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
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203 Comments
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NeatOman - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Sooo... its good for very high end gaming and rendering.Motion2082 - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Hey guys, I'm running a i7 2600k on ME4Z @ 4.8GHz. My system is fast enough for most applications, only struggles with multiple applications running. Should I be looking at Haswell-E or waiting until Broadwell? Only annoyance I have with i7 2600k is slow video encoding and restrictions on multi-tasking.TeXWiller - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
Adjust manually your process priorities and core affinities, if necessary. The old work horse will take you a lot longer still. I may have a 14-hour rendering process going with fully loaded cores and still run a nice FPS session at will, provided that I adjust the process priority manually.mapesdhs - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
What is your RAM speed? I find 2133 @ CL10 to be optimal with the M4E/Z (I have
five of those boards, all with 2700Ks @ 5.0).
Make sure you have a good SATA3 SSD to exploit the Intel SATA3 port. Don't use
the Marvell ports. An H80i with NDS fans works really well for low-noise, but even an
old TRUE with any two decent fans will happily run a 2700K @ 5.0 (I've used the
TRUE, TRUE Black, VenomousX, Phanteks, etc., but recently bought a whole pile of
refurb H80s for a good price).
If you want an intermediate upgrade, get a used 3930K C2, a good used X79 board
(I keep buying the ASUS P7X79 WS, done five so far), move over your RAM, etc.
Note the same caveats re Intel/Marvell ports, use an H100i + NDS fans instead, and
voila, you're up & running away with a 6-core for not much outlay. A recent build I did
empllyed a 3960X which cost 245 UKP, the above ASUS board for 190 UKP, etc.
Gave 1221 for CB R15, while your 2600K @ 4.8 should give around 850, so that's a
very nice bump for threaded tasks and running multiple apps in general.
I suggest an 840 Pro or 850 Pro for an SSD, though there are lots of used bargains
available. I bagged a 512GB Vector for 160, ideal as a cache for AE, while an OEM
840 Pro was only 87. Best of all, I keep getting 1475W Thermaltake Toughpower XT
Gold units for around 125 UKP (less than half normal new cost), perfect for handling
four heavy GPUs for CUDA or whatever (my system has four GTX 580 3GB atm) in
an oc'd 6-core system with multiple SSDs, RAID, etc.
More references, examples & suchlike available on request - don't want to clog this thread.
Ian.
LordHaHa - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Mixed feelings on this one. This is a solid effort here, and the 5820K at around $390 is potentially interesting, seems very similar to the 3930K and it's a bit cheaper by default.That said, I don't see much of a reason to upgrade from SB-E or IB-E if you already have something in that. Certainly even the 5820K is a bit overkill for gaming for the price.
I do have to say we live in strange times where even latter-day Core 2 systems (paired with very good video cards, as a caveat) are still fairly capable for most single player gaming environments; certainly they can still handle any casual task thrown at them. And anyone who's got to Sandy Bridge has had little reason to upgrade their systems yet, for sure. Ten years ago, saying "I have no reason to upgrade my 2-4 or so generation old box" would have been crazy talk.
Laststop311 - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Very impressed with the 8 core overclock. I was worried that having such a low stock meant the oc wouldn't be too good. They had it on a crappy closed loop 140mm rad and it did well. I have a custom loop that cools the motherboard chipset and vrm, the cpu, and the gpu. A triple 5.25" reservoir with dual mcp 655 pumps in series at setting 4 1 below max pump speed a 60mm thick 420mm rad with 6x 140mm noctua a15 fans in push pull. Hopefully I can hit 4.8ghz i'll be very happy but as long as i can hit 4.5ghz ill be satisfied. I'm coming from a 4261mhz i7-980x so this is going to be a rly big upgrade for my video work and even a noticeable boost in gaming not huge but noticeable.I'm totally pleased with the i7-5960x. Waited 3 generations from nehalem to upgrade. With haswell-e ill be waiting at least 4 possibly 6 generations to upgrade unless some crazy new chipset geature makes me do it earlier.
cactusdog - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
I really wish they took the voltage regulator off the CPU. Its really a bit sad that a 4790K can beat this highend expensive chip in single threaded tasks. I was really looking forward to this but performance doesn't justify the cost unless you do a lot of multi threaded stuff. With skylake coming with PCI-E 4 this system is going to be outdated pretty quickly. One thing is for sure, the days of big overclocks on the CPU side are over.ToTTenTranz - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
The 28 lanes in the 5820k don't make much difference in SLI because it uses the SLI bridge as interconnect between the graphics cards.It would be interesting to see if the 16x/8x configuration makes any difference with two of the newer bridgeless Radeon cards.
Especially since the first build exemplified in this review uses that same configuration (5820k with two Radeon 285 cards).
mlambert890 - Monday, September 1, 2014 - link
there absolutely is *not* data going across the sli bridge at all. the only thing going across the bridge is timing and signaling info. it is a tiny 1GB/s interconnectat extremely high resolutions on pcie 2 SLI is where you specifically DO need more lanes. pcie 3 alleviates this. multi 4k would bottleneck again, but the best gpus can barely handle a single 4k in high detail anyhow even in tri-sli
fallaha56 - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
Hmm one last benchmark (emulation-related) I'd like to see (and suspect many others would too) -run PCSX2 in software mode with 8+ threads and see if there's benefits.Try something really tough like Shadow of the Colossus.
Looks like this chip is a man looking for a mission, is that it?