It has been a while since Intel has released a CPU at $1000, which has felt a little strange as historically they’ve had a flagship processor in that price range. Sangy Bridge E spells the return to this price point with the Core-i7 3960X Extreme Edition CPU. The basic stats will make you drool, 6 cores and 12 threads of 32nm, 130W TDP CPU with a base clock of 3.3GHz, Turbo speed of 3.9GHz and 15MB of shared cache. The benchmarks however leave something to be desired; certainly it is faster than the original Sandy Bridge but it does not leave the competition eating its dirt. Single GPU gamers probably won’t even notice a change from previous chips, however with the extra power of the 3960X paired with the amazing amount of PCIe lanes available on the X79 series of motherboards, multi-GPU users may benefit much more from this chip. That still doesn’t change [H]ard|OCP’s final comment about this chip, "Sandy Bridge E, maximizing BitTorrent ratios, one desktop at a time."
Catch Ryan’s full review here.
"Intel debuts its $1000+ Extreme Edition 3960X processor parroting how great it is for the gamer and enthusiast. With 6 cores and 12 threads, a new motherboard and chipset platform, and quad channel DDR3, Intel as done the impossible, given us everything we don’t want, and nothing we do want."
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- Intel’s Core i7-3960X processor: Sandy Bridge goes Extreme @ The Tech Report
- Intel Core i7 3960X (Sandy Bridge E) Review: Keeping the High End Alive @ AnandTech
- Intel Sandy Bridge E 3690X CPU Reviewed @ Madshrimps
- Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition CPU Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Intel Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition Review @ HCW
- Intel’s X79 Chipset, Core i7 3960X & DX79SI Motherboard @ Bjorn3D
- Intel Sandy Bridge Extreme and X79 Chipset Launch – Core i7-3960X Processor Review @ HardwareHeaven
- Intel Core i7-3690X Extreme Edition CPU @ Benchmark Reviews
- Intel Sandy Bridge Extreme Core i7 3960X Review @ OCC
- Intel Core i7-3960X Processor Extreme Edition Review @Hi Tech Legion
- Intel Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition @ Tweaktown
- Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition and Core i7-3930K processors for LGA 2011 Platform @ X-bit Labs
- Intel Core i7 3960X Sandy Bridge-E Review @ Neoseeker
- Intel Sandy Bridge-E Debuts: Core i7-3960X @ Techspot
- Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ Legion Hardware
- Intel i7 Sandy Bridge Extreme @ Overclockers.com
- Intel Core i7-3960X @ OC3D
- Intel Sandy Bridge-E i7-3960X CPU Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Intel i7 3960X EE / Gigabyte GA X79 UD3 / 16GB GSkill Ripjaws Z (2133mhz) @ Kitguru
- Intel i7 3960X EE / Asus Rampage IV Extreme / Corsair GTX8 (2400mhz) / Quad GTX590 @ Kitguru
- Intel i7 3960X EE / Asus P9X79 Deluxe / 32GB Corsair Vengeance (1600mhz) @ Kitguru
- Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E Processor Review @ Legit Reviews
- Core i7 3960X processor & MSI X79A-GD65 & ASUS Rampage IV Extreme @ Guru3D
My obviously common sense
My obviously common sense theory on why they didn’t sample the 3930K is because 3M of cache and 100Mhz is the worse $500 upgrade on planet earth and provides no benefits.
seeing a 3930k and a 3960 eXtreme next to each other will make anybody say…..why is this $500 more?
I mean in a depression…. comeon