some of your benchmark graphs incorrectly ordered? Some tests it is placed below a CPU that did worse, implying the CPU here is actually slower when it isn't?

 

*puts on troll hat* I'm on a rampage after picking on your SSD review graphs! I love graphs...

*cough* Power consumption *cough*

 

Have to say I'm disappointed with how Intel has crippled some of these chips, the 4790K is (imho) the go to chip for gaming, but then it only comes with 16 PCI-E 3.0 lanes so we are limited in how many GPUs can be run.

The 5960X is the go to chip for software that can make use of the extra cores, but then you face the problem of slower single core performance, paired with 40 PCI-E 3.0 lanes that mean multi GPU setup are not a problem.

Then they are still using DMI 2.0 so all those connections hanging off the X99 are limited in bandwidth to the CPU & RAM.

 

Cheaper than expected performance is insane if you need it. You must of got a better chip than some other review sites as they struggled to hit 4.3ghz.

You know you can buy mobos with chips on for pcie lanes corky if your targeting gaming in that way you can buy that mobos. If your spending 1.5k on 3 gpus what's an extra £50 on a mobo.

Dmi 2.0 still has more bandwidth than can be saturated even with the 8 core CPU and top end ram. Still talking 20gbit/ sec bandwidth. Skylake will bring about the 3.0 improvements in dmi guess if it was ready it may of been on this chipset.

 

Yes I agree, that about sums up my ideas regarding upgrading too. Those X99 boards look nice though!

 

Yea i know some Mobo support more PCI-E lanes, but (afaik) those would be using PCI-E 2.0 and not directly linked to the CPU, I'm also guessing they wouldn't be x16 slots, or would be sharing the DMI bandwidth.

The DMI thing isn't a biggy for most people, but with six USB 3.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, eight PCIe 2.0 lanes, 10 SATA 6Gbps ports, and more, all depending on that 20gbit/ sec bandwidth you can see the numbers just don't add up.

 

If your gonna fill all those devices then your likely in a tiny niche of the market. Think I use 2 Usb slots and 2 PCIE slots. and 2 Sata slots.

As for PCIE lanes they are pcie 3.0 last I checked. using the PLX chip that is on those Mobos. Assuming you wanted them for gaming naturally.

 

While impressive, I don't think I will replace my 920, the price for all the needed upgrades is too high for my taste. Now I am stuck between getting a Devil's Canyon or waiting for Broadwell. Hm :/

 

So can the the CPU's work in existing X79 boards with a BIOS update? Or are they locked to only work with X99 and DDR4?

 

Of course it cannot work on X79. The socket is different, the memory controller is for DDR4 only.

 

Isn't that who these chips are aimed at though ? I mean these are supposed to be the best of the best, targeted at the niche end of the market. Like i said it's probably no biggy, but I'm just disappointed that Intel has deliberately crippled some of the chips purely for market segmentation purposes.

Using a PLX chip can't add more lanes than is supported by the CPU, all it can do is manage how those lanes are divided, or convert an unused chipset interconnect, that in turn goes over the DMI link between the CPU and chipset.

With 4K displays, M.2 and SATA Express, all demanding more bandwidth i do question why Intel has chosen to cripple their high end CPUs so much.

 

There is a simple reason and its so they can sell you the next chip with it on and claim its an upgrade if you want to look at it that way.

The way Id look at it would be does it do what I want if it ticks those boxes its a pretty easy buy. Its also alot cheaper than most people were expecting. £760 is about £240 less than I thought it would be.

5960x and 5930x come with 40 pcie lanes its just the low end chip that is reduced. £130 for 12 pcie lanes you could say is the price your paying for Intels domination of CPU market.

5820k would never really be a option for me anyway the total system cost is alot higher due to Mobo and Ram costs than a 4790k. If I was paying for those things higher mobo costs and higher ram costs the £130 for the next step up is not exactly break the bank money.

 

Oh yea i know they done it purely for marketing reasons, and because they can get away with it. I just wish they gave the highest clocked chip more PCIe lanes so it would suit single thread, multi GPU setups more, i.e gaming.

 

No. Need new motherboard.

However my advice is to keep your 4820K/4930K mate.

The new Haswell-E are just a rip off. Of course if you want to run Cinebench all day, please go buy one.

As you see on the gaming section, there are no differences, and I have an overclocked 4820K @5Ghz which was the best value for money CPU ever. Which is a fantastic CPU as the old Q6600 and the 2600K.

Soldered, not glued with paste, 40 PCI lanes for full 2x SLI/CF support, runs cool, and is a total beast eating everything on it's pass. (the 4820K i mean)