Intel Core i7 5960X Extreme Edition - The Eight Core Monster
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,723 words · ~8 min read
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for years now the high-end LGA 2011 socket had bells and whistles like quad
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Channel memory support higher overall memory capacity more PCI Express Lanes
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so therefore inherently better support for multi-graphics card setups and
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finally support for processors with more than four cores so why is it that core
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i5s and core i7s on the mainstream socket have been so popular with Gamers
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overclockers and
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enthusiasts
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with the purchase of a qualifying Intel processor SSD or knck you could
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instantly win an Intel gaming Jersey and be entered in the draw for the ultimate
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system click now to learn more in the LGA 1366 days all the hardware nerds
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went enthusiasts because that's where the hot offerings like the core i7 920
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could be found but starting with sandybridge back in early 2011 Intel
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started releasing their newer processor microarchitectures on the mainstream
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platform first before bringing them to the Enthusiast platform so particularly
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for gamers it was better to buy the lower end product for better
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single-threaded performance often better overclocking much lower prices and even
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more up-to-date feature sets Thunderbolt for example has never been available to
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DIY consumers on LGA 2011 in fact the
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only real reason to go Enthusiast was to get a six core processor but unless you
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wanted a pretty slow Zeon those started at $1,000 until a year ago when the
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4930k became available at the value price of nearly $600 still pretty
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expensive but now they've finally done it with the release of the LGA 20113
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socket and x99 chipset and the 5820k
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5930k and 5960x CPUs to go with them
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Intel has finally addressed my complaints and made the final step
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towards reestablishing the really the sense ability of their two socket system
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we've got LGA 1150 for mainstream consumers and LGA 20113 for enthusiasts
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with all CPUs on both sockets featuring the latest Haswell micro architecture
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except now in addition to more PCI E gen
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3 Lanes except the 5820k which actually gets fewer and quad Channel memory we
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get support for ddr4 which means higher speed memory at lower voltages with
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lower power consumption and higher capacities in the future Thunderbolt
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expansion capability better base clock overclocking and every LGA 20113 CPU has
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at least six processing cores and 12 threads with hyper threading with the
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th000 extreme Edition featuring eight cores and 16 threads but before you get
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too excited it's not all pure sunshine and rainbows on LGA 20113 there are no
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core i5s so in terms of pricing Haswell
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e Enthusiast grade chips start where regular Haswell well and Devil's Canyon
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ones leave off at around $400 on top of
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that x99 boards and the ddr4 to go with
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them are more expensive as well due to the higher cost of the chipset more
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complicated board design and the engineering costs associated with
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bringing a new platform to Market and then for the RAM it's just in such low
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volumes in terms of manufacturing that it tends to be very very expensive every
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time we transition memory Technologies but you guys didn't watch this video to
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hear all that boring oh it's expensive stuff so let's show off the hardware for
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today's performance overview of the brand new high-end
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5960x first up is the board ASUS sent over their creatively named x99 Deluxe
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the followup to our favorite last gen board around here the x79 deluxe and it
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comes with some serious upgrades first up is those ddr4 memory slots that
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support up to 64 gigs of ddr4 and with
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the right kit we've confirmed this with the 3 GHz high-speed g-skill memory kit
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that we ran our performance numbers with up to to 3,000 MHz ddr4 with some
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creative XMP implementation that actually uses the
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125 base clock strap and lowers the CPU
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multiplier but kept our system stable throughout benching somehow in spite of
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the slightly overclash CPU speed so there you go next we've got dramatically
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improved storage capabilities the last gen board was stuck with only two native
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SATA 3 ports and four with a Marvel controller well now we we get up to 12
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with four of them capable of being used for up to two SATA Express 10 GB ports
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and then on top of all that we get this fancy little bracket that allows an m.2
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SSD to be installed that'll run at 10 gbit per second as well USB 3 has gotten
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a significant upgrade as well with a total of 14 ports supported although I
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personally wouldn't have minded seeing a couple of these replaced by a PS2 Port
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some of us still like them um but since we're checking out the rear iio now
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seems like a good time to mention the upgraded networking we've got better
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better Intel networking now with slightly better performance lower CPU
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utilization and more software prioritizations options we've also got
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three spatial stream onboard AC Wireless that boasts 1.3 GB per second maximum
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theoretical bandwidth and then finally not related to networking but also on
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the back panel we've got upgraded onboard audio that features some of the
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same technology that we've become accustomed to seeing on Rog boards like
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Amplified headphone output and audio grade capacitors and whatnot onto the
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UEFI BIOS there's been an aesthetic and functional overhaul we get all the fancy
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little features that z97 users have been enjoying like the configurable favorite
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submenu simplified overclocking and raid setup and finally inbios temperature
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sensor controlled fan curve configuration that can handle either DC
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or pwm control on any fan header on the
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board or the little Molex power daughter board that you can reposition and that
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acts as a controllable Fan Hub elsewhere in your system giving you up to eight
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controllable fans oh yeah and it looks pretty sweet too I guess with white
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shielding on the io and a sexy matte black PCB this is a big improvement over
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the last generation gold thing they had going on on to the CPU today we'll be
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focused on the Big Kahuna the 5960x this is an 8 core mother of a chip
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that comes clocked at really 3 GHz Bas
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that's it I mean sure it's got 20 Megs of level three cach compared to 15 Megs
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on the lower end chips and two full extra course but 3 GHz stock 3.5 GHz max
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turbo am I supposed to be impressed not until we start overclocking it something
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anyone buying themselves in extreme Edition owes it to themselves to do
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overclocked we got our chip running at 4.35 gz effortlessly at which speed we
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were even able to run our ddr4 RAM at 3,000 MHz and we've seen reports around
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the web of 3.6 GHz even without pushing
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these things too hard on liquid cooling so so at that point is it fast well we
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put it up against the consumer grade chip that has passed for highend up
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until now the core i7 4790k to determine
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exactly what's up with this CPU when it comes to gaming performance well until
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directx12 lands with its supposed dramatic improvements to multi-threading
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supporting games I think aor might be a
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bit overkill for normal Gamers and higher per core clock speeds will
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continue to be important but throw ing some of Ida 64's synthetic benchmarks at
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it reveals a different story and back to the real world when we start feeding it
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some truly multithreading optimized workload such as file compression and 3D
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rendering the 5960x reveals itself as
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the true multi-threading Beast that it is in fact once overclocked it's really
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not that far off the $25,000 last gen 12 core xon that we
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just put in edel's machine for editing and 3D
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rendering so that's it for the extreme Edition but don't worry we're going to
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be doing lots more content around Intel's latest truly Enthusiast grade
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platform but we want your feedback on what you want to see from us should we
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take a deep dive into the 5820k performance which aside from 12 F PCI
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Express Lane seems to be the ultimate gamer and multitasker Sweet Spot should
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we look into this new platform from a content creator perspective should we
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quantify the real world difference between DDR3 and ddr4 in as close to an
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Apple stles comparison as we can you let us know what kind of content we should
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make thanks for watching guys and a huge thanks to gkill who sponsored today's
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episode and provided the brand spanking new rip Jaws 4 ddr4 RAM featured in the
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video we've been using gskill RAM in our test benches for a long time now we
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trust their products and we're extremely happy to finally be working with them
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from a sponsorship sort of level the specific kit that we showed off today is
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a 4x4 gig 60 16 gig kit running at 3,000
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MHz 1.35 Vol cl15 but they'll be
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offering a very comprehensive lineup including a 16 kit gig kit that runs at
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3200 MHz a 32 gig kit at 3,000 MHz and a
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64 gig kit at 2800 MHz bananas G skill's
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16 gig 3200 MHz kit actually holds the current ddr4 speed record at 404 MHz
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pretty darn fast for such a new platform anyway guys if you need some ddr4
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consider using the link in the video description to pick it up thanks for watching again don't forget to like this
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video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment letting me know of course those things I asked you
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Kickback whenever you buy bananas speaking of bananas think we're done
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here