The Intel Haswell-E CPU Review: Core i7-5960X, i7-5930K and i7-5820K Tested
by Ian Cutress on August 29, 2014 12:00 PM ESTOverclocked Results
As part of our reviews here at AnandTech we have recently been including a section on overclocked results, because in the end a +10% overclock does not always mean an extra +10% on performance. For our overclocking escapades mentioned earlier in the review, while we were able to achieve 4.6 GHz on the Core i7-5960X, the sweet spot was around 4.3 GHz at a very comfortable temperature. This leads to a +43% overclock over the base frequency, similar to what we saw with Sandy Bridge-E overclocking.
For our overclocking tests, we are using the same graphs as in the last two pages, but adding the data from our overclocked Sandy Bridge-E, Ivy Bridge-E, Haswell and Haswell-E CPUs as well, tested fresh for this review on our latest benchmark suite.
In the past overclocking was all about getting the same or better performance for a lower cost, however with Ivy Bridge-E due to its lower frequency, it was a battle to keep on par with Sandy Bridge-E. Now that Haswell-E has the same frequency deficit (200 MHz) but a +8% increase in IPC, it begs the question if Sandy Bridge-E users with good 4.8 GHz+ CPUs should consider upgrading (for anything other than more cores and an upgraded chipset).
SYSmark 2014
SYSmark sees the biggest uplift in its media and office benchmark suites when overclocked, although the financial suite does enjoy the more cores to put the 5960X ahead.
HandBrake v0.9.9: link
Interestingly the overclocked 5960X does aid low quality conversion, showing that with enough frequency all the cores can be constantly fed with data. The 5960X takes the top two spots for 4K conversion.
Agisoft Photoscan – 2D to 3D Image Manipulation: link
Photoscan also enjoys overclocking in combination with the cores, but the 3960X overclocked will beat the 5960X at stock despite the extra cores of the 5960X.
Dolphin Benchmark: link
Dolphin prefers single threaded speed, so the Haswell CPUs at 4.7 GHz win here. Haswell does well in Dolphin's emulation overall, hence why the older extreme processors, even when overclocked, are further down.
WinRAR 5.0.1: link
More top spots for the 5960X, with the two extra cores at stock beating the other extreme processors.
Hybrid x265
Cinebench R15
3D Particle Movement
FastStone Image Viewer 4.9
When overclocked to 4.3 GHz, the 5960X would seem to produce a similar experience in FastStone to the 4790K at stock. This makes sense as the 4790K at stock is 4.4 GHz in turbo mode.
POV-Ray 3.7 Beta RC14
Gaming Benchmarks
F1 2013
The overclocked 5960X scores a few points in minimum frame rates, giving another +20% while in SLI.
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock average frame rates seem to get a small boost when overclocked, but minimum frame rates are more responsive to the 84W and 88W parts. The variation might be more indicative of the benchmark as a whole, as it only takes one errant slow frame to produce a low result in the minimum FPS results.
Tomb Raider
Sleeping Dogs
Battlefield 4
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
203 Comments
View All Comments
wireframed - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
I'm guessing you don't do much animation? :) Even though many of my renders only run around 10-20 minutes max, when you do a 30s animation, you can multiply that rendertime by 900... Even for a minute a frame (which is fairly fast), that's still 15 hours.But I think the main draw for people on X58 like us, is the newer platform. X58 is really low on modern features, it came out at an awkward time. No native USB 3.0, no 6Gbps SATA, no Thunderbolt (which might be relevant in the future), no PCIe 3.0, and no support for the newer standards coming out with Z97.
Also consider DDR4 is going to be the standard going forward, so investing a lot of money in 32-64GB of DDR3, even at the lower prices, just seems like throwing good money after bad.
Kain_niaK - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
You are right! When I talking about a render, I am talking about exporting a music project to separate wave files (one per track). You can either record while playing it back or you can render it. Most VST plugins have a render mode as well so the end result is sometimes quite different. Not necessarily better, but different. And recording is done in real time, so sometimes a render is a lot faster.kevith - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Right on!bebimbap - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
the 31% is at the same frequency.being able to do double the work with the same amount of energy or the same work with 1/2 the energy is a big deal.
imagine if cars could do that... 2x the horsepower but same amount of gas... or the same mileage at 1/2 the gas
Laststop311 - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
ive been happily on my x58 i7-980x for 4 years and honestly if my chipset wasn't missing so many modern features i wouldn't even upgrade. But the lack of pci-e 3.0 lack of sata 3 lack of usb 3.0 are just becoming a pain in the ass. ur circo 2008 is wrong too i know because i got the i7-980x right when it came out and it was in 2010 not 2008 so that would be 100-110% over 4 years.I really want an ultra m2 pci-e 3.0 x4 drive as my main os and application drive. Can't wait to pop in a 1TB samsung sm951 ultra m2 drive. Also cant wait for the 16GB DDR4 sticks to start showing up. 8x16GB 128GB of ram, can you say 112GB ram drive and 16GB ram for the system. It's gotta be awesome working on video editing with your entire video in a super fast ram drive. My memory and storage is what's going to boost the performance for me gtom my x58 the cpu will too but not like the ultra m2 ssd with like 1400MB/sec read and 1200MB/sec write
nonoverclock - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
I recently went from an i7-950 to a i7 4770. It's made for a solid bump in performance. I notice it particularly in navigating game menus that used to be a little sluggish before.Railgun - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Sold! As I'm still on Gulftown, this is just what the doctor ordered. The i7-970, IMHO, has held its own for four years, at least for my needs. This will be one helluva shot in the arm.PEJUman - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
with you on this. I actually sold my gulftown with 48GB last year for the 6xSATA on z87, The x58 + gulftown is one heck of a system. If I don't already have the 4770k, this 5960 or 5820 would be extremely difficult to resist.I actually tempted to mount the mobo+CPU+intel sink on the wall instead of selling it, it was a piece of computing history.
bebimbap - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
If i remember the weight of that particular heatsink, you would need a sturdy mount for your wall... thumbtacks do not applyLaststop311 - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
48gb on gulftown thats strange considering gulftown supports 24gb ram. http://ark.intel.com/products/47932right on intel's page. i sense a fibber. Why lie about what pc u have?