# Intel Core i7-3970X Extreme Arrives in Q4



## btarunr (Jul 23, 2012)

Intel's next high-end desktop processor, the Core i7-3970X Extreme, arrives in Q4, 2012, according to a DonanimHaber report. The i7-3970X is expected to ship with clock speeds of 3.50 GHz, with maximum Turbo Boost frequency of 4.00 GHz. The six-core chip is based on the 32 nm "Sandy Bridge-E" silicon, and built in the LGA2011 package. Its feature-set is consistent with that of the Core i7-3960X, with 15 MB shared L3 cache, HyperThreading, and unlocked base-clock multiplier. In all likelihood, the i7-3970X could displace the i7-3960X from its price-point. 





*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## blibba (Jul 23, 2012)

Another £1000 cripple edition. Man up already and give us 8 cores and 20MB of cache Intel. We know you'd have done it already if the 8150 wasn't such a joke. All you have to do is unlock the multiplier on a Xeon.


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## Aquinus (Jul 23, 2012)

Another one? They could have just hurried up with IVB-E instead of wasting their time with this.


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## radrok (Jul 23, 2012)

It just makes no sense.


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## NHKS (Jul 23, 2012)

hmm, a 3970X? ah, should have guessed it.. 

and the one after that will be a 3980X and then finally the 3990X (unless of course they want to spoil thmesleves with a 3995X)... you cant waste those big chips, can u?

so here it is, intel lga2011 desktop roadmap atleast till 2H 2013. 
i doubt intel 6-cores will become mainstream anytime soon


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## Ikaruga (Jul 23, 2012)

Extreme huh? We should be at 8-12 cores by now at least, if not at 16.


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## Random Murderer (Jul 23, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> Another one? They could have just hurried up with IVB-E instead of wasting their time with this.



exactly my thoughts


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## MaKCuMyC (Jul 23, 2012)

stupidly.


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## shilka (Jul 23, 2012)

Oh for f**k sake intel give us Ivy Bridge-E already and stop wasting time with more Sandy Bridge CPU´s


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## Hustler (Jul 23, 2012)

shilka said:


> Oh for f**k sake intel give us Ivy Bridge-E already and stop wasting time with more Sandy Bridge CPU´s



One of the consequences of AMD being out of the game these days unfortunately. Intel only has to give you what they want, not what you want.


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## Random Murderer (Jul 23, 2012)

shilka said:


> Oh for f**k sake intel give us Ivy Bridge-E already and stop wasting time with more Sandy Bridge CPU´s



Let's just hope the IVB-E chips have a soldered IHS and not TIM like the 1155 IVB chips...


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## Velvet Wafer (Jul 23, 2012)

Well that is what happens when a company got a monopole for something.... they sit their asses flat, and charge gross amounts of money, for years old stuff


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## hardcore_gamer (Jul 23, 2012)

I don't understand why people spend $1000 on a CPU that doesn't offer any noticeable advantages over a $300 CPU.


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## Random Murderer (Jul 23, 2012)

hardcore_gamer said:


> I don't understand why people spend $1000 on a CPU that doesn't offer any noticeable advantages over a $300 CPU.



Because it has 2c/4t more. If you were referring to the 3930k, that's a $575 chip.


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## radrok (Jul 23, 2012)

hardcore_gamer said:


> I don't understand why people spend $1000 on a CPU that doesn't offer any noticeable advantages over a $300 CPU.



On gaming, but if you'd do heavy rendering like I do, you would notice a lot of difference because tasks gets done in much less time







I of course bought the 3930K because the 3960X doesn't give any performance edge with only 3MB L3 more cache.


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## shilka (Jul 23, 2012)

I want to replace my 3820 with a Ivy Bridge-E CPU the new 3940K or whatever Intel will name the middel model of the Ivy Bridge-E series


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## NHKS (Jul 23, 2012)

radrok said:


> On gaming, but if you'd do heavy rendering like I do, you would notice a lot of difference because tasks gets done in much less time



u r right abt that.. 

are rendering softwares primarily cpu accelerated? or is there a gpu option too?.. 

I have tried  keyshot.. its great but its cpu-acceleration only..i have seen demos of it using as many as 64-threads (on Xeons)


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## radrok (Jul 23, 2012)

It depends on the renderer and the workload, especially the last one, there are some tasks that are too complex to be rendered by a GPU.


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## Frick (Jul 23, 2012)

Velvet Wafer said:


> Well that is what happens when a company got a monopole for something.... they sit their asses flat, and charge gross amounts of money, for years old stuff



Except that both AMD and Intel had $1000 CPU's at a time.


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## gopal (Jul 23, 2012)

Very good CPU but very expensive.

i give it 10 points for performence 
i cut it's 11 points for price                                     = Don't buy it


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## Nordic (Jul 23, 2012)

Velvet Wafer said:


> Well that is what happens when a company got a monopole for something.... they sit their asses flat, and charge gross amounts of money, for years old stuff



If a company has a monopoly, they have to operate on a fine line. That line is where they make the most profit, but not too much profit that another company will try to join the market to get their slice of the profit pie. They wouldn't sell it at this price if no one bought it.

I agree this processor is overpriced and the 3930k is a much better bang for your buck.


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## Morgoth (Jul 23, 2012)

i want my 16 threaded xeons!


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## gopal (Jul 23, 2012)

16 threaded Xeons what performence do you get from it?
Going to sleep (11:50 PM)


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## Nordic (Jul 23, 2012)

Morgoth said:


> i want my 16 threaded xeons!



Can I have a dual core 1 terahertz processor instead?


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## Crap Daddy (Jul 23, 2012)

These cpus make 1% of Intel s business.


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## dj-electric (Jul 23, 2012)

marketing 1% to sell the others...


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## Morgoth (Jul 23, 2012)

gopal said:


> 16 threaded Xeons what performence do you get from it?
> Going to sleep (11:50 PM)



allot in rendering and compiling


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## ensabrenoir (Jul 23, 2012)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> marketing 1% to sell the others...



yep... just a Maybach....(secretly building a needlessly overpowered. System)


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## treehouse (Jul 23, 2012)

james888 said:


> Can I have a dual core 1 terahertz processor instead?



haha so true


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## HumanSmoke (Jul 23, 2012)

Crap Daddy said:


> These cpus make 1% of Intel s business.


<sarcasm> 
1% of Intel's CPU biz inflames 99% of posters?!

OCCUPY SNB-E !

</sarcasm>


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## Aquinus (Jul 23, 2012)

HumanSmoke said:


> 1% of Intel's CPU biz inflames 99% of posters?!
> 
> OCCUPY SNB-E !



I like my 3820, thank you.


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## cedrac18 (Jul 24, 2012)

Did everyone asking for 8 cores miss these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117261

They have been for sale for a while.


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## Hayder_Master (Jul 24, 2012)

thanks for 100mhz more


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## Wile E (Jul 24, 2012)

cedrac18 said:


> Did everyone asking for 8 cores miss these?
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117261
> 
> They have been for sale for a while.



Little to no OCing. We want an unlocked, or at least partially unlocked, 8 core.


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## cedrac18 (Jul 24, 2012)

Wile E said:


> Little to no OCing. We want an unlocked, or at least partially unlocked, 8 core.



Ah, my bad. For less then $400, under 100W TDP and packaged water loop to right?


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## Wile E (Jul 24, 2012)

cedrac18 said:


> Ah, my bad. For less then $400, under 100W TDP and packaged water loop to right?



Oh, my bad, I thought you knew this was an enthusiast site.

I'll happily pay a shitload for an unlocked 8c/16t chip. I already have the watercooling though, so thanks anyway.


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## cedrac18 (Jul 24, 2012)

Wile E said:


> Oh, my bad, I thought you knew this was an enthusiast site.
> 
> I'll happily pay a shitload for an unlocked 8c/16t chip. I already have the watercooling though, so thanks anyway.




Good to many people labeling themselves as enthusiasts asking for top tier gear then when the price for said top gear drops they complain its to expensive. Remember the "i want GTX 690s for $600?"


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## Wile E (Jul 24, 2012)

But I wasn't complaining about the price, only the locked multipliers. Were you thinking of posts by others?


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## cedrac18 (Jul 24, 2012)

Wile E said:


> But I wasn't complaining about the price, only the locked multipliers. Were you thinking of posts by others?



Yes, it was based generally on the type of complains that often come up. I didn't mean to attack you personally.

But to get back on topic, If they do make a 8c/16t unlocked I7 chip wouldn't it cannibalize on the sale of the xeons which probably have a higher profit margin? 

Also such part would probably cost upwards of $1200 at what point does buying a dual socket 2011 mobo and sticking two quads or hexacores in there becomes more beneficial? That's assuming the work needed to be done is multi threaded.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 24, 2012)

Even for rendering it's not a clear win for SB-E. A 3770k get's you 75% of the performance for 60% of the power. If you're building a farm that's the way I'd go, and not just for power savings but the initial investment is easily half as much.


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## Wile E (Jul 24, 2012)

cedrac18 said:


> Yes, it was based generally on the type of complains that often come up. I didn't mean to attack you personally.
> 
> But to get back on topic, If they do make a 8c/16t unlocked I7 chip wouldn't it cannibalize on the sale of the xeons which probably have a higher profit margin?
> 
> Also such part would probably cost upwards of $1200 at what point does buying a dual socket 2011 mobo and sticking two quads or hexacores in there becomes more beneficial? That's assuming the work needed to be done is multi threaded.



Most situations that would have a person or business considering Xeons, wouldn't have them considering the unlocked 8c. The Xtreme line is not multi socket compatible for one example, and they aren't rated for as extreme of conditions as Xeons.

Plus, many of us just like OCing. For serious work, I would build a 16c 2p system. For fun I would build the 8c unlocked system.


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## gopal (Jul 24, 2012)

i know they are very expensive but they should no do 1% business they will do .5%


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## Aquinus (Jul 24, 2012)

Wile E said:


> For serious work, I would build a 16c 2p system.



This is where I laugh. Would you rather get a 8c Xeon that costs 1,300 USD or more (up to 2,000) or would you want a P2 16c AMD Interlagos rig with 32c total? Honestly, because two Interlagos chips will cost just as much as a single 8c Xeon. In normal cases it's a lot of power for any normal user, but someone who does rendering or OLAP might want something like that, but obviously not for overclocking. At this point whatever software you're going to be running clearly likes more threads and how could you turn down 16 more threads for the same price, because for multi-threaded workloads Interlagos shines.



gopal said:


> i know they are very expensive but they should no do 1% business they will do .5%


I think this pisses off all the people who normally wouldn't get an EE chip, so that 1% probably will stay at 1%.


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## gopal (Jul 24, 2012)

Use P4 for a year and then upgrade it to the 2600 you will see improvements


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## Random Murderer (Jul 24, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> I like my 3820, thank you.



Same here.
I'm looking forward to IVB-E, not necessarily more cores. If intel were to release a 4c/8t IVB-E right now, I would be all over it.
Besides, this 3820 is pretty cherry and as soon as i go water 5GHz+ 24/7 doesn't seem out of the question. That should more than compensate for being two cores shy of the others, except in benchmarks, and it'll draw less power and make less heat than a 6c/12t chip.

EDIT: It seems to me that a lot of people nowadays just think "hurr durr, more cores = better." This is only the case if you have software that is multi-threaded and can utilize your multiple cores. Even still, most(non-workstation) multi-threaded software around currently is only dual-threaded, with a small percentage being quad-threaded or more. Even most high-end games are only quad-threaded, so why buy a hexa-core processor for anything but benchmarking or workstation work? It just doesn't make sense to me:shadedshu


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## Aquinus (Jul 24, 2012)

Random Murderer said:


> Same here.
> I'm looking forward to IVB-E, not necessarily more cores. If intel were to release a 4c/8t IVB-E right now, I would be all over it.
> Besides, this 3820 is pretty cherry and as soon as i go water 5GHz+ 24/7 doesn't seem out of the question. That should more than compensate for being two cores shy of the others, except in benchmarks, and it'll draw less power and make less heat than a 6c/12t chip.



The extra L3 per core helps and the quad-channel memory makes sure that none of the cores get starved for memory bandwidth too. Its got a strong IMC, plenty of PCI-E lanes, and loaded with features (I'm digging the VT-d and being able to overclock.) It really is a great platform if you get a nice motherboard and doesn't cost too much over a maxed out 1155 rig. I think it was worth it.


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## Morgoth (Jul 24, 2012)

comparing my old I7 965 vs my 2x Xeon E5520 the improvement has increased allot on the heavy cpu tasked aplications i use
also i can OC my xeons


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## radrok (Jul 24, 2012)

Morgoth said:


> comparing my old I7 965 vs my 2x Xeon E5520 the improvement has increased allot on the heavy cpu tasked aplications i use
> also i can OC my xeons



Yes but you can't overclock LGA 2011 Xeons, that's what started the discussion.

I strongly agree with Wile E, Intel should push out an extreme edition 8c/16t because 3MB of L3 cache can't justify the price jump from 3930K to 3960X/3970X.


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## gopal (Jul 24, 2012)

Are "X" Models are also Unlocked chips like "K" ?
btw, "X" are very expensive


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## radrok (Jul 24, 2012)

Extreme SKUs (X) have always been multiplier unlocked and they were the only CPUs unlocked from Intel until K SKUs started to come out.

I agree that they are very expensive but when the 980X came out the performance was too yummy for me to pass.


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## trickson (Jul 24, 2012)

Why all the talk about 8 cores and 12 cores? I mean Intel can kick ass with fewer cores than AMD right now and really how many games or even programs out there need any more than 4 cores? This is just Intel making AMD look weak and they are.


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## radrok (Jul 25, 2012)

Vray renderer for example, it can take up to 64 cores on a single machine.


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## Dent1 (Jul 25, 2012)

trickson said:


> Why all the talk about 8 cores and 12 cores? I mean Intel can kick ass with fewer cores than AMD right now and really how many games or even programs out there need any more than 4 cores? This is just Intel making AMD look weak and they are.



Yes, Intel executives meet up once a week at a roundtable to discuss "how to make AMD look weaker". Yes, that is how Intel spend their revenue.


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## gopal (Jul 25, 2012)

Well AMD is smart that they do not make vert expensive cpu which will not sell


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## radrok (Jul 25, 2012)

Or they are not selling CPUs at insane price points because they don't have any that will compete with current Intel X lineup?

I remember a time when both AMD and Intel had 850$+ CPUs on the market.


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## trickson (Jul 26, 2012)

radrok said:


> Or they are not selling CPUs at insane price points because they don't have any that will compete with current Intel X lineup?
> 
> I remember a time when both AMD and Intel had 850$+ CPUs on the market.



I would have to agree with this. AMD just doesn't have a CPU that can compete CORE FOR CORE that is. :shadedshu


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## Nordic (Jul 26, 2012)

trickson said:


> I would have to agree with this. AMD just doesn't have a CPU that can compete CORE FOR CORE that is. :shadedshu



Ya. Following the trend of bulldozer... Amd would be making a 24 core desktop processor to compete at that price point


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## trickson (Jul 26, 2012)

james888 said:


> Ya. Following the trend of bulldozer... Amd would be making a 24 core desktop processor to compete at that price point



No AMD would need a 24 core CPU just to keep up with the 4 and 6 core offerings of Intel.


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## Nordic (Jul 26, 2012)

trickson said:


> No AMD would need a 24 core CPU just to keep up with the 4 and 6 core offerings of Intel.



When I read my post, and then your post, they say the same thing to me. So we agree amd would need 24 core cpu to keep up with intel's high end


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## trickson (Jul 26, 2012)

james888 said:


> When I read my post, and then your post, they say the same thing to me. So we agree amd would need 24 core cpu to keep up with intel's high end


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## D007 (Jul 26, 2012)

lol waste of time and money imo.. Only a handful of eliteists will buy these.


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## trickson (Jul 26, 2012)

D007 said:


> lol waste of time and money imo.. Only a handful of eliteists will buy these.



That would be the smart people, You mean.


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## T4C Fantasy (Aug 2, 2012)

gopal said:


> Use P4 for a year and then upgrade it to the 2600 you will see improvements



i moved from a Pentium 4 HT 3.2GHz 478 pin, to a 3770K, i used the P4 from 2004-2011, i notice a differance, but not as much as an ssd does over an hdd


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## Nordic (Aug 2, 2012)

T4C Fantasy said:


> i moved from a Pentium 4 HT 3.2GHz 478 pin, to a 3770K, i used the P4 from 2004-2011, i notice a differance, but not as much as an ssd does over an hdd



I moved from a pentium p3 I had since I was a kid to a amd anthlon dual core 2.3ghz thing. I noticed a huge difference and that was with vista installed too, compared to xp. Everything else was also newer, like a sata hdd compared to ide. When I then moved to my 2500k I noticed a difference. When I overclocked it to 4.5ghz... eh little difference in desktop stuff but big in games and encoding. My i3-2150 in my laptop seems so slow and I know its the processor not the hdd. That is just desktop stuff.


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## Ikaruga (Aug 2, 2012)

T4C Fantasy said:


> i moved from a Pentium 4 HT 3.2GHz 478 pin, to a 3770K, i used the P4 from 2004-2011, i notice a differance, but not as much as an ssd does over an hdd



P4@3.2GHz vs 3770K is night and day, just keep looking=) If you want to play recent game titles, you might need a fast video card as well, but the Ivy-Bridge is a real monster compared to the Northwood. They are not even in the same league, and that's stays true even when you do nothing else but browsing the net


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## T4C Fantasy (Aug 2, 2012)

james888 said:


> I moved from a pentium p3 I had since I was a kid to a amd anthlon dual core 2.3ghz thing. I noticed a huge difference and that was with vista installed too, compared to xp. Everything else was also newer, like a sata hdd compared to ide. When I then moved to my 2500k I noticed a difference. When I overclocked it to 4.5ghz... eh little difference in desktop stuff but big in games and encoding. My i3-2150 in my laptop seems so slow and I know its the processor not the hdd. That is just desktop stuff.



lol put an ssd in your laptop.... youll notice a bigger diferance than your cpu does because of the face value an ssd makes is immediately apparent, for example boot time, the very first thing you do when you install new hardware  so oviously you will automatically notice an ssd over an hdd over any cpu to cpu combo


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## Nordic (Aug 2, 2012)

T4C Fantasy said:


> lol put an ssd in your laptop.... youll notice a bigger diferance than your cpu does because of the face value an ssd makes is immediately apparent, for example boot time, the very first thing you do when you install new hardware  so oviously you will automatically notice an ssd over an hdd over any cpu to cpu combo



I plan on it too. Waiting for a bigger drop in prices. I already boot up in 20 seconds, but 8 sounds better.


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## Kheng (Aug 7, 2012)

You can always move to a farm of 2P E5-2600 series Xeons for a rendering farm (Rack mounted), which is what we are going to do (rather than buying heaps of expensive 3930K / 3960X systems)


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