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Intel Sandy Bridge E 3930K CPU Review

CPU by leeghoofd @ 2011-12-13

On the 14th of November Intel has shown it's brand new high end platform baptized Sandy Bridge E to the world. Almost all of the press sample kits included only the Extreme version aka the 3960X CPU. Some lucky hardware sites got a 3930K version, with unlocked multiplier, from a 3rd party to test or review. Since this K skew CPU is retailing at only half the price it could become quite a steal. This if it performs alike it's bigger brother. Major difference between the Extreme and the K version is the reduced L3 cache from 15Mb down to 12Mb. Yet, as mentioned before, the multiplier remains fully unlocked, similar to the K skews of the little 2500K and 2600K socket 1155 models, the latter two being heavily popular, as speeds over 4.5Ghz are a breeze. Before continuing with the review : a big thanks to the guys from Tones webshop to supply us with a brand new retail 3930K CPU. Now let's get it on !

GTX480 SLI Tests and Power Consumption

Let's add another GTX480 card to the setup , to decrease the GPU bottleneck. Nothing miraculous to expect as this CPU will be just a tad slower then it's bigger brother. But here we go anyway...

Futuremarks 3DMark06 300 points slower. Nothing to really worry about. The Vantage runs are impressive on this platform, with going over 4000 points more then the 2600K. This s2011 is the new Vantage & 3DMark11 bench setup. All depending if the CPU can do 5.5Ghz or more... otherwise keep your +6Ghz 980/990X CPUs...

Synthetic checked, now some games in SLI mode, with everything maxed out...

Mafia II even with 2 cards running into an FPS wall. But even FX can run this game at +100FPS in all it's glory... Capcom's DirectX11 shooter Lost Planet II too rendered over 100FPS full detail... Close to no Level 3 Cache influence.

Can it run Crysis II ? Yes it can, though a cheaper 2600K setup can do too...

Ubisofts Far Cry 2 surpassing 200FPS with everything on very high detail... time for a bigger monitor it seems or some newer games :p

The F1 2011 race sim is also an outstanding graphical delight at Ultra setting, close to no difference between the entire Intel lineup

Fraps recorded a minimum of 76FPS with Operation Swordbreaker on Ultra setting... who needs GTX580 anyway lol... or 3960X...

The Aspen track was used for the Dirt3 test. Close to none difference between the two SB-E CPUs. From a gamers perspective, the 3930K will do just fine and has power to spare for upcoming game titles...

For the power consumption tests we are still using our Intel Siler board. First the idle results : The 3930K shaves off a few extra watts.

And manages to do the same in the Cinebench R10 multicore test.

Time to wrap things up ->

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