Choosing a Gaming CPU October 2013: i7-4960X, i5-4670K, Nehalem and Intel Update
by Ian Cutress on October 3, 2013 10:05 AM ESTFor an article like this getting a range of CPUs, which includes the most common and popular, is very important. I have been at AnandTech for just over two years now, and in that time we have had Sandy Bridge, Llano, Bulldozer, Sandy Bridge-E, Ivy Bridge, Trinity and Vishera, of which I tend to get supplied the top end processors of each generation for testing (as a motherboard reviewer, it is important to make the motherboard the limiting factor). A lot of users have jumped to one of these platforms, although a large number are still on Wolfdale (Core2), Nehalem, Westmere, Phenom II (Thuban/Zosma/Deneb) or Athlon II. I have attempted to pool all my AnandTech resources, contacts, and personal resources, together to get a good spread of the current ecosystem, with more focus on the modern end of the spectrum. It is worth nothing that a multi-GPU user is more likely to have the top line Ivy Bridge, Vishera or Sandy Bridge-E CPU, as well as a top range motherboard, rather than an old Wolfdale. As time progresses I hope to obtain greater ranges of CPU speeds, core counts, and caches to suit almost all tastes.
The CPUs
My criteria for obtaining CPUs was to use at least one from the most recent architectures, as well as a range of cores/modules/threads/speeds. The basic list as it stands is shown below, with the CPU.GPU on the left showing what we were able to test:
VIA | |||||||||
CPU | GPU | Name | IGP | Socket | C / M (T) | Speed | Turbo | L2/L3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
L2007 | Nano | BGA400 | 1 (1) | 1600 | 1 MB / - | ||||
AMD | |||||||||
CPU | GPU | Name | IGP | Socket | C / M (T) | Speed | Turbo | L2/L3 | |
E-350 | Fusion | FT1 | 2 (2) | 1600 | 1 MB / - | ||||
A6-3650 | Llano | FM1 | 4 (4) | 2600 | 4 MB / - | ||||
A8-3850 | Llano | FM1 | 4 (4) | 2900 | 4 MB / - | ||||
A8-5600K | Trinity | FM2 | 2 (4) | 3600 | 3900 | 4 MB / - | |||
A10-5800K | Trinity | FM2 | 2 (4) | 3800 | 4200 | 4 MB / - | |||
A6-5200 | Kabini | FT3 | 4 (4) | 2000 | 2 MB / - | ||||
Phenom II X2-555 BE |
Callisto K10 | AM3 | 2 (2) | 3200 | 1 MB / 6 MB | ||||
Phenom II X4-960T |
Zosma K10 | AM3 | 4 (4) | 3200 | 2 MB / 6 MB | ||||
Phenom II X6-1100T |
Thuban K10 | AM3 | 6 (6) | 3300 | 3700 | 3 MB / 6 MB | |||
FX-8150 | Bulldozer | AM3+ | 4 (8) | 3600 | 4200 | 8 MB / 8 MB | |||
FX-8350 | Piledriver | AM3+ | 4 (8) | 4000 | 4200 | 8 MB / 8 MB | |||
Intel | |||||||||
CPU | GPU | Name | IGP | Socket | C / M (T) | Speed | Turbo | L2/L3 | |
E6400 | Conroe | 775 | 2 (2) | 2133 | 2 MB / - | ||||
E6550 | Conroe | 775 | 2 (2) | 2333 | 4 MB / - | ||||
E6700 | Conroe | 775 | 2 (2) | 2667 | 4 MB / - | ||||
Q9400 | Yorkfield | 775 | 4 (4) | 2667 | 6 MB / - | ||||
Core i7-920 |
Nehalem | 1366 | 4 (8) | 2667 | 2933 | 1 MB / 8 MB | |||
Core i7-950 |
Nehalem | 1366 | 4 (8) | 3067 | 3333 | 1 MB / 8 MB | |||
Core i7-990X |
Westmere | 1366 | 6 (12) | 3467 | 3733 | 1.5 MB / 12 MB | |||
Xeon X5690 |
Westmere | 1366 | 6 (12) | 3467 | 3733 | 1.5 MB / 12 MB | |||
2 x Xeon X5690 |
Westmere | 1366 | 12 (24) | 3467 | 3733 | 1.5 MB / 12 MB | |||
Celeron 847 |
Sandy Bridge ULV |
BGA1023 | 2 (2) | 1100 | 0.5 MB / 2 MB | ||||
Celeron G465 |
Sandy Bridge |
1155 | 1 (2) | 1900 | 0.25 MB / 1.5 MB | ||||
Core i5-2500K |
Sandy Bridge |
1155 | 4 (4) | 3300 | 3700 | 1 MB / 6 MB | |||
Core i7-2600K |
Sandy Bridge |
1155 | 4 (8) | 3400 | 3800 | 1 MB / 8 MB | |||
Core i7-3930K |
Sandy Bridge-E |
2011 | 6 (12) | 3200 | 3800 | 1.5 MB / 12 MB | |||
Core i7-3960X |
Sandy Bridge-E |
2011 | 6 (12) | 3300 | 3900 | 1.5 MB / 15 MB | |||
2 x Xeon E5-2690 |
Sandy Bridge-EP |
2011 | 16 (32) | 2900 | 3800 | 2 MB / 20 MB | |||
4 x Xeon E5-4650L |
Sandy Bridge-EP |
2011 | 32 (64) | 2600 | 3100 | 2 MB / 20 MB | |||
Core i3-3225 |
Ivy Bridge | 1155 | 2 (4) | 3300 | 0.5 MB / 3 MB | ||||
Core i7-3770K |
Ivy Bridge | 1155 | 4 (8) | 3500 | 3900 | 1 MB / 8 MB | |||
Core i7-4960X |
Ivy Bridge-E | 2011 | 6 (12) | 3600 | 4000 | 1.5 MB / 15 MB | |||
Core i5-4430 |
Haswell | 1150 | 4 (4) | 3000 | 3200 | 1 MB / 6 MB | |||
Core i5-4670K |
Haswell | 1150 | 4 (4) | 3400 | 3800 | 1 MB / 6 MB | |||
Core i7-4770K |
Haswell | 1150 | 4 (8) | 3500 | 3900 | 1 MB / 8 MB | |||
Core i7-4750HQ |
Haswell + Crystalwell |
BGA1364 | 4 (8) | 2000 | 3200 |
1 MB / 6 MB 128 MB L4 |
|||
Xeon E3-1280 V3 |
Haswell | 1150 | 4 (8) | 3600 | 4000 | 1 MB / 8 MB | |||
Xeon E3-1285 V3 |
Haswell | 1150 | 4 (8) | 3600 | 4000 | 1 MB / 8 MB |
Note: the indication on the left hand side is whether we have tested the CPU in terms of our CPU tests or our GPU tests. In certain circumstances GPU tests were unavailable, but the CPU tests provide interesting data points.
This is Part 2 of our Gaming CPU series, with Part 1 covering a basic range of CPUs and a Haswell update covering the i7-4770K. For Part 2 this is primarily an Intel 4670K/Nehalem update, whereas Part 3 of our testing will focus on the AMD side. I currently have many AMD CPUs in house (Richland, Trinity, K10) and am on the request list for a few more (Vishera, more Richland).
The GPUs
My first and foremost thanks go to both ASUS and ECS for supplying me with these GPUs for my test beds. They have been in and out of 60+ motherboards without any issue, and will hopefully continue. My usual scenario for updating GPUs is to flip AMD/NVIDIA every couple of generations – last time it was HD5850 to HD7970, and as such in the future we will move to a 7-series NVIDIA card or a set of Titans (which might outlive a generation or two).
The ASUS HD 7970 we use is the reference model at the 7970 launch, using GCN architecture, 2048 SPs at 925 MHz with 3 GB of 4.6 GHz GDDR5 memory. We had four cards to be used in 1x, 2x, 3x and 4x configurations where possible, also using PCIe 3.0 when enabled by default, although for this update we were limited to three.
ECS GTX 580 (NGTX580-1536PI-F)
ECS is both a motherboard manufacturer and an NVIDIA card manufacturer, and while most of their VGA models are sold outside of the US, some do make it onto e-e-tailers like Newegg. This GTX 580 is also a reference model, with 512 CUDA cores at 772 MHz and 1.5 GB of 4 GHz GDDR5 memory. We have two cards to be used in 1x and 2x configurations at PCIe 2.0.
The Motherboards
The CPU is not always the main part of the picture for this sort of review – the motherboard is equally important as the motherboard dictates how the CPU and the GPU communicates with each other, and what the lane allocation will be. As mentioned on the previous page, there are 20+ PCIe configurations for Z87/Z77 alone when you consider some boards are native, some use a PLX 8747 chip, others use two PLX 8747 chips, and about half of the Z87/Z77 motherboards on the market enable four PCIe 2.0 lanes from the chipset for CrossFireX use (at high latency). We have tried to be fair and take motherboards that may have a small premium but are equipped to deal with the job. As a result, some motherboards may also use MultiCore Turbo, which as we have detailed in the past, gives the top turbo speed of the CPU regardless of the loading.
As a result of this lane allocation business, each value in our review will be attributed to both a CPU, whether it uses MCT, and a lane allocation.
Motherboards | |||
---|---|---|---|
Socket | Chipset | Motherboard | PCIe |
1150 | Z87 | ASUS Z87-Pro | PCIe 3.0 x8/x8 + PCIe 2.0 x4 |
MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming | PCIe 3.0 x8/x8/x4 | ||
GIGABYTE Z87X-UD3H | PCIe 3.0 x8/x8 + PCIe 2.0 x4 | ||
MSI Z87 XPower | PCIe 3.0 x8/x8/x8/x8 via PLX8747 | ||
1155 | Z77 | ASUS Maximus V Formula | PCIe 3.0 x8/x4/x4 |
GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 | PCIe 3.0 x8/x8/x8/x8 via PLX8747 | ||
GIGABYTE G1.Sniper M3 | PCIe 3.0 x8/x8 or x16 + PCIe 2.0 x4 | ||
2011 | X79 | ASRock X79 Professional | PCIe 2.0 x16/x8/x8/x8 |
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | PCIe 3.0 x16/x8/x8/x8 | ||
Gigabyte X79-UD3 | PCIe 3.0 x16/x8/x8/x8 | ||
1366 | X58 | GIGABYTE X58A-UD9 | PCIe 2.0 x16/x16/x16/x16 via NF200 |
ASRock X58 Extreme3 | PCIe 2.0 x16/x16 + x4 | ||
5520 | EVGA SR-2 | PCIe 2.0 x16/x16/x16/x16 via NF200 | |
775 | 975X | MSI Platinum Power Up | PCIe 1.1 x8/x8 |
P965 | ASUS Commando | PCIe 1.1 x16 + x4 | |
FM1 | A75 | GIGABYTE A75-UD4H | PCIe 2.0 x8/x8 |
ASRock A75 Extreme6 | PCIe 2.0 x8/x8 + x4 | ||
FM2 | A85X | GIGABYTE F2A85X-UP4 | PCIe 2.0 x8/x8 + x4 |
AM3 | 990FX | ASUS Crosshair V Formula | PCIe 2.0 x16/x8/x8 |
BGA400 | VX900 | ECS VX900-I | N/A |
BGA1023 | NM70 | ECS NM70-I2 | N/A |
FT3 | A6-5200 | ASRock IMB-A180-H | N/A |
The Memory
Our good friends at G.Skill are putting their best foot forward in supplying us with high end kits to test. The issue with the memory is more dependent on what the motherboard will support – in order to keep testing consistent, no overclocks were performed. This meant that boards and BIOSes limited to a certain DRAM multiplier were set at the maximum multiplier possible. In order to keep things fairer overall, the modules were adjusted for tighter timings. All of this is noted in our final setup lists.
Our main memory testing kit is our trusty G.Skill 4x4 GB DDR3-2400 9-11-11 1.65 V RipjawsX kit which has been part of our motherboard testing for over twelve months. For times when we had two systems being tested side by side, a G.Skill 4x4 GB DDR3-2400 10-12-12 1.65 V TridentX kit was also used.
For The Beast, which is one of the systems that has the issue with higher memory dividers, we pulled in a pair of tri-channel kits from X58 testing. These are high-end kits as well, currently discontinued as they tended to stop working with too much voltage. We have a sets of 3x2 GB OCZ Blade DDR3-2133 8-9-8 and 3x1 GB Dominator GT DDR3-2000 7-8-7 for this purpose, which we ran at 1333 6-7-6 due to motherboard limitations at stock settings.
Our Core2Duo CPUs clearly gets their own DDR2 memory for completeness. This is a 2x2 GB kit of OCZ Platinum DDR2-666 5-5-5.
For Haswell we were offered new kits for testing, this time from Corsair and their Vengeance Pro series. This is a 2x8 GB kit of DDR3-2400 10-12-12 1.65 V.
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warezme - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
I to invested in the venerable (speak only in awe hushed whispers), i7 920 which I promptly overclocked to 3.6Ghz. This little jewel has been going strong for Goodness almost half a decade? and stable as a rock and I notice holding it's own very well even up against the latest and greatest. This is a testament to competition and engineering when competition in the CPU arena existed. I have long switched from dual GPU's to single but dual core cards on a single fat 16x pci-e bus even though my Evga X58SLI board supports higher. I'll ride the wave one more year and see what new gear crashes in next year. Hopefully a new Nvidia architecture that will inspire me to upgrade everything.Hrel - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
"our next update will focus solely on the AMD midrange."Please don't do that. PLEASE include at least 3 Intel CPU's for comparison. It doesn't matter if the FX8320 does well in benchmarks if for another $40 bucks I can get a i54670 that runs 50% faster. These are hypothetical numbers, obviously, but then Intel will be faster. By how much matters, once you factor in price and energy draw especially.
A5 - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
The old numbers will still be there for comparison. The next update is just *adding* more AMD data.just4U - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
It's hard making sense of AMD data in comparison to Intel. As near as I can tell their sitting at just beyond i7920 performance these days but /w all the new features. It gets confusing when you look at the X4 X6 older stuff though since some of that is actually faster... yet somehow only compares favorably to Intel's 9X Core2 stuff.just4U - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
Why 3? The i5 entry level 4430 beats out every AMD chip on the market in most instances. Adding in more simply confuses people and adds more fodder for fanboys to fight over.. and I think it taxes the patience of most of us that already know what's what in the cpu arena.Simple rule of thumb. If your on a budget you may want to go AMD to get all the "other" bells and whistles your looking to buy or.. if you have a more to spend your starting point will be the i54430.
just4U - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
Excellent article Ian, I really like the inclusion of older CPU's. It's a good basis in which to decide if it's "time" to upgrade on that front. Most of the people I know are not on the bleeding edge of technology. Many sit back in 2009 with minor updates to video and Hard Drives. Anyway.. Well done lots to sift thru.Jackie60 - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
At last Anandtech is doing some meaningful second decade of 21st century testing. Well done and keep it up ffs!SolMiester - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
Can someone please tell me why we are using 2+ yr old GPUs?A5 - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
You could read the article.OrphanageExplosion - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
Amazing data. I do wonder whether the testing at max settings is a good idea though. The variation in performance can be extreme. Just watch the Metro 2033 benchmark play out. Does that look like the kind of experience you'd want to play?Perhaps more importantly though, the arrival of next-gen console changes everything.
Did you see the news that Watch Dogs is x64 only? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Developers need to go wide to make the most out of six available Jaguar cores. Jobs-based scheduling over up to eight cores will become the norm rather than the exception. The gap between i5 vs. i7 will widen. AMD FX will suddenly become a lot more interesting.
In short order, I'd expect to see dual core CPUs and less capable quads start to look much less capable very quickly. i5 vs. i7 will see a much larger gulf in performance.
Check out the CPU data here for the Battlefield 4 beta:
http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/battlefield-4...
The dual cores are being maxed out, FX-8350 is up there with the 3930K (!)