Intel Core i7-4960X Ivy Bridge-E Processor Review
Test Systems
Before we look at the numbers, let’s take a brief look at the test system that was used. All testing was done on a fresh install of Windows 8 Enterprise 64-bit and benchmarks were completed on the desktop with no other software programs running.
Intel Socket LGA 2011 Test System:
To test out the performance of the Intel Core i7-4960X and Core i7-3960X processors we will be using the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe revision 1.03 motherboard that we got back in 2011. This board has been used on our test bench for years and has been one heck of a solid board. ASUS released BIOS 4401 on 9/2/2013 and that is the version that we used for all testing. The Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866MHz memory kit was set to XMP 1.3 memory profile settings, which is 1.5v and 9-10-9-27 2T memory timings. The Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB SSD uses 19nm NAND and was using M311 firmware. We will be using a pair of NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan video cards in 2-way SLI to check out gaming performance on both the LGA1150 and LGA2011 platforms today.
AMD Socket FM2 System:
The AMD A85X platform that we used to test the AMD socket FM2 processors featured the GA-F2A85X-UP4 motherboard with BIOS F4 that came out on 3/13/2013. The Corsair Dominator Platnium 8GB 2133MHz memory kit was set to XMP 1.3 memory profile settings, which is 1.5v and 9-11-11-31 1T memory timings. The Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB SSD uses 19nm NAND and was using M311 firmware.
Intel LGA 1150 Test System:
The Intel Z87 platform that we used to test the Intel 1150 processors was running the Intel DZ87KL-75K motherboard with BIOS 1817 that came out on 5/08/2013. The Corsair Dominator Platnium 8GB 2133MHz memory kit was set to XMP 1.3 memory profile settings, which is 1.5v and 9-11-11-31 1T memory timings. The Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB SSD uses 19nm NAND and was using M310 firmware.
Here is a quick look at the CPU-Z information for our main test system that we’ll be doing the testing on.
| Intel LGA1150 Test Platform | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Component |
Brand/Model |
Live Pricing |
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|
Processor |
Intel Core i7-4770K |
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|
Motherboard |
Intel DZ87KL-75K | Click Here | |||
|
Memory |
8GB Donimator 2133MHz | Click Here | |||
|
Video Card |
N/A |
Click Here | |||
|
Hard Drive |
Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB SSD |
Click Here | |||
|
Cooling |
Intel Retail Boxed |
Click Here | |||
|
Keyboard |
Corsair K90 |
Click Here | |||
|
Mouse |
Corsair M95 |
Click Here | |||
|
Power Supply |
Corsair AX860i |
Click Here | |||
|
Operating System |
Windows 8 64-Bit |
Click Here | |||