Intel 3960X X79 Socket 2011 Sandy Bridge E Review

[xxdeathx]

still rocking pentium D gg.. Lmao im dying here :(

[claudioagmfilho]

I am from Recife in Brazil south america and i loved your review

very well done thanks for sharing ...

[phillip8739]

beating themselves means they follow moore's law, yes, it's that simple. Reason why AMD can't catch up and are still trying to run 8ghz on one core.

[thereddog223]

Well I hope they catch up soon so intel has a reason to make better cpus faster

[BrooklynXT1]

So don't get me wrong for my bashing sometimes. I just like heated debates and to push peoples buttons. =P Nothing personal intended. I enjoy watching your reviews for the learning and entertainment on stuff I have not yet been able to obtain or never seen yet such as stuff that just came out.

[xblackhawk91x]

@BrooklynXT1 if you listen to what Tom says, he addresses most of your points. This isn't a chip for gaming, or someone who is trying to be cost effective, its for people who want "the best of the best" and don't care about price. And if you want that extreme performance you have to pay for it

[BrooklynXT1]

At this point nobody needs that much power in a cpu. All about e-peen lol. Nice reviews.

[Liveone111]

fantastic review



[iTzxXDaRkOnEXx]

good review keep up the good work man

[heyguyslol75]

dude brush your teeth.

[BrandonBlaze904]

forgive my stupid dick comment i tried to remove it, but i accidentally selected spam for my own comment

[BrandonBlaze904]

i think his dentist needs. a nanometre upgrade. O_O

[shamrock1337tm]

dude knows his shit.

[GreenFlavouredWater]

@AgentHydra the 3960x also has more cache than the 3930

[Edge0fPain]

This CPU makes me ejaculate.

[MdubHazPr0SKillz]

But can it run Crysis on ULRTA SETTINGS?!

[Edge0fPain]

@MdubHazPr0SKillz

er...yeah.

[potatocats]

@MdubHazPr0SKillz Did you watch the video?

[joskes123]

I have a gigabyte X58 UD7 (rev. 1.0), so a 1366 socket and thought to myself that's is rather futureproof. Now I almost don't find 1366 socket motherboards and 1366 cpu's. Like I hate it when they produce a lot less of older stuff that's great aswell. Now the 2011 prototypes that are slighty not tested well and more expensive. It's like the consumer is the ginea pig, and we'll end up paying for something that isn't on point yet and totally not backwards compatible. Like windows Vista was shit.

[Marcus8958]

@joskes123

1366 had and is still having a good run. If you got it when it got released a i7 920 overclocked would be more than enough to max out the most demanding games out there and probably for another year!

[VincentX202]

holy hell, those scores are incredible

stock speed, jesus

to anyone looking to upgrde to this like i am, here's a quick comparison

my i7 860, 4.2ghz cineben score 7.30 points, hell of a difference considering my chip is near it's limit the 3960 is a beast

[warlockskz]

TimeToLiveCustoms search up liquidtyler. You look like you could be his brother.

[lvPINGvino]

It's jaw droping

also love your reviews ;) good work!

[mopic312]

If you're not into spending lots of money and you already have good DDR3 memory of 8/16/24 keep that and go with a 2600 or 2700k. The 79 chipset wants Quad Memory

to really work well, and i saw 64 GB for 599.00. I've used my old 24k ddr3 but then I didn't get the extreme but the 3930. Also Corsair has a H100 that fits well, when I purchased the sabertooth 79 and Intel -7-3930 at the sametime, I got $10 rebate and the H100 for 1 cent.

[kutuluu]

Still rocking with core 2 duo... Ivy bridge is with next gen GPUs is what I'll get next

[5T34LTHcamoT4NK]

@kutuluu a core 2 duo would not do better then this even at 10GHz stable Lol :P

[dominox64]

@kutuluu lol how much time did you save money O_O

[Jetstorm19]

I would love to see a 3930K review Tom if you could. I am thinking of buying one as my new rig and want to be sure its worth the extra $300 or so vs a 2700K not including the board etc.

But otherwise awesome review Tom and I can't wait for what you have to show us next :D

[Amuffin456]

@Jetstorm19 2600k

[Mkilbride2599]

"That other brands have done." Haha. Excellent.

[54carlje]

When will the pci-e 3.0 videocards come out? Also would like to compare those scores to the other 2 cpu's you had. Also would like it compared to the 3930.

[thereddog223]

probably august

[t1bb3tt]

Great review, but please can you do a review on the 3930 as this is just out my price range. and more on the x79 motherboards.

[shaunmichaelbrown93]

Awsome indepth review there thomas. For a person who main computer use is gaming and some tinkering with overclocking would you suggest grab this or wait for ivy?

[TimeToLiveCustoms]

@shaunmichaelbrown93 cant really talk about Ivy yet as thats months away and we dont know what it will bring. But 2011 is about needing / wanting the very best and being willing to pay for it.

[uutttg]

@shaunmichaelbrown93 - All of the gaming benchmarks from the 39xx processors are practically identical to a 2600k. Primarily because there are very few games that can "effectively" use more than 4 threads. Its value is in heavily threaded professional apps and for those who absolutely must have the newest silicon of the market.

[thereddog223]

Yeah kind of why I will prob wait till haswell

[door1966]

@shaunmichaelbrown93 I'd wait, based on the CPU price alone at the moment! :)

[TheChrismac88]

Great vid TTL, what would really make the FX 8-core look bad is if you did a performance comparison between this and the FX :)

[Lonegraywolf75]

Hi Tom! Enjoyed your video on the 2011 chipset. Even though I've not been chatty here in the comments in a while I still watch all your videos as you release them. You always discuss products in a thorough well spoken and realistically sensible way. You have best reviews online btw. Sorry just had to brag on you for all the effort you put into making each video. Btw wonder if you would ever let Mr. Strawberry do a review one time that would make for an exciting/interesting episode. :o)

[turnercarl]

HI in one of you vidoes you said ivory bridge not coming till late . guy said from "FROM A MAJOR COMPANY SAID IT WOULD BE 2012 FIRST QUATER" can you comment

[Guaranteedfresh1]

@turnercarl intel themselves said late 2012

[Gamingsince1997]

SOME ONE HACK THOSE 2 CORES OUT !

[koogco]

@Gamingsince1997 He said "soldered of" not merely "disabled" I doubt we will be seeing any fancy Asrock tricks for this one.

[rob3342421]

@Gamingsince1997 their taken out or "solderd" "disabled" .... crossed out? because they have a fault :\ if someone got 8 cores out of this it would be cool but i doubt that would be reliable :(

[thereddog223]

with a chainsaw

[ruhulaminutube]

AMD Fanboy impersonation is priceless! 30:46

[BanjoSense]

funny to see that your board has two v-shaped clamps.. in all the other vids i've seen so far of this board they've had one u-shaped and one v-shaped.

[DBRMatrix]

Intel are so taking us all for a ride. 2011 socket chips had been touted to be 8 pure cores from the outset.. This processor is approx 20% better than a 980/990x.. Having a 980x myself, to upgrade, I want 8 CORES & 16 THREADS!!!

If Intel want my money they had better get this sorted. If AMD offered serious competition, we would be there already AND the price for extreme processors would be a lot lower..

[Irishgamer01]

A] Well then we are all into video editing and bit torrent then

or

B] We play games and want to know how it handles.

I vote B

[Dex1n]

@Irishgamer01 You can just imagine it fool, since i7 2600K rapes any game out there, and these have 2 more cores, that should give you an idea...

[BASSxACE]

At 6:15 he was gonna say that there won't be a 6 core ivy bridge cpu. imo

[Mojosensei1]

Great review. I feel so bad for AMD. : (

[vinceqwerty100]

i already watched 4 full times, I WANT IT

[SilatGayongTiger]

3930 review please

[AgentHydra]

@SilatGayongTiger its exactly the same except 100Mhz slower and 1/2 the price. Thats why I dont think TTL should have given this a gold award, there is absolutely no reason to buy 3960X except for e-peen.

[thereddog223]

3 megs more cache too

[JohnDoe7767]

381 likes, and 1 buttsore AMD fanboi :P

[MDEMONIC689]

Be a cold day in hell before i'd pay £800 for a chip, are they doing a cut down version like an i5 2011?

Iv'e seen gaming benchmarks with the new chip and theres virtually no gain over an i5 2500k of that i can see, or at least not enough to spend £1000 on a new chip and motherboard, this is going to be for the people who need it which right now is not joe public.

[TheMegumi1]

Great review Tom. Can't wait for the cheaper 2011 chips.

[MihaiBorcan]

I saw reviews for this CPU and I did not see any worth in performance gains. Yes, there are gains in synthetic benchmarks, but when put to real life like gaming there's 0 to something like 2% gains in performance over a 2500k. All for 2x the price. Not worth it. It does have huge mem bandwith if anyone needs it for that.

[MDEMONIC689]

@MihaiBorcan

His review is the 3960X which is on pre-order prices now at about £750-800, while an i5 2500k is just £160

[BASSxACE]

AMD is fucked.

[Mau1wurf1977]

Fantastic!

This is the first time I didn't read a major product launch on Anandtech or Tomshardware first, but watched you instead. I think what you're doing is the future of hardware reviews.

Well done!

[Tabby266]

So, they did the same thing with the Pentium in speed-binning. The Celeron is essentially a Pentium with many things turned off.

Interesting fact.

[fouyboy]

I actually watched it from beginning to end, i love tech!

[xsamitt]

The skull make it looks limey,like it's targeted for kids.

[WeirdoMikey2T]

@xsamitt I know right? it makes me mad and i hate it.

[WinterXL]

LOL, AMD. Eternally employing second-rate engineers. Same for ATI, so their merger was rather apt.

[nemtastic]

hope AMD has lube

[JedsAdventures]

when the rig is in the background the light on the mobo makes it look like the graphics card is welding itself to the board

[killohurtsking]

Just to be blunt the AMD chip is crap however this is hardly a chip to beat the 1155 simply because the X79 chip costs around £800.

[daman799]

intel stompts AMD even further omg

[aschris87]

Hardware is too far in front of software let software do some catching up...

[feAr636]

@TimeToLiveCustoms Tom, with your benchmarks, you should really give us stock 990x and 2600k scores to compare with.

[Mickkazzie]

@feAr636 well from his benchmark the stock 3960X kicks my 4.0ghz 990X in the balls. rapes my bulldozer CPU over and over as well lmfao. Tommy just bleep out the F word and speak you mind mate

[Edge0fPain]

@feAr636

/Anandtech

[iErxr]

brb, Goin' to rob a bank or two.

[aschris87]

Thumbs up for a big huge (((overclocked 3d))) logo on the wall...

[wastefuldragon]

i guess this is game over for the red team better stick to graphics

[wastefuldragon]

what form factor is it ATX?

[snoopy210190]

@wastefuldragon Yeah, it's ATX. On a mATX you'd only be able to stick in 2 dimms and 1 graphics card :)

[wastefuldragon]

man that is one sexy board love the skull ^-^

[robertduckyworth]

i wish you would use a handbrake encode as a benchmark or something.

[AntDX316]

around like 35:40, about competition.. can't be when Intel holds basically all the performance processing technique patents of what it takes to go super fast in the cpu/motherboard world

[JakkIsBakkInBlakk]

@AntDX316 well no shit, theyre not gonna just let AMD use their technologies.

[consumev]

@AntDX316 what? intel isnt apple, dont get it twisted

[AntDX316]

@consumev I'm saying Intel vs AMD I'm not sure what u r talking about

[AntDX316]

Windows 8.. if we see 25% gain.. versus this on 7.. I wouldn't be surprised..

[icguilty]

also a intel platform is fill with third parties chipset. that is bad. usb3 and sata 3. i hope intel solve they inner sata controller problem. isnt fair for the final intel users.

[icguilty]

intell still with they 1 clock generator n they famous l3 cache bottleneck. intel have a lots of inter poblems, that is why intel hate overclocking. with overclocking u can note intel sucks!. intel chipset with low lane. sucks!.

[icguilty]

u can get x numbers of cores like 6/8/12/80, the problem is software. we have a lot of issue with software. i know the hw is brilliant, but w have no software

[icguilty]

like intel always things jst a little bit. they chipset with poor lanes. the oem/odm the must use plx bridge extender to adds more lanes. then the nf200 for nvidia sli. more chipset have more problems to fail. also more problems in the bios. n a lots of more problems. amd chipset have more lanes n they dnt need put plx or other bridge extender brands.

[icguilty]

wht r u saying. amd micro all woorks alone in the package. have better tech. better packeage like s.o.i. also is made by the bigger n with more tech corp. globalfoundries by amd. also some intel products are made by they.

[soggymaster]

Followup to my previous comment. Read from another review site that a 920esque ($300) chip is slated to be released in early 2012, but will be like the non-K Sandy Bridge parts with limited overclocking potential.

[Luger718A1]

@soggymaster 45x multiplier limit i tihnk

[str1ka1]

where did you get that 570 looking like that? is it stock nvidia?

[GuitarJerk13]

Will you consider doing dry ice or ln2 overclocking on this baby if you can assure yourself that Intel sends you another one? And as always, nice video Tom ;)

[PcandTech]

My pc is for sale LOL

[puvid3]

@32:04

[fintekonivel]

Thanks for the Awesome video. does 3960x have support for pci-e 3, or is it only supported in 2nd stepping?

[phoenix7289]

@fintekonivel It supports PCI-e 3 from what I've read.

[Ettornio]

Will you be using X79 as the new platform for heatsink testing since it produces more heat than X58?

[Hokrollo1]

Matose from Romania done 5.6042 Ghz:D

[ysatria]

should have done geekbench too since it stresses alot of processor and memory performance and bandwidth. I imagine the score must be crazy with this quad channel x79 :-))

[saramhussain]

buy intel = support an illegal occupation in palestine

buy AMD play my games with 65 FPS instead of 68 FPS... oh and save £300 odd quid

[shebeski]

@saramhussain Skyrim runs like shit on AMD.

[17arkrage]

LOL from the look on your face at the very beginning i could tell that AMD were in for a gang rape D:

[JedixJarf]

Do WANT.

Folding monster right here.

[stonecoldtrk]

hahahahaha bulldozer just got steamrolled

[videosurfer69]

Didn't they release a Sandy Bridge E which costs around 300 quid or something? That's what interests me, not really this 1000$ stuff which no one can even afford.

[Carbonific]

@videosurfer69 The whole point of Sandybridge-E is that it's designed for the professional market (who can afford it) and not the standard consumer one. This is a replacement for socket 1366, not 1155. If you want your sub-$300 chips then you want to be looking at socket 1155 and standard Sandybridge (which is what Intel fully expects people to be doing).

[Dex1n]

@videosurfer69 No it doesn't. It costs 500€ and the more expensive one costs bit over 900€.

[HippehMac]

Do want :/

[yusky03]

I want to see benchmarks on $300 range 2011 CPUs. i7-950 / 2600K range CPUs being compaired with 2011 CPUs in the same class.

[Dex1n]

@yusky03 There won't be $300 CPUs in lga 2011 dummy, that platform is for enthusiasts. Cheaper Sandy Bridge E already costs 500€... 8 core obviously will cost you more. If you're crying for $300 CPU get i7 2600K. There's no competition to it in its price range.

[thereddog223]

Yes there is the 3820

[SirPhilby101]

184 Likes. 0 Dislikes. Most loved on Youtube.

[Helltech]

Tom, the i7-3930K is only $600 here in the states the 3960 is $1050. 600 is very reasonable and in my budget, I was going to wait till Ivy Bridge but I didn't realize how "cheap" it was. Think its worth it? Is the difference between the 3960 and 3930 that much?

[craigdavison1]

TTL does the best reviews on the net. Thumbs up if you agree 

[paynebabes123]

They are releasing more CPU's to keep up with Moores Law TTL. I'm going to miss X58!! /cry

[Davy2612]

Intel Motherboard 07:31

CPU 13:49

BIOS 16:55

Benchmarks 22:22

Thumbs up so ppl can see :)

[sami61190saab]

@Davy2612 amazing what you did here, very good indexing, nice idea :)

thumbs up.

[Hokrollo1]

@Davy2612

You forgot chitchat - 00:10

[daralinn]

The problem is that they don't need to make these.. *sigh* Lets hope AMD get's their stuff together soon.

[SRSpoony]

MASSIVE problem i see here

and thats gonna be the cost and that will be over a grand

[Atheismrulez]

Leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Intel only sampled the CPU that actually matters, the 3930K, to Xbit labs. There's zero point in paying $425 more for the 3960X when the extra L3 cache has shown to make no difference in performance and when the 3960X doesn't even OC better.

[TheComputerEmpire]

This might be the sexiest processer ever omg goodness!

[askloglog]

and here i am stuck with my i7-940 x58... sad days lol

[PenguInspiration]

@askloglog AMD Athlon Mobility 2.2

[GormousGorre]

Lets see if AMD will pull anything high end out the box.. they better or i might find myself changing sides :3

[jordan010203]

We love you Tom! and now we love you more because you told us some secret information about SB-E you were not suposed to tell...

I'm sorry for my english, greetings from Peru :)

[richardeke]

I've got an AMD, at the time i wanted to learn about overclocking and it was good. But i think intel has always been faster and i admire their products just because they're fast as foook (he wanted to say that all video).

Anywho, good video and i'm glad you took the time to explain things like the BIOS and new features:)

[ympkilla]

1155 to go... value not that great

[buckinghamma]

Its nice to see intel pushing them selves so hard, they truly destroy the competition. You did go a bit far with the amd-fanboy comments though, if someone wants to support another brand, no matter how inferior, they shouldn't have to face slander especially from a highly esteemed member of the community such as yourself.

[Prowler1]

TTL would you do a separate review on the intel x97 board?

[legendray2008]

AMD have been wiped out very much.

[TheQhozt]

Tom, LN2 NAOW!

[1nothingspecial]

Aria prices are up - £767.99!!!! 3930K is up at £431.99. Stock due 29th Nov, Pre Order now!

[Yellowswift3]

Ha, I just Cinebench and I got 3.54 on my Q6600 @ 3.4ghz. :D

[LynxAdvert]

Intel just totally but fucked AMD.

[ssportugal]

@LynxAdvert AMD butt fucked themselves with Bulldozer ohh sorry Bullshit is more appropriate lol, AMD needs to wake up or it's fucked for good

[worldwed]

@LynxAdvert you cant really compare, price is intense

[0Ethereal]

@worldwed Kinda like bulldozer's being overpriced and having performance about equal to a phenom x6 at most? Haha.

[AronHallan]

@LynxAdvert once again and without lube...

[dan007iel]

BONKERS!

[BOOMbarash5000]

Tom, my dear, love ya. :) When the Rampage review comes out? :)

[anguspd]

Nice review love your vids as always thankyou... Could you tell me can i use my trichannel X58 1.65v dominator GT's in triple for a while until i save some extra cash (wait for better quad ram to come out) ???? or must it run 4 sticks ??

[soggymaster]

All right. Where's the 920 equivalent? I know for a FACT I'm not going to be able to swing a 3960x. Something like the 920 for about $300? Sure.

[notree666]

For gaming sandy bridge-e is way to expensive..

[aidandude3]

Aww sweet you got one!

[unknownuser200985]

tom i was debating on wheather i should upgrade or not, but you just sold me on a x79 asus rampage 4 extreme , a 3930k and a d14 ! not anyone elses crap reviews.. yours! :P im looking forward to the rampage 4 review btw in usa the 3960x is 999 and the 3930k is 599 i just checked :)

[wherethebeef7]

Nice video! Thanks for the information! What is that tattoo on your right bicep? Can you show it in detail? Do you have any more?

[Catatonicwater]

NUTS!!!

[gamersxs]

Which should I get for video rendering and recording gameplay the 2700k or the 980?

[Helltech]

@gamersxs Since its not professional I'd got for the 2700k because of the massive price difference. My 920 works great for rending fraps videos.

[ms205]

@gamersxs

neither get a i7-3960X. this is all.

[HippehMac]

@gamersxs For rendering, the 980 should be quicker.

[gamersxs]

@HippehMac Thanks :)

[thereddog223]

3930 is the same price as the 980

[r3nd3z]

Nice!!

[kammel109]

I think I just came in my pants :,)

[cozzo707]

wallace and grommet?

[brodysstuff]

@TimeToLiveCustoms just a quick question are my eyes playing tricks on me or have they started putting those little holes in the cpu's like the old p4 chips?