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 up to 15 percent ahead of the Core i7-2600K. In the CPU tests of 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 11 one can see a very clear performance difference. This difference can be explained by the simple fact, that the two more cores and four more threads as well as the additional seven megabyte of L3-Cache compared to the Core i7-2600K show their muscles.

What is also interesting to see is that todays games don't scale with triple SLI configurations. If you plug-in a second GTX 580 you get a nice performance boost, which in Furmark equals almost 100 percent. Adding a third GPU only helps to increase scores in theoretical benchmarks, which means that three-way SLI is only for overclockers who want to get the highest numbers

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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