Intel Core i7-4960X “Ivy Bridge-E” Gets Pitted Against Core i7-3970X in a Clock-To-Clock Benchmark Comparison

Intel’s Core i7-4960X has also been benchmarked by Toppc at Coolaler Forums, the processor is the flagship part of the upcoming Ivy Bridge-E lineup which would replace the current HEDT “Sandy Bridge-E” platform. The CPU was benchmarked against the current flagship Core i7-3970X processor and clock frequencies were kept the same for a fair comparison.

Intel Core i7-4960X – Flagship Ivy Bridge-E CPU Benchmarked

Intel’s Core i7-4960X is based on the latest 22nm Tri-gate transistor technology, features 6 cores/12 threads and comes with a base clock of 3.30 GHz. The turbo boost frequency is kept at 3.50 GHz. The Core i7-4960X has 15MB of L3 Cache and has a lower TDP of 130W compared to 150W on the Core i7-3970X. As with Sandy Bridge-E CPUs, the Ivy Bridge-E lineup is also compatible with the Socket LGA 2011 on X79 chipset motherboards. The upcoming Haswell-E (2015) lineup would also remain compatible with Socket 2011 but would get a new chipset and DDR4 memory compatibility.

The clock frequencies are lower than the last generation’s flagship processor however the could not be final since the chip is still in Engineering Phase. The Core i7-4960X was overclocked to match the frequency of Core i7 3960X. You can see the benchmarks results below:

CineBench R11.5 (Single Core):

• Intel Core i7-4960X: 1.52 Points
• Intel Core i7-3970X: 1.41 Points

CineBench R11.5 (Multi Core):

• Intel Core i7-4960X: 10.94
• Intel Core i7-3970X: 10.16

Super PI 1M:

• Intel Core i7-4960X: 10.171 Seconds
• Intel Core i7-3970X: 10.905 Seconds

Super PI 32M:

• Intel Core i7-4960X: 9m 55 Seconds
• Intel Core i7-3970X: 9m 22 Seconds

3DMark Vantage (CPU Score):

• Intel Core i7-4960X: 38644 CPU Marks
• Intel Core i7-3970X: 35804 CPU Marks

3DMark 06 (CPU Score):

• Intel Core i7-4960X: 8586 Marks
• Intel Core i7-3970X: 8099 Marks

WPrime 32M:

• Intel Core i7-4960X: 4.601 Seconds
• Intel Core i7-3970X: 5.01 Seconds

WPrime 1024M:

• Intel Core i7-4960X: 138.169 Seconds
• Intel Core i7-3970X: 149.167 Seconds

At best, these benchmarks represent an 8-10% average performance improvement over the old Sandy Bridge-E architecture. This is a similar performance jump we witnessed from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge processors on the LGA 115* platforms. The complete Ivy Bridge-E lineup is expected to launch in Q3 2013 while its successor  the Lituya Bay based Haswell-E processors arrive in 1H of 2015.

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