Conclusion

In general it is particularly noticeable that on average there is almost no difference at all between the two CPUs tested. Especially when we look at the single GPU as well as the SLI results we see as near as makes no difference. The only configuration where we saw a scaling factor which can be explained by CPU influence, was when we ran the tests with triple SLI. In this case the Core i7-3960X is more or less consistently five to eight percent ahead of its smaller brother the Core i7-3930K. In other words the additional three megabyte of cache and 100 MHz more clock speed account for a five to eight percent performance advantage in a triple SLI configuration. Ohterwise the two CPUs really are head to head.

It is also interesting to see that one needs to run a triple SLI configuration to overcome the GPU limitation of todays games. Hopefully we'll get a fourth GTX 580 to test quad SLI to provide even more proof of this.
Another circumstance that was interesting concerns the consistency of 3DMark 11 results. We noticed that when you run this benchmark multiple times, like lets say 30 times, then you'll get one score that can be 1'000 to 1'500 points above your average.

Page 1 - Introduction / Specs	Page 5 - Crysis / Resident Evil 5
Page 2 - Test setup	Page 6 - Call of Juarez / Far Cry 2
Page 3 - 3DMark 11 / 3DMark Vantage	Page 7 - Street Fighter 4 / World in Conflict
Page 4 - Unigine Heaven / Stone Giant	Page 8 - Conclusion

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