Test Setup & Overclocking

Considering the DDR4 DIMMs do not actually run at 3000 MHz, overclocking these processors was challenging. Also, luckily for me, I had the very capable and, moreover, reliable EVGA 1600W P2 power supply on hand, which instantly rid me of any instability issues due to a lack of power because of other peripherals. This PSU's build quality is excellent and it is, as such, a PSU I highly recommend to serious enthusiasts. Naturally, the DDR4 DIMMs also cut down on the overclock with these processors. We, as such, kept memory clock speed at 2667 MHz, which, given the board we used, proved to be the highest stable speed after Prime95 stability tests were run.

The Intel Core i7-5820K clocked higher (4.6 GHz stable) than the Intel Core i7-5930K (4.5 GHz stable), which could be due to the limited resource allocation across its CPU cores as compared to the Intel Core i7-5930K that has to deal with more discrete resources to support PCI-E lanes, the more probable explanation though is that we just got more lucky with one CPU. The Intel Core i7-5960X kept crashing at 4.6 GHz even after we increased the voltage to 1.40 V; nothing could keep this processor stable above 4.5 GHz. Speeds did end up dipping down to 4.4-4.5 GHz as a throttling measure to keep it stable. Keep in mind that this is an excellent result for a CPU with 8 cores and a base speed of 3.5 GHz.