This time we're going to check gaming performance of two LGA 2011 processors. The first CPU is a quad core i7-3820 which runs at 3.60 GHz default and comes with ten megabyte L3 cache. The second CPU is a core i7-3930K which does 3.2 GHz and features twelve megabyte L3 cache. At this point we're quite curious what might be the difference in gaming performance between these quite different CPUs. 
Specifications
| i7-3930K | i7-3820 | |
| Codename | Sandy Bridge E | Sandy Bridge |
| Socket | LGA 2011 | LGA 2011 |
| Manufacturing | 32 nm | 32 nm |
| Transistors | 2.27 Billion | 1.27 Billion |
| Die-size | 435 mm2 | 295 mm2 |
| Clock | 3.20 GHz (Turbo 3.80 GHz) | 3.60 GHz (Turbo 3.90 GHz) |
| Cores / Threads | 6C / 12T | 4C / 8T |
| 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 | 12 MB shared | 10 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 |
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Test setup
| Motherboard | ASUS Rampage IV Formula |
| Processors | |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX H2O @ 1'600 MHz CL 9-9-9-24 |
| Grapics Cards | |
| Storage | Corsair Force 3 120 Gigabyte |
| Power Supply | Enermax Max Revo 1350 Watt |
Software
- Futuremark 3DMark 11
- Performance
- Performance
- 1920 x 1080
- Shaders High
- Tessellation Extreme
- Max AA
- Max AF
- 1920 x 1080
- Tessellation High
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- DX10
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- Max AF
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- Max AF
- 1920 x 1080
- Max Details
- Max AA
- Max AF
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3DMark 11 - 3DMark Vantage
| 3DMark 11 Total | 3DMark 11 - Graphics | 3DMark 11 - Physics | |
| Core i7-3930K | 8'094 | 7'655 | 12'536 |
| Core i7-3820 | 7'924 | 7'652 | 9'132 |
| % difference | 2.15 % | 0.04 % | 37.28 % |
| 3DMark Vantage Total | 3DMark Vantage - Graphics | 3DMark Vantage - CPU | |
| Core i7-3930K | 33'845 | 32'537 | 38'486 |
| Core i7-3820 | 29'565 | 31'885 | 24'268 |
| % difference | 14.48 % | 2.04 % | 58.59 % |
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Unigine Heaven - Furmark - Stone Giant
| Unigine Heaven - Points | Unigine Heaven - fps | |
| Core i7-3930K | 1'060 | 42.1 |
| Core i7-3820 | 1'059 | 42.0 |
| % difference | 0.09 % | 0.24 % |
| Furmark - Points | Furmark - fps | |
| Core i7-3930K | 2'582 | 43 |
| Core i7-3820 | 2'582 | 43 |
| % difference | 0.00 % | 0.00 % |
| Stone Giant - fps | |
| Core i7-3930K | 87 |
| Core i7-3820 | 87 |
| % difference | 0.00 % |
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Crysis - Resident Evil 5
| Crysis - fps | |
| Core i7-3930K | 53.03 |
| Core i7-3820 | 53.01 |
| % difference | 0.04 % |
| Resident Evil 5 - fps | |
| Core i7-3930K | 174.4 |
| Core i7-3820 | 146.8 |
| % difference | 18.80 % |
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Call of Juarez - Far Cry 2
| Call of Juarez - fps | |
| Core i7-3930K | 71.80 |
| Core i7-3820 | 71.80 |
| % difference | 0.00 % |
| Far Cry 2 - fps | |
| Core i7-3930K | 104.07 |
| Core i7-3820 | 103.50 |
| % difference | 0.55 % |
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Street Fighter 4 - World in Conflict
| Street Fighter 4 - fps | |
| Core i7-3930K | 230.21 |
| Core i7-3820 | 190.49 |
| % difference | 20.85 % |
| World in Conflict - fps | |
| Core i7-3930K | 99 |
| Core i7-3820 | 97 |
| % difference | 2.06 % |
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Conclusion
Meanwhile we've done quite a few of these tests. Basically, what we do is, we take two CPUs and a high-end graphics card. Afterwards we run several benchmarks and write down the individual results. In most cases we see that the CPU doesn't really make a difference. Usually it is the graphics card which is the bottleneck in a gaming system.Never the less, this time we let a six core CPU compete against a quad core CPU and the results we got were quite surprising, because there are quite big performance gaps in some tests. Ok, honestly, regarding Futuremark CPU - 3D Mark 11 and 3D Mark Vantage - tests it's no wonder that the Core i7-3930K is substantially faster than the Core i7-3820. In this case the additional two cores (four threads) as well as the two megabyte L3 cache make quite a difference - almost 40 percent in 3D Mark 11 and almost 60 percent in 3D Mark Vantage. In fact the 400 MHz the Core i7-3820 clocks higher don't weigh heavy in the equation.
Testing Unigine Heaven, Furmark and Stone Giant is quite boring. In this case you can clearly see that the graphics card is the bottleneck in the system. The performance differences are either very small or not measurable at all.
Last but not least we went to check performance in real world games. At this point there are two different categories. There are some games that scale with the number of cores and others that do not. In this case we have the two benchmarks from Capcom - Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter 4 - which show a 20 percent difference, whereas the Core i7-3930K is the one in the lead.
Last but not least we can say, that in case of a gaming PC, it doesn't matter
wheter you buy a quad core Core i7-3820 or a hexa core Core i7-3930K - from a
performance point of view. If you should want to put this kind of money into
your gaming rig, then we recommend to buy a more powerful graphics card.
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