Testing methodology
Comparison Processor Configurations |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel |
AMD |
|||||
Core i7-4770K |
Core i7-4960X |
Core i7-3960X |
FX-8350 |
||||
| Motherboard | Gigabyte Z87-D3HP |
ASRock Extreme4 X79 |
Gigabyte F2-A85X-UP4 |
||||
| BIOS | F4 |
3.20 |
F4 |
||||
| Chipset Driver | Intel Inf 9.4.0.101 and IMEI 9 |
AMD 13.5 beta 2 chipset drivers |
|||||
| DDR3 Memory | G.Skill RipJawsX 16GB (2 x 8GB) |
G.Skill RipJawsX 32GB (4 x 8GB) |
G.Skill RipJawsX 16GB (2 x 8GB) |
||||
| Memory Timings | 9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz |
10-10-10-27-2T @ 1,866MHz |
9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz |
10-10-10-27-2T @ 1,866MHz |
|||
| Integrated Graphics | HD 4600 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
|||
| Discrete Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 3GB (ForceWare 320.18) |
||||||
| Disk Drive | Samsung 840 Pro 250GB |
||||||
| Optical Drive | Sony AD-7263S |
||||||
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite 600T |
||||||
| Power Supply | Corsair AX760i |
||||||
| Operating System | Windows 8 64-bit |
||||||
CPU and Memory Benchmarks |
|||||||
| HEXUS PiFast |
Our number-crunching benchmark stresses a single core by calculating Pi to 10m places | ||||||
| CineBench 11.5 | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses all cores | ||||||
| wPrime v2.10 | Another number-crunching benchmark that stresses all available CPU cores/threads | ||||||
| AIDA64 v3.0 |
Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency | ||||||
| PCMark 7 |
An all-encompassing test to evaluate system performance | ||||||
| Discrete GPU Benchmarks | |||||||
| 3DMark | DX11, Fire Strike benchmark | ||||||
| BioShock Infinite | DX11, 1,920x1,080 ultra quality | ||||||
| DiRT Showdown | DX11, 1,920x1,080 ultra quality | ||||||
Miscellaneous Benchmarks |
|||||||
| Power Consumption | While idling and when running wPrime and DiRT Showdown | ||||||
Notes
We're comparing Intel's best-ever consumer CPU to the Core i7-3960X - the 6C/12T Sandy Bridge-E chip with similar underpinnings. It also makes sense to see how the nascent Core i7-4770K Haswell compares and, finally, the FX-8350 from AMD. We have been careful to ensure the chips run system memory at their maximum supported speeds.
All testing has been done from the ground-up and provides a solid indication into top-tier CPU performance in mid-2013. For those that want a wider comparison, please head on over to the 4770K chip review; we compare it to other IGP-based processors.
The benchmark suite has been tweaked to take account of the extra cores and threads on offer, and we place a greater emphasis on multi-core ability than with standard CPU reviews.