Legit Processor Reviews

Intel Core i7-980X Six-Core Processor Extreme Edition Review

Manufacturer: Intel
Product: Intel 980X - BX80613I7980X
Date: Thu, Mar 11, 2010 - 12:00 AM
Written By: Nathan Kirsch -
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SiSoftware Sandra 2010c

Sisoftware Sandra 2010

The Sisoft Sandra 2010c benchmark utility just came out a few weeks ago and we have started to include it in our benchmarking. Sandra 2010 now comes with support for Virtualisation (Virtual PC/Server, Hyper-V, VMware) and GPGPU (OpenCL, DirectX 11 DirectCompute, but today we will be using the program to look at memory and CPU performance!

Sandra 2009 SP2 Benchmark Scores

Results: Sandra 2010c showed that the Intel Core i7 975 system with the memory running at 1600MHz CL9 timings was the memory to beat with nearly 26GB/s throughput. The Intel Core i7 980X we had for testing on the Gigabyte X58A-UD5 motherboard with BIOS F4 started out running 1600MHz with CL11 timings, but after a reboot we were never able to reach 1600MHz again no matter what we did. At 1600MHz with CL11 timings we were getting 20.7GB/s on the 980X, but due to stability issues on our platform we had to back it down to 1333MHz with CL8 timings. Even with the DDR3 triple-channel kit running at 1333MHz with CL8 timings we were able to get a throughput of 20.2GB/s, which was still higher than the AMD Phenom II 965 Black Edition platform that got just 13.44GB/s at 1600MHz CL9 timings.

Sisoftware Sandra 2009

The Sandra Processor Multi-Media benchmark has been a long time favorite of ours to look at floating point performance on processors, so let's see how Intel's latest 32nm mobile processor does!

Sandra 2009 SP2 Benchmark Scores

Results: Once again the Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition 32nm processor outperformed the other two flagship processors significantly.

Sisoftware Sandra 2010c

Cryptography has become an important part of our digital life: it allows us to conduct safe transactions online, certify programs and services, keep our data secure and much more. Sandra 2010c has a dedicated benchmark built-in that measures cryptographic performance, which is important on the new Intel 32nm processors like the Core i7 980X that we are benchmarking today. It includes features like AES-NI! Intel AES-NI is a new set of Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) instructions that are going to be introduced in the next generation of Intel processors, as of 2009. These instructions enable fast and secure data encryption and decryption, using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), defined by FIPS Publication number 197.  The architecture introduces six instructions that offer full hardware support for AES. Four of them support high performance data encryption and decryption, and the other two instructions support the AES key expansion procedure. Let's take a look at how this feature impacts Cryptography performance.

Sandra 2009 SP2 Benchmark Scores

Results: The Intel Core i7 980X Processor with AES-NI has significantly more Cryptographic Bandwidth than the previous generation Intel Core i7 975 processor. It looks like the Intel Core i7 980X Processor is off to a great start!

Next Page - Microsoft Excel 2007


Review Index
Page 1 - Six Core Processors Are Here - Intel 980X
Page 2 - The New DBX-B CPU Cooler
Page 3 - Core i7 980X CPU-Z
Page 4 - The Test System
Page 5 - SiSoftware Sandra 2010c
Page 6 - Microsoft Excel 2007
Page 7 - x264 HD Encoding
Page 8 - Sony Vegas 9.0C Pro
Page 9 - Photodex ProShow Gold 4.1
Page 10 - Handbrake
Page 11 - POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 35
Page 12 - Cinebench R11.5
Page 13 - PCMark Vantage
Page 14 - 3DMark Vantage
Page 15 - Resident Evil 5
Page 16 - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Page 17 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Page 18 - Power Consumption
Page 19 - Intel Core i7 980X Overclocking
Page 20 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions