Intel Core i7-3960X Vs Core i7-990X Benchmarks

The Turkish site has published some internal slides that compare Intel’s existing hexa-core Core i7-990X Extreme Edition processor to the new flagship i7-3960X.

Despite winding the core clock frequency down from 3.46GHz to 3.30GHz, the i7-3960X actually has a higher peak Turbo Boost speed, revving up to 3.9GHz versus 3.73GHz.

The slides also indicate that the new 32nm six-core (12 threads) processor will come with an extra 3MB of cache (15MB versus 12MB), providing a solid performance boost while keeping thermal loads in check.

Both CPU’s were pitted against each other through a series of benchmarks which include Cinebench 11.5, POV-Ray 3.7, 3DMark 11 physics, Pro-Show Gold 4.5, SPECint_rate base2006, SPECfp_rate base2006, ans SiSoft SANDRA 2011B multimedia and memory bandwidth.

According to Intel’s data, the 3960X is 12-15% quicker than the 990X in Cinebench, POV-Ray, and ProShow Gold.

That gap is even larger when comparing their performance in SPEC CPU2006 and Sandra’s multimedia and memory bandwidth tests. In the former, the 3960X achieves 34% more integer performance and 64% better floating point results, while it offers double the speed in both Sandra benchmarks.

Memory Bandwidth is also noticeably higher due to Quad Channel DDR3 interface while the new AVX instruction set and hyper threading helped alot in gaining a better score for media encoding.

Also it has been detailed that the Sandy Bridge-E lineup will include two Unlocked Models – Core i7 3960X and Core i7 3930K while the i7 3820 would feature a locked multiplier which makes overclocking limited.

Sandy Bridge-E, alongwith Core i7 3960X, 3930K and the quad-core 3820 are expected to release in late 2011 at the earliest, about one quarter after AMD’s FX-Series.