The Core i7 980X Review: Intel's First 6-Core Desktop CPU
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 11, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Windows 7 Application Performance
We're testing out a few new additions to our Bench database, so what we've got here are some updated application tests run under Windows 7. The CPUs compared are going to be different since we don't have as much historical data, but we'll be building it up over the coming months.
x264 HD Encoding Performance
It's what you've all been asking for - our x264 encoding test with an updated version of x264. In this case we're using TechARP's x264-HD 3.03 bench and x264 version 1342.
7-zip Benchmark & Performance
We use WinRAR for our compression test under Vista, but more and more users are switching to 7-zip. The performance is more CPU dependent so we're going to look at it. First up is the built in 7-zip benchmark:
Here we're taking the same 300MB set of images from our WinRAR test and are compressing them using 7-zip. We divide file size by completion time to get compression speed in KB/s:
The actual 7-zip archive creation process is limited to two threads, and here the 980X actually falls behind the 975 presumably because of its higher latency L3 cache. The built in 7-zip benchmark can run across all 12 threads and thus performs much better on the 980X, serving more as a bandwidth benchmark than anything else.
Sonar 8 Multi-track Audio Export
We've had some requests for digital audio workstation benchmarks so we're adding a multi-track audio export from Sonar 8. Performance is expressed in KB/s:
Again, we see a small gain here thanks to the larger cache but the extra cores aren't doing much.
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aigomorla - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
W3680 will be a workstation hexcore @ 3.2ghzIm guessing since its a 3600 series, it will be a 1 x QPI, so it will not work in tandium on a DP board.
Xeons are uber expensive tho.
And this one if its gonna be priced like the W3580's is gonna have a price of around 1499.
:X
Rev1 - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
I know the OC's were on stock cooling but being this chip starts out @ 3.33 ghz and having a smaller 32nm size, the OC capability seems very underwhelming. I heard this chip is good for extreme overclockers because they did away with the cold boot bug. This thing probably puts out to much heat for any current air or wc setup to get a good oc out. That being said i dont see replacing my D0 920 anytime soon.aigomorla - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
come to our cpu and overclocking forum.http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=20576...">http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=20576...
Or read one of my comments with a forum link.
I showed people what it can do on higher voltages, when you take heat away from the equation of being the limited value.
Hacp - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
With the 800 dollar premium over an I7 920, why don't you just build a second 920 system instead!aigomorla - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=20450...">http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=20450...;)
I welcome you guys to join our forums.
You'll see more info on stuff on the OC potentials in that preview.
atfuser - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
Looks like the i7-860 is where gamers and people who run lots of multicore apps want to spend their money. Gamers will save $750 and will see almost no difference in performance.RaistlinZ - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
Yes, gamers will still be more than satisfied with their i7 920's @ 4Ghz. Especially considering those chips are only $200 at Microcenter these days.I just hope the upcoming Xeon CPU's will have more of a mainstream price.
quickbunnie - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
I think the L4D performance is actually due to the extra cores, as source engine games have n-1 multithreaded scaling. It's been shown to have diminishing returns past 3-4 cores, so a 6% bump for an extra 2 cores makes more sense to me than the extra cache, considering no other games show this level of performance increasevailr - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
What happens if you put this 6 core CPU in a non-upgraded bios X58 board? Do you then have the minimal functionality to be able to flash the bios to the updated version? Or does the system fail completely, to even show anything on the video display?Just wondering...
aigomorla - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
If your bios can not handle gulftown, it will just refuse to post.eVGA boards are even more picky. If you somehow manage to get a hold of an A0 stepping gulftown, you can not use the same bios on a B0 or B1 gulftown.
The b0 and b1 are the retail versions, while the A series were pure evaluation / testing samples.
Some asus boards should support gulftown without bios updates, however its still recommended u get one.
And if u guys come into our forums, you will see i pushed one up to 4.4ghz with HT ON, @ 1.388 vcore, so i think my 980X is better then the one Raja has.
Sorry Raja.. :P