Haswell-E is here. Well, technically, it’s been “here” for a while but has undergone refinements throughout the last year to ready itself for launch. One of those refinements was more performance and cooler operating temperatures. Without creating a whole new architecture, the only feasible direction, given the current TDP and heat challenges facing Haswell, was to refine the silicon, add more cores, lower the core voltage, and assign a frequency that can be maintained across those cores. The result is the new Core i7-5960X Haswell-E processor that uses 8 physical cores and 16 threads to flex its muscle.
Today, we’re giving the new Core i7-5960X its debut, after repeated torture tests for days on end. The question on everyone’s mind is, do all those threads really make this new processor worth the money? That’s exactly the question we want to answer.
Features – Core i7-5960X
It’s easy to understand the purpose of the Intel Core i7-5960X or any of the LGA-2011-3 processors really. They all have enough processing power to do anything faster than previous processors before it, especially if those processors call upon more threads. These processors aren’t really designed with just gaming in mind as much as they’re meant for transcoding, encoding, compiling, and rendering. Any task that benefits from multiple cores and threads will get completed far more quickly than ever before. And with that many cores, any tasks that require a heavy level of multi-tasking like content creation (Adobe Creative Suite comes to mind) will benefit greatly from the availability of extra cores, that can be assigned in most of these types of applications, for best possible performance.
As mentioned, the Intel Core i7-5960X is an 8 core – 16 thread beast. Like all the Haswell-E cores to be unleashed, it supports DDR4-2133 MHz memory out of the box. That should be over 64 GB/s maximum possible data being moved between the CPU’s memory controller and the DDR4-2133 modules themselves. With up to 40 PCIE 3.0 lanes available to this CPU, users can install multiple graphics and even higher end storage cards without issue.
Specifications – Flagship Comparison
For the technically inclined readers, the the table reveals the main feature differences between the Gulftown, Ivy Bridge-E, and Haswell-E flagship processors. It’s interesting to see how the architectures have progressed.
This table reveals that Haswell-E and IvyBridge-E share similar technologies. Keep in mind that these are still different from active features in Xeon processors. If real server type support is needed, that’s where you want to be looking for a chip. Lets discuss how much the new series is going to cost you.
Availability and Cost of Haswell-E SKUs
Above, you can see the models at launch (as of August 29th) as well as their pricing. Note that it’s the cores, threads, cache, and PCI Express lanes that improve, as you pay more. Interestingly, the Core i7-5960X is $999 at launch, but we’ve always seen the premium chips go for $200 to $300 more. If you don’t have that kind of budget, the Core i7-5930K (an unlocked CPU) will surprise you, but at the loss of two physical cores. So if you want high end multi-threaded performance, you’ll still want to opt for the Core i7-5960X.
A New Chipset – Intel X99
While the LGA 2011-3 processors supply the processing power to push the latest apps and games, the new Intel X99 chipset is more important as it allows the CPU to take advantage of its processing power. Found on new motherboards from all the major players like ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI, at launch, the X99 chipset supports multi-GPUs, but will obviously cost more than Z87 or Z97. On top of that, motherboard companies will add extra features that will help make the chipset even better than what Intel had hoped for. Some features not shown include the additon of 10GB/s M.2 connectors onboard, as well as SATA Express ports on some solutions. More gaming oriented solutions will often come with enhanced audio, networking, and overclocking features as well.
What’s in the Retail Box?
Intel has said that a standard air cooled heat sink will be bundled with all Haswell-E processors including the Core i7-5960X. As you can imagine, those retail PWM fans get very loud under load. However, if you want to stay away from loud and hot stock coolers, users have the option of buying an Intel TS13X all in one liquid cooler, compatible with a huge number of computer cases. Of course, more seasoned DIY enthusiasts can opt to purchase something a bit more robust.
Test System Configuration
In order to stress test the new Intel Core i7-5960x processor, we needed to come up with a system that would be worthy to test it. Although components like boards and DDR4 modules may be scarce at launch, we were still able to come up with the following configuration.
- Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X Haswell-E
- Motherboard: ASUS X99 Deluxe
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 4×4 GB 2800MHz DDR4
- Graphics: NVidia GeForce GTX 780 3GB – SLI
- Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD
- Power: be quiet! 850 Watt DarkPower Pro 80Plus Gold
- Cooling: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate
Our operating system of choice will continue to be Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit with a fresh install and all patches loaded.
The latest drivers and UEFI BIOS (as of the date of this review) was used to test and retest the CPU performance of this new chip. The DDR4 memory was set to a CPU supported 2133 MHz, allowing us to focus on the chip and what it could do.
In another article, we’ll come back and examine what the chip can do with the latest batch of Intel X99 series boards at launch, and further down the line, test what higher end modules and overclocking can do to the performance curve.
Benchmark Notes
Naturally, benchmarks were selected to primarily focus on the processor. This includes benchmarks that simulate projects like rendering, calculations, encryption, transcoding, and a couple games that benefit from multi-core processors. However, those kinds of games typically only show a minor improvement, but we’ll see if there’s anything tangible.
SANDRA – Math and Multimedia
Starting off with SANDRA CPU tests, the Core i7-5960X is the most powerful CPU to date, despite the lower frequency 3.0GHz cores. The threads make up the difference immensely.
SANDRA – Cryptography (AES256 + SHA2-256)
Only the hex and octo-core processors are shown above. While frequencies and core counts seem to be the MVPs of the benchmark, it’s also the latest instruction sets that give the Core i7-5960X a very strong cryptography score.
SANDRA – Memory Bandwidth (CPU Memory Controller Test)
After running the benchmark several times, it’s evident that 8 cores are well fed by the integrated memory controller. A slight frequency increase to the Corsair Vengeance LPX memory to 2400 MHz actually increased bandwidth to 52.5 GB/s. More on that later when we put some higher end modules to the test.
CineBench R11.5 and R15
Including R11.5 one last time, we wanted to show you where the Core i7-5960X lands in terms of CPU rendering performance. It certainly is the king of this benchmark by a large margin.
In the R15 benchmark, we see similar performance as the Core i7-5960X makes light work of the rendering program, pulling away from the rest of the pack. Rendering programs that take advantage of as many threads as it can get, will always benefit from more cores and threads.
H.264 Transcoding – GraySky 5.0
Holy media transcoding power! It far outpaces any Extreme processors of the past. This can all be attributed to the processor’s AVX performance as well as a helping hand from the new X99 platform (and memory) supporting it.
7-Zip – CPU Compression Benchmark
Here, we can see more cores equals more performance. If you’re using your Core i7-5960X in a project that requires the type of crunching that file compression requires, you’ll be finished archiving your huge GB file long before the rest of the processors.
Games – Maximum Details
Using just a few game titles cranked all the way to max settings, the Core i7-5960X’s PCI Express performance was given a little testing to make sure there aren’t any driver or hardware anomalies. Okay, so maybe I just wanted to play a couple rounds. Is that wrong?
Temperatures and Overclocking
Stock cooling performance while under the new Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate, which is one of the first 360mm all in one units to hit the market, was 60 C on the highest core temp. Overclocked, temps topped out at 80+ C which isn’t bad.
We used two methods to see where the Core i7-5960X maxes out using a maximum 1.3 voltage limit we recommend to protect your $1K processor and keep our Water 3.0 Ultimate relatively quiet. That established, ASUS’ new Dual Intelligent Processor 5 program found 4.6 GHz at 1.29 volts to be acceptably stable. Manually tuned, I found the processor solid at 4.6 GHz using 1.3 volts as well. TPU voltage control was set to Extreme.
Reports from the battlefront are that this is par for the course. What did that do for performance? See for yourself…
Overclocked to 4.6 GHz, the Core i7-5960x improved the CineBench R15 rendering score noticeably. It’s pretty cool watching 16 threaded blocks cut through the benchmark so quickly.
Finally, the Core i7-5960X scores slightly better in 7-Zip. It’s evident that at some point, going from 3.5 GHz stock to 4.6 GHz overclocked levels off and doesn’t make a huge difference. Still, you get the idea of what to expect.
Final Thoughts
As usual, multi-core power reigns supreme, at least in CPU intensive tasks. The Intel Core i7-5960X is a content creation tool at heart, but there’s nothing wrong with using it to build a monster system for gaming as well. Professional content creators and coders will find it’s 8 core/16 thread processing power extremely useful in rendering, compiling, or transcoding. Your projects will get finished so much more quickly than ever before.
But this shouldn’t stop extreme enthusiasts who need the best of the best at any cost, from jumping all over Haswell-E and the X99 platform to get full speed PCI Express support for multiple graphics cards like NVIDIA Titan Zs or AMD R9 295 x2 video cards. The bottom line is that the platform can multitask better than ever, and takes on any task with ease. And from our benchmark results, it’s clearly, the fastest processor that Intel has ever produced for the enthusiast market.
The Intel Core i7-5960X only has one challenger of sorts, and that would be its Xeon cousins in the workstation/server line up. Unfortunately, AMD has nothing that will come close, which isn’t so great for the spirit of competition. Compared to the Xeon variants however, the Intel Core i7-5960X will only cost you $999 US, whereas the closest Xeon processors push $1200+ US at checkout. Although you do get optimizations and additional testing that makes a Xeon a better choice if you are in an environment where undisputed uptime and availability is crucial.
In the end, Intel’s Core i7-5960X has proven to be top dog in the desktop enthusiast market, and we can’t wait to see what the Intel X99 chipset brings us in terms of supporting features and capabilities. It may not be a platform for everyone, but it certainly is our choice for “High Performance” in the desktop market.
Pros
- Epic 8 core – 16 thread computing
- Improved thermal design works!
- Overclockable up to 4.6 GHz (so far)
- Best of class performance
Cons
- Premium performance at a premium cost
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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