Haswell-E in detail

	i7-5960X	i7-4960X	i7-5930K	i7-4930K	i7-5820K	i7-4820K
Codename	Haswell-E	Ivy Bridge-E	Haswell-E	Ivy Bridge	Haswell-E	Haswell
Socket	LGA2011-3	LGA2011	LGA2011-3	LGA2011	LGA2011-3	LGA2011
Manufacturing	22 nm	22 nm	22 nm	22 nm	22 nm	22 nm
Transistors	2.6 Billion	1.86 Billion	2.6 Billion	1.86 Billion	2.6 Billion	1.86 Billion
Die-size	356 mm2	257 mm2	356 mm2	257 mm2	356 mm2	257 mm2
Clock	3.00 GHz (3.50 GHz Turbo)	3.60 GHz (4.00 GHz Turbo)	3.50 GHz (3.70 GHz Turbo)	3.40 GHz (3.90 GHz Turbo)	3.30 GHz (3.60 GHz Turbo)	3.70 GHz (3.90 GHz Turbo)
Cores / Threads	8C / 16T	6C / 12T	6C / 12T	6C / 12T	6C / 12T	4C / 8T
Turbo	Yes (2.0)	Yes (2.0)	Yes (2.0)	Yes (2.0)	Yes (2.0)	Yes (2.0)
Bus Speed	100 MHz	100 MHz	100 MHz	100 MHz	100 MHz	100 MHz
Memory	DDR4-2133	DDR3-1866	DDR4-2133	DDR3-1866	DDR4-2133	DDR3-1866
Memory controller	Quad Channel	Quad Channel	Quad Channel	QuadChannel	Quad Channel	QuadChannel
L1 Execution Cache	32 KByte	32 KByte	32 KByte	32 KByte	32 KByte	32 KByte
L1 Data Cache	32 KByte	32 KByte	32 KByte	32 KByte	32 KByte	32 KByte
L2 Cache	256 KByte	256 KByte	256 KByte	256 KByte	256 KByte	256 KByte
L3 Cache	20 MB shared	15 MB shared	15 MB shared	12 MB shared	15 MB shared	10 MB shared
TDP	140 Watt	130 Watt	140 Watt	130 Watt	140 Watt	130Watt
C1E technology	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Enhanced Intel Speed Step	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Virtualisation	Vanderpool	Vanderpool	Vanderpool	Vanderpool	Vanderpool	Vanderpool
Instruction sets	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, EM64T	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, EM64T	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, EM64T	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, EM64T	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, EM64T	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, EM64T
MSRP	999 US-Dollar		583 US-Dollar		389 US-Dollar

As we already mentioned, one big step forward from Ivy Bridge-E to Haswell-E is the introduction of the DDR4 memory interface as well as apparently DDR4 memory. As it always is when a new DDR technology is making it to market, memory frequency on the new modules needs to be substantially higher in order to outperform the earlier generation. The reason is also always the same: the new generation of DDR memory is using a set of higher latencies and these need to be compensated by higher clock speeds. This in the end is the reason why we're testing different memory presets, since we want to give you an outlook on what DDR4 will be capable of in the coming months.
What's new apart from the DDR4 memory interface is the increased core count on the new flagship model. In the past Intel has been offering 8 core / 16 threads CPUs on the server market and now they're bringing this architecture to the high-end desktop market. For obvious reasons it's the applications that support multicore architectures, which will benfit the most from the added cores, such as video encoding, just to mention an example.
Furthermore we can also see that Intel has increased the TDP with Haswell-E. In the case of Ivy Bridge-E the TDP was set at 130 Watts and with Haswell-E the thermal design power is now 140 Watt. In our opinion this is a reasonable move. Since enthusiasts and professionals demand the most powerful systems they can get. Apart from that todays high-end aircoolers as well as all-in-one watercoolers are perfectly capable of removing this kind of heat at reasonable noise levels. One might now reason that overall power consumption might be going up. This is acutally true in a full load scenario, but when it comes to idle power consumption, there is no increase thanks to rather efficient power saving options.



If we dive a little bit deeper into what's been change or added to the new Haswell-E processors, there is for example the updated Socket LGA2011-v3. This upgrade was necessary due to the DDR4 memory interface. Apart form that, as we already mentioned, Intels new high-end desktop processors no feature eight as well as six core, whereas the predecessors were limited to six/four cores, depending on the model. What's also new is the X99 platform, about which we're going to talk in the following paragraph. Another point worth mentioning is the number of PCI Express 3.0 lanes, that are available. If you take a closer look you will notice that the Core i7-5960X as well as the Core i7-5930K support 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes and the Core i7-5820K supports 28 lanes. Intels reasoning is that they wanted to have a CPU, which is positioned inbetween the Core i7-4790K and the Core i7-5930K. Basically Intel wanted to offer a reasonably price six core part that can benefit from the X99 platform.



Let's just dive into the new X99 platform right away. Intel made it clear that they're very proud about the fact, that the new PCH natively supports ten SATA 3.0 devices. Apart from that it is possible to run up to ten drives in RAID configurations, which allows for some impressive performance numbers regarding the storage subsystem. Looking at the picture above, on the other side of the PCH we see that six USB 3.0 ports are natively supported. We were actually hoping Intel would increase that number to ten, but since that is not the case motherboard makers will continue using third party chips. High-end multi GPU systems will benefit from the 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes you get with the Core i7-5960X as well as Core i7-5930K. Therefore four-way configurations are possible and you could even add another x8 card to the system. Other than that there aren't too many things we haven't yet discussed on this page. The DDR4 memory interface runs at 2133 MHz default, there is Intel High Definiteion audio, Intel Rapid Storage Technology 13.1 is supported, Intel Gigabit LAN is onboard, there are eight USB 2.0 ports and when it comes to software Intel is still supporting Extreme Tuning Utility.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 12 - Super Pi 1M / 32M
Page 2 - Haswell-E in detail	Page 13 - wPrime 1024M Multi Core
Page 3 - Test setup	Page 14 - Cinebench
Page 4 - Preview / Gallery	Page 15 - Tomb Raider
Page 5 - 3DMark	Page 16 - Metro Last Light
Page 6 - 3DMark 11	Page 17 - Thief
Page 7 - 3DMark Vantage	Page 18 - Power Consumption
Page 8 - PC Mark 7	Page 19 - Performance Rating
Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1	Page 20 - Price Comparison
Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2	Page 21 - Conclusion
Page 11 - UC Bench