Intel Core i7-980X 6-Core Official Reviews Out!

jmke · 11th March 2010, 08:13

It’s rare that anything we review has the longevity that Intel’s Core i7 Bloomfield platform has enjoyed. If you were one of the fortunate few to buy a Core i7 920, 940 or 965 back in November 2008, you’d still have one of the fastest desktop CPUs today in March 2010. The downside to all of this is the price tag. The Core i7 980X is an Extreme Edition processor, meaning it’s introduced at the $999 price point. And currently it’s the only way to get 6-cores in a Core i7. Currently Intel doesn't have any plans to introduce 4-core versions of Gulftown on the desktop, although we will see some 32nm quad-core Xeons later this year.

It's rare that you get more cores, more cache and more performance at effectively the same power budget. But the Core i7 980X gives you just that.

I have to say that Intel's Core i7 980X is the first Extreme Edition CPU that I've ever gotten excited about. In the past you used to have to choose between more cores or high clock speeds. Thanks to power gating and Gulftown's PMU, those days are over. The 980X gives you its best regardless of what you throw at it. Lightly threaded apps benefit from the larger L3 cache and heavily threaded apps take advantage of the extra cores. The performance advantage you get at the low end ranges from 0 - 7%, and on the high end with well threaded code you're looking at an extra 20 - 50% over the Core i7 975. Even more if you compare to a pedestrian processor. There are a few cases where the 980X does lose out to the Core i7 975 thanks to its higher latency L3 cache, but for the most part it's smooth sailling for the 6-core beast.

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sho...spx?i=3763&p=1 (max OC 3.6ghz)
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...75&Item id=63 (max OC 4ghz)
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...ition-review/1 (max OC air 4.4, water 4.7Ghz)

Quote:

While the i7-980X was an absolute beast in the heavily multi-threaded video encoding test, the single-threaded image editing and lightly multi-threaded multi-tasking tests weren't any faster on the i7-980X. None of our test games ran any faster on the i7-980X either, but neither did they run any slower.

Full list:
http://pcper.com/article.php?aid=883
http://techreport.com/articles.x/18581
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...or-review.html
http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi..._core_i7_980x/
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha..._core_i7_980x/
http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/mo...l_lang=english
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/317...cpu/index.html
http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/int...cessor_review/
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/31...ing/index.html
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...ftown/Reviews/
http://www.tweak.dk/review/Intel_Cor...erner/1077/1/1
http://www.awardfabrik.de/prozessore...en-i7-920.html
http://www.nordichardware.se/Recensioner/?skrivelse=560
http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/...ds/2024_1.html
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/944
http://www.hitechlegion.com/reviews/...ulftown-review
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/proce...l-core-i7-980x
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2361083,00.asp
http://techgage.com/article/intels_c...or_sick_scores
http://computershopper.com/feature/i...st-pc-reviewed
http://www.futurelooks.com/intel-cor...cessor-review/
http://www.cowcotland.com/articles/5...exa-cores.html
http://www.pcinpact.com/link.php?url...el%2F381-1.htm
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1801
http://www.hardware-mag.de/artikel/p...treme_edition/
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/c...80x_gulftown/1

11th March 2010, 09:34

I'm wondering when AMD is going to get a CPU that performs on par with the Core i7's . The i7's are sometimes twice as fast as an X4 965. Of course, you'll pay for the extra performance, but at this moment, AMD doesn't have anything that can compete with the higher performance Intel chips

thorgal · 11th March 2010, 09:35

With these varying OC reports, I'd like to see some CPU-Z screens. Anandtech provides, and it seems to be a newer stepping (apparantly worse than the older ones), and still an engineering sample.

The other cpu's might be older steppings/samples which had a lot of press already. In other words : no retails samples yet, but I'm afraid they'll be closer to the Anand story than to the other two (OC-wise).

Massman · 11th March 2010, 09:53

It's known that the retail B1 stepping is a lot worse than the A0 engineering samples. It'll take B2 to get upto decent speeds.

thorgal · 11th March 2010, 09:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Massman

It's known that the retail B1 stepping is a lot worse than the A0 engineering samples. It'll take B2 to get upto decent speeds.

Edit : scratch that, I read wrong, Anandtech stepping isn't mentioned.

Massman · 11th March 2010, 10:24

FYI, got the review database up and running on hwbot as well:

http://hwbot.org/hardware/processor/...specifications

thorgal · 11th March 2010, 10:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Massman

FYI, got the review database up and running on hwbot as well:

http://hwbot.org/hardware/processor/...specifications

Nice one

Those 2 submissions for 45000 Mhz mess up the chart though

Massman · 11th March 2010, 10:44

Yeah, need to work on that. Chart's for the entire CPU family, so not correct either.

jmke · 11th March 2010, 17:42

first post updated, 29 reviews listed

11th March 2010, 09:35	#3
thorgal [M] Reviewer Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 1,887	With these varying OC reports, I'd like to see some CPU-Z screens. Anandtech provides, and it seems to be a newer stepping (apparantly worse than the older ones), and still an engineering sample. The other cpu's might be older steppings/samples which had a lot of press already. In other words : no retails samples yet, but I'm afraid they'll be closer to the Anand story than to the other two (OC-wise). __________________

11th March 2010, 09:53	#4
Massman [M] Reviewer Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Waregem Posts: 6,466	It's known that the retail B1 stepping is a lot worse than the A0 engineering samples. It'll take B2 to get upto decent speeds. __________________

11th March 2010, 10:24	#6
Massman [M] Reviewer Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Waregem Posts: 6,466	FYI, got the review database up and running on hwbot as well: http://hwbot.org/hardware/processor/...specifications __________________

11th March 2010, 10:44	#8
Massman [M] Reviewer Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Waregem Posts: 6,466	Yeah, need to work on that. Chart's for the entire CPU family, so not correct either. __________________

11th March 2010, 17:42	#9
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,022	first post updated, 29 reviews listed __________________

11th March 2010, 09:34	#2
wutske Posts: n/a	I'm wondering when AMD is going to get a CPU that performs on par with the Core i7's . The i7's are sometimes twice as fast as an X4 965. Of course, you'll pay for the extra performance, but at this moment, AMD doesn't have anything that can compete with the higher performance Intel chips

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Intel Core i7 980X: Just Before Sandy Bridge	jmke	WebNews	0	10th May 2010 16:00
Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition CPU	jmke	WebNews	0	10th May 2010 15:58
Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Review: An Overall Look at the Core i7 Family	jmke	WebNews	0	24th March 2010 12:25
Intel Core i7 980X Gulftown CPU Review	jmke	WebNews	0	22nd March 2010 17:26
Intel Core i7 980X EE listed at €931	jmke	WebNews	0	10th March 2010 17:39
Intel Core i7 980X 'Gulftown' to start selling in March 2010	jmke	WebNews	0	22nd December 2009 15:39
Intel Launches Core 2 Extreme QX9650 ~ Reviews Inside	jmke	WebNews	2	26th November 2007 14:44
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU Benchmarks & Reviews	jmke	WebNews	4	3rd November 2006 08:27
Intel Core 2 (Conroe) official benchmarks online!	jmke	WebNews	34	7th September 2006 17:26