Legit Processor Reviews

Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E Processor Review

Manufacturer: Intel
Product: Intel Core i7-3960X CPU
Date: Mon, Nov 14, 2011 - 02:00 AM
Written By: Nathan Kirsch -
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Total System Power Consumption

CPU Power Consumption

Since power consumption is a big deal these days, we ran some simple power consumption tests on our test beds. The systems ran with identical power supplies, Solid-Sate Drives, Memory kits and motherboards from the same company. To measure idle usage, we ran the system at idle for one hour on the desktop with no screen saver and took the measurement. For load measurements, Prime95's in-place large FFT's were run on all cores to make sure each and every processor was at 100% load for maximum power consumption and heat. Curious about other test scenarios, we decided to HAWX 2 the PC game for testing. We also tested a video transcode using HandBrake 0.95 to see how the power draw on that was.

ASUS F1A75-M Pro System Power Consumption

Benchmark Results: The Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E processor had very impressive idle power consumption numbers at just 59.9 Watts on average. The previous generation Intel Core i7-990X Gulftown processor consumed 111 Watts at idle, so Intel has done a great job with idle power consumption on this CPU. Most PCs sit at idle anyway, so this is critical. At load the power jumped up, but had respectable power draws in gaming and video encoding testing. When running Prime 95 64-bit we saw the system hit 260 Watts of draw, which is the most of any processor on this application. The AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer processor still tops the charts with 286 Watts during gaming.

Next Page - Intel Core i7-3960X CPU Air Temp Testing


Review Index
Page 1 - Intel Sandy Bridge-E LGA 2011 CPUs Arrive
Page 2 - The Intel X79 Express Chipset & DX79SI Mobo
Page 3 - 32 in 32 Promotional Unboxing
Page 4 - The Test System
Page 5 - SiSoftware Sandra 2011 SP5
Page 6 - x264 HD Encoding
Page 7 - CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5
Page 8 - Handbrake
Page 9 - POV-Ray 3.7 RC3
Page 10 - Cinebench R11.5
Page 11 - PCMark 7
Page 12 - 3DMark Vantage
Page 13 - Resident Evil 5
Page 14 - H.A.W.X. 2 Benchmark
Page 15 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Page 16 - Total System Power Consumption
Page 17 - Intel Core i7-3960X CPU Air Temp Testing
Page 18 - Intel Core i7-3960X CPU Water Temp Testing
Page 19 - Core i7-3960X CPU Overclocking
Page 20 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions