Core i7-3960X and Core i7-3930K Radeon HD 7970 Gaming-Performance-Difference
Category : 2012
Published by Marc Büchel on 10.02.12
In this article we're going to check gaming performance of Intels latest Sandy Brdige E flagship CPUs when they're being supported by a Radeon HD 7970 graphics card from XFX. We're curious if there will be a measurable performance gap between these to CPUs regarding modern games or if the 100 MHz and three megabyte more Cache, which the Core i7-3960X has to offer, aren't enough to make a difference.





Specifications

  i7-3960X i7-3930K
Codename Sandy Bridge E Sandy Bridge
Socket LGA 2011 LGA 2011
Manufacturing 32 nm 32 nm
Transistors 2.27 Billion 2.27 Billion
Die-size 435 mm2 435 mm2
Clock 3.30 GHz (Turbo 3.90 GHz) 3.20 GHz (Turbo 3.80 GHz)
Cores / Threads 6C / 12T 6C / 12T
Turbo Yes (2.0) Yes (2.0)
Bus Speed 100 MHz 100 MHz
Memory DDR3 DDR3
Memory controller Quad Channel Quad Channel
QPI 6.4 GT/s 6.4 GT/s
L1 Execution Cache 32 KByte 32 KByte
L1 Data Cache 32 KByte 32 KByte
L2 Cache 256 KByte 256 KByte
L3 Cache 15 MB shared 12 MB shared
TDP 130 Watt 130 Watt
C1E technology Yes Yes
Enhanced Intel Speed Step Yes Yes
Virtualisation Vanderpool Vanderpool
Instruction sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3
SSE4.2, AVX, AES EM64T
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3
SSE4.2, AVX, AES EM64T



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


Discuss this article in the forums. [pagebreak]

Test setup

Motherboard ASUS Rampage IV Formula
Processors
  • Intel Core i7-3960X @ 3.30 GHz, Turbo @ 3.90 GHz
  • Intel Core i7-3930K @ 3.20 GHz, Turbo @ 3.80 GHz
  • Memory Kingston HyperX H2O @ 1'600 MHz CL 9-9-9-24
    Grapics Cards
  • XFX Radeon HD 7970 Double Dissipation @ 925 MHz Reference
  • Storage Corsair Force 3 120 Gigabyte
    Power Supply Enermax Max Revo 1350 Watt


    Software




    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


    Discuss this article in the forums. [pagebreak]

    3DMark 11 - 3DMark Vantage

      3DMark 11 Total 3DMark 11 - Graphics 3DMark 11 - Physics
    Core i7-3960X 8'123 7'656 13'002
    Core i7-3930K 8'094 7'655 12'536
    % difference 0.36 % 0.01 % 3.72 %


      3DMark Vantage Total 3DMark Vantage - Graphics 3DMark Vantage - CPU
    Core i7-3960X 34'673 33'236 39'836
    Core i7-3930K 33'845 32'537 38'486
    % difference 2.45 % 2.15 % 3.51 %



    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


    Discuss this article in the forums. [pagebreak]

    Unigine Heaven - Furmark - Stone Giant

      Unigine Heaven - Points Unigine Heaven - fps
    Core i7-3960X 1'061 42.1
    Core i7-3930K 1'060 42.1
    % difference 0.09 % 0.00 %


      Furmark - Points Furmark - fps
    Core i7-3960X 2'582 43
    Core i7-3930K 2'582 43
    % difference 0.00 % 0.00 %


      Stone Giant - fps
    Core i7-3960X 87
    Core i7-3930K 87
    % difference 0.00 %



    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


    Discuss this article in the forums. [pagebreak]

    Crysis - Resident Evil 5

      Crysis - fps
    Core i7-3960X 53.06
    Core i7-3930K 53.03
    % difference 0.06 %


      Resident Evil 5 - fps
    Core i7-3960X 175.2
    Core i7-3930K 174.4
    % difference 0.46 %



    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


    Discuss this article in the forums. [pagebreak]

    Call of Juarez - Far Cry 2

      Call of Juarez - fps
    Core i7-3960X 71.90
    Core i7-3930K 71.80
    % difference 0.14 %


      Far Cry 2 - fps
    Core i7-3960X 109.49
    Core i7-3930K 104.07
    % difference 5.21 %



    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
    [pagebreak]

    Discuss this article in the forums.

    Street Fighter 4 - World in Conflict

      Street Fighter 4 - fps
    Core i7-3960X 231.16
    Core i7-3930K 230.21
    % difference 0.41 %


      World in Conflict - fps
    Core i7-3960X 101
    Core i7-3930K 99
    % difference 2.02 %



    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


    Discuss this article in the forums. [pagebreak]

    Conclusion

    In general it is particularly noticeable that on average there is almost no difference between the performance of these two CPUs. If there is a bottleneck in recent games, then it is the graphics card, even if it is a high end Radeon HD 7970 card. Looking at the numbers and figures we see that the in Far Cry 2 we measured the biggest difference between the two CPUs. In this case the performance gap is 5.21 percent. The next benchmarks which clearly show different results are 3D Mark 11 and 3D Mark Vantage concerning their physix test. In both cases you can see that the Core i7-3960X is roughly three percent faster than the Core i7-3930K. The difference can be explained by the fact the the Core  i7-3960X clocks 100 MHz faster and has three megabyte more L3 cache. Furhtermore the Physix test in 3D Mark 11 and 3D Mark Vantage doesn't scale with the GPU it only scales with the CPU. A closer look at Furmark, Stone Giant and Unigine Heaven once again shows that the CPU has almost no impact gaming performance. Especially in Furmark one can see that the benchmark really doesn't care about 100 MHz and three Megabyte more L3 cache, because there is no load going to the CPU, which needs to be processed very fast.

    As concluding remarks we can say that for a gamer there is really no difference in buying a Core i7-3960X over a Core i7-3930K. What's important in this case is only the price and therefore the Core i7-3930K is a much more reasonable choice than Intels flagship CPU, the Core i7-3960X.


    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


    Discuss this article in the forums.