Conclusion

Stock Clocks

First, we’re going to talk about the average performance of the three CPUs. To keep things as simple as possible, we averaged all the results that we gathered at different resolutions. This allow us to create an overall performance index.
In our index the Core i7-5820K is setting the 100.00% baseline. On average the Core i7-5930K is 2.04% quicker and the octa core i7-5960X opens a 5.44% gap.

A closer look at the different resolutions reveals, that at FullHD the Core i7-5930K is 1.58% quicker than the Core i7-5820K and the i7-5960X performs 4.63 percent faster. In the case of 1440p the 5930K is 2.43% faster and the 5960X offers on average 5.03% higher frame rates. Last but not least there we’ve tested the games at UHD and the differences are very similar but a tiny bit bigger. The Core i7-5930K is on average 3.93% faster than the i7-5820K and the Core i7-5960X runs games 6.67% quicker than the 5820K.

Another interesting value to investigate is power consumption. In idle our test system with Core i7-5930K burns 2.94% more power than the 5820K. Equipped with the Core i7-5960X the setup needs a substantial 35.29% more power than the 5820K. With the system under full load – the graphics card is also loaded – the percentage differences are smaller, especially regarding the i7-5960X. The system with Core i7-5930K pulls 1.69% more power than the one with i7-5820K. Equipped with the i7-5960X system power consumption is 8.75 percent higher compared tot he setup with 5820K.

Overclocked

Following the same approach – but much shorter - like with the CPUs at stock clocks we’re now going to talk about the results gathered with the CPUs overclocked to 4.5 GHz. Again, the Core i7-5820K is setting the 100.00% baseline. On average the Core i7-5930K is 1.96% quicker and the octa core i7-5960X opens a 5.44 percent gap. In other words, overclocking the CPUs to 4.5 GHz has no effect on performance scaling and it doesn’t open any bottleneck. The reason for this is simple: the CPU isn’t the limiting factor, it’s the graphics card and this is the case even at FullHD.

Recommendation

As we already mentioned in the overclocking part of this conclusion it’s not the CPU, which is limiting performance in recent gaming systems, it’s the graphics card. This already implies that the CPU only plays a secondary role when it comes to gaming performance in general. If you keep the price structure of Intels HEDT processors in mind, you’ll realize instantly that for only a little performance gain in games, you’ll have to pay a lot more money.
If you’re thinking about buying an Intel HEDT processor for a gaming system you’re going to be very well off with an i7-5820K. If you do have the funds and you also want and need insane multitasking performance, then you might want to go for an i7-5930K or even an i7-5960X.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 12 - Thief
Page 2 - Test Setup	Page 13 - GRID Autosport
Page 3 - 3DMark Fire Strike	Page 14 - Sleeping Dogs
Page 4 - Unigine Heaven 4.0	Page 15 - Metro Last Light
Page 5 - Borderlands - The Pre-Sequel	Page 16 - Assassin’s Creed Unity
Page 6 - BattleField 4	Page 17 - Far Cry 4
Page 7 - Watch Dogs	Page 18 - Power Consumption
Page 8 - Tomb Raider	Page 19 - Performance
Page 9 - Sniper Elite 3	Page 20 - Prices
Page 10 - Crysis 3	Page 21 - Conclusion
Page 11 - Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare