Core i7-4960X "Ivy Bridge-E" Roughly 10% Faster than i7-3970X: Early Tests

[btarunr]

PC enthusiast "Toppc" with the Coolaler.com, with access to a Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" sample clocked to match specifications of the Core i7-4960X, wasted no time in comparing the chip to a Core i7-3970X "Sandy Bridge-E." The two chips share a common socket LGA2011 design, and run on motherboards with Intel X79 Express chipset. An MSI X79A-GD45 Plus, with V17.1 BIOS was used to run the two chips. Among the tests Toppc put the chip through, are overclocker favorites SuperPi mod 1.6, CPU Mark '99, WPrime 1.63, Cinebench 11.5, 3DMark Vantage (CPU score), and 3DMark 06 (CPU score).

The Ivy Bridge-E chip outperformed its predecessor by roughly 5-10 percent across the board. In Cinebench, the i7-4960X scored 10.94 points in comparison to the i7-3970X' 10.16; SuperPi 32M was crunched by the i7-4960X in 9m 22.6s compared to the 9m 55.4s of the i7-3970X; CPU Mark scores between the two are 561 vs. 533, respectively; 3DMark Vantage CPU score being 38,644 points vs. 35,804, respectively; and 3DMark 06 scores 8,586 points vs. 8,099 points, respectively. In WPrime, the i7-4960X crunched 32M in 4.601s, compared to its predecessor's 5.01s. Below are the test screenshots, please note that they're high-resolution images, so please open each in a new tab.

Cinebench 11.5


SuperPi and CPU Mark


3DMark Vantage CPU score


3DMark 06 CPU score and WPrime 1.63


View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Jorge]

NOT very impressive but we knew this already.

 

[Nordic]

Agreed. Not really a surprise.

 

[CameronBanna]

overclocking?

How's the overclocking on this chip?

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Are these soldered? That would be just about the only interesting data point, seeing if a soldered Ivy runs cooler than a soldered Sandy, but beyond that we knew the performance of this chip before it even had a name.

 

[HumanSmoke]

DDR3-1600 at 11-11-11-28 ?
Really pushing the envelope.

 

[RejZoR]

If Intel will keep on doing these idiotic 10% bumps for every series at full price every time, they can have them. Lazy money milking bastards.

 

[Inceptor]

If Intel will keep on doing these idiotic 10% bumps for every series at full price every time, they can have them. Lazy money milking bastards.

Sandy Bridge, in 2010, was a huge jump in performance, and I think it has skewed everyone's expectations.
Intel has been squeezing optimizations and modifications of the same basic architecture for quite a few years now. It should not be surprising that the performance bump is now in the 5-10% range for each new iteration. Especially when taking into consideration the problems encountered when shrinking the design to smaller and smaller process nodes.

 

[HumanSmoke]

If Intel will keep on doing these idiotic 10% bumps for every series at full price every time, they can have them. Lazy money milking bastards.

Well, it's not as if you HAVE to buy it.
Judging by your system specs, you've already proven that you can readily do without Gulftown, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Sandy Bridge-E (not to mention Bulldozer and Piledriver).

Just as a point of interest:
Core i7 920...$284 four+ years ago
Core i7 3820...$300 now

Seems like a reasonable progression in performance given the fiercely competitive x86 market

 

[Prima.Vera]

fiercely competitive ?? )

 

[RejZoR]

Well, it's not as if you HAVE to buy it.
Judging by your system specs, you've already proven that you can readily do without Gulftown, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Sandy Bridge-E (not to mention Bulldozer and Piledriver).

Just as a point of interest:
Core i7 920...$284 four+ years ago
Core i7 3820...$300 now

Seems like a reasonable progression in performance given the fiercely competitive x86 market

The difference is that Core i7 (Nehalem) has shaken up the entire CPU industry at the time and is still going strong even after all the years (mainly because of 4 cores + 4 HT cores). Can't say the same for anything released after Nehalem...

 

[birdie]

Seems like I'm the only person who's noticed that the 4960X has a higher base frequency, and supposedly a higher turbo frequency.

Which kinda negates the enthusiasm over the new CPUs since the older ones can be OC'ed.

 

[arterius2]

The difference is that Core i7 (Nehalem) has shaken up the entire CPU industry at the time and is still going strong even after all the years (mainly because of 4 cores + 4 HT cores). Can't say the same for anything released after Nehalem...

you can't expect intel to "shake up the entire CPU industry" with every release, especially with AMD out of the picture. they would need to come out with an entirely new architecture. come to your senses.

 

[HumanSmoke]

fiercely competitive ?? )

I was toying with rather than , but that seemed akin to waving a red rag at a bull (dozer?).

 

[NeoXF]

Here's hoping AMD has a 5 or 6 module Steamroller up the pipe for us by the end of the year, that should make short work of this... hopefully for less than half the price. Otherwise there are no upsides to these almost pathetic speed-bumps...

 

[Frick]

The difference is that Core i7 (Nehalem) has shaken up the entire CPU industry at the time and is still going strong even after all the years (mainly because of 4 cores + 4 HT cores). Can't say the same for anything released after Nehalem...

The same story as with Core 2 then. As that other guy said, come to your senses.

Anyway, helllooo my new desktop! If only.

 

[NeoXF]

I think we can sum it up as... Core 2 was great, Nehalem/first generation of "i" CPUs where great and Sandy Bridge (second generation of "i" CPUs) was great... but now, Ivy Bridge mediocre and as it looks Ivy Bridge-E and Haswell, mediocre as well.

Hell, all in all, ignoring the fact that they're behind, I'd say AMD has made bigger advancements (not necessarily only performance-wise) than Intel, in these last 2 years or so...

 

[boogerlad]

A 10% ipc boost is better than the pathetic sandy bridge -> ivy bridge ipc boost on lga1155. This should be equivalent to Haswell in ipc I think.

 

[Aquinus]

Well, it's not as if you HAVE to buy it.
Judging by your system specs, you've already proven that you can readily do without Gulftown, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Sandy Bridge-E (not to mention Bulldozer and Piledriver).

Just as a point of interest:
Core i7 920...$284 four+ years ago
Core i7 3820...$300 now

Seems like a reasonable progression in performance given the fiercely competitive x86 market

You need to check Micro Center because the both the 3820 and 3770k are going for 230 USD if you can make your way into a store.

 

[xenocide]

I think we can sum it up as... Core 2 was great, Nehalem/first generation of "i" CPUs where great and Sandy Bridge (second generation of "i" CPUs) was great... but now, Ivy Bridge mediocre and as it looks Ivy Bridge-E and Haswell, mediocre as well.

Hell, all in all, ignoring the fact that they're behind, I'd say AMD has made bigger advancements (not necessarily only performance-wise) than Intel, in these last 2 years or so...

You're comparing apples and oranges.

Core 2 was great, it gave Intel a huge lead over AMD. But you're forgetting Tick Tock. Conroe was a game changer, but was Wolfdale (E6xxx vs. E8xxx) a massive game changer? No, it wasn't. What about the difference between Kentsfield (Q6xxx) and Yorksfield (Q7\8\9xxx)? Also not too massive. Then with Nahelem they got a little wonky with it. The fact is, Ivy Bridge was never intended to be a massive improvement on Sandy Bridge, Sandy Bridge was the massive improvement. If you remember, Sandy Bridge matched Nahelem's top dog for a fraction of the price, there's a reason the things flew off shelves.

 

[Jacez]

You're comparing apples and oranges.

Core 2 was great, it gave Intel a huge lead over AMD. But you're forgetting Tick Tock. Conroe was a game changer, but was Wolfdale (E6xxx vs. E8xxx) a massive game changer? No, it wasn't. What about the difference between Kentsfield (Q6xxx) and Yorksfield (Q7\8\9xxx)? Also not too massive. Then with Nahelem they got a little wonky with it. The fact is, Ivy Bridge was never intended to be a massive improvement on Sandy Bridge, Sandy Bridge was the massive improvement. If you remember, Sandy Bridge matched Nahelem's top dog for a fraction of the price, there's a reason the things flew off shelves.

Right, but if Haswell, which is supposed to be the big improvement, is only 10% better, then Intel fails.

 

[HumanSmoke]

You need to check Micro Center because the both the 3820 and 3770k are going for 230 USD if you can make your way into a store.

Too long a walk I'm afraid - I live in New Zealand...although at those prices it does make me acutely aware of the cost of living at the last stop before Antarctica.

At $230, RejZor's argument is taking on more water than a cardboard submarine.

 

[Fourstaff]

Right, but if Haswell, which is supposed to be the big improvement, is only 10% better, then Intel fails.

The graphics department, which is the main focus of Haswell (among other things), will most definitely be more than 10% better.

 

[BiggieShady]

The graphics department, which is the main focus of Haswell (among other things), will most definitely be more than 10% better.

In that case it's clearly that Tick-Tock cycle is no longer relevant for per-core performance expectations, since Intel can choose the focus of micro architecture improvements - cpu cores or iGPU. Essentialy, Haswell is a tock only for iGpu.

 

[badtaylorx]

i think the problem here is just that SandyBridge was just THAT good!!!