3930k vs 3960x - actual performance difference?

squarehead94 · 6 Nov 2012 at 21:07

What is the actual performance difference between the 2? would you notice it in real world terms? Other than bragging rights, is it better to have?

stulid · 7 Nov 2012 at 01:00

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/552?vs=443

What do you reckon?

andy_mk3 · 7 Nov 2012 at 01:10

'king price difference between them

squarehead94 · 7 Nov 2012 at 02:01

wow, barely noticeable, guess some are willing to pay double for slightly extra e-peen

glad I opted for 3930k

cammy5477 · 7 Nov 2012 at 03:06

My 3960 clocked harder and was a good bit cooler than the 3930 I have now.
Not worth twice as much though but it only cost me £550 at the time and I swapped it for the 3930 plus £200.

Kaapstad · 7 Nov 2012 at 06:30

squarehead94 said:
What is the actual performance difference between the 2? would you notice it in real world terms? Other than bragging rights, is it better to have?

The difference in the silicon lottery between 2 CPUs is bigger than any difference between an i7 3930k and 3960x once you put ocing on the table.

What will make far more difference in performance is which motherboard you use for the above CPUs. An i7 3930k in a R4E mobo will easily out perform an i7 3960x in a lesser mobo.

Rooster212 · 7 Nov 2012 at 18:11

The only real differences are a fully unlocked multiplier (not the the 3930k has a bad clock rate) and 15MB of Cache (as opposed to 13MB in the 3930k) as far as I am aware. Definitely not worth the difference unless you have some seriously good cooling or some serious need for cache.

Overclocking as Kaapstad said is a different matter.

squarehead94 · 7 Nov 2012 at 21:52

Is the Asus P9X79 a decent mobo? I got it for 149 new from another seller, I was going for the Evga X79 SLI but stayed clear due to mass reports of problems in the board. it has 8 ram slots and takes up to 64gb - not that I would touch 64gb, going for 32 because I have 16 atm and fancy making it crazy high for another 50ish quid.

whyscotty · 7 Nov 2012 at 23:49

Kaapstad said:
The difference in the silicon lottery between 2 CPUs is bigger than any difference between an i7 3930k and 3960x once you put ocing on the table.

What will make far more difference in performance is which motherboard you use for the above CPUs. An i7 3930k in a R4E mobo will easily out perform an i7 3960x in a lesser mobo.

3930k and RIVE are meant to be together

Crezzlin · 8 Nov 2012 at 00:03

I went from a 3960x to a 30.. I've never noticed any difference in performance etc..

gurusan · 8 Nov 2012 at 02:42

In real world terms you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between at 2500K stock and a 3960X overclocked in gaming.

Kaapstad · 8 Nov 2012 at 03:49

gurusan said:
In real world terms you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between at 2500K stock and a 3960X overclocked in gaming.

When you get into multi GPUs and games like BF3 (there is only a few) that can use the extra cores/threads there is a measurable difference between an i7 and i5.

In the pic above are two GTX 690s in quad sli running BF3. They are being fed by an i7 3960x running @4.0ghz.

If you try the above with a 2500k even one highly oced the results are poor with 2 GPUs let alone 4 GPUs.

At the moment there are not many games like BF3 that can use the extra cores/threads of an i7 but in a year or two there could be a lot more.

HHM · 8 Nov 2012 at 08:20

cammy5477 said:
My 3960 clocked harder and was a good bit cooler than the 3930 I have now..

According to ADK-audio who builds rigs for the audio/video market, there is
also a better memory-controller in 3960x, its a VERY hard job getting 3930
to work with 64 GB ram, or even most 8 GB modules available, they work
with many 4x4 kits though, and guess that what most people go for, but
not enough for a top-tuned video-rig. If I was to build a socket 2011 system
I would have to go for 3960x just becourse of this, saving me any troubles
with 64 GB ram when overclocked,

Kaapstad · 8 Nov 2012 at 09:33

HHM said:
According to ADK-audio who builds rigs for the audio/video market, there is
also a better memory-controller in 3960x, its a VERY hard job getting 3930
to work with 64 GB ram, or even most 8 GB modules available, they work
with many 4x4 kits though, and guess that what most people go for, but
not enough for a top-tuned video-rig. If I was to build a socket 2011 system
I would have to go for 3960x just becourse of this, saving me any troubles
with 64 GB ram when overclocked,

I only use 16 Gb of this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-353-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817

With mine but the IMC has no problem running it @2400mhz 9-11-11-25 1T 96 with tight 2nds and 3rds. The CPU is a pretty good clocker running those timmings as well.

Zuban · 8 Nov 2012 at 11:10

hopefully i'll be trying 64 gb (8 x 8gb ) with my 3930k this weekend, i'm not looking to overclock the ram really just want the quantity so hope it works ok :S.

HHM · 8 Nov 2012 at 11:26

Good luck, I remember Scott saying at KVR or Gear****z forum that modules
with samsung chips are preferable, and also to go for 1.35 volt types, I wass
myself seeking info on the Kingston HyperX LoVo types, but couldnt get this,
so dunt know what chips these use, anyway I ended up on socket 1155 for now

Kaapstad · 8 Nov 2012 at 11:31

HHM said:
Good luck, I remember Scott saying at KVR or Gear****z forum that modules
with samsung chips are preferable, and also to go for 1.35 volt types, I wass
myself seeking info on the Kingston HyperX LoVo types, but couldnt get this,
so dunt know what chips these use, anyway I ended up on socket 1155 for now

Have you asked 8 Pack in the memory thread he knows a great deal about various memory types.

Zuban · 8 Nov 2012 at 11:47

I've ordered avexir blitz ram, two 32gb quad channel kits, my motherboard (msi x79 gd65 8D) is in the compatible list on the avexir site but i've never had any luck overclocking ram with my 3930k, as long as it works at stock speed i'll be happy with that.

squarehead94 · 8 Nov 2012 at 13:05

I personally run 4x4gb Ripjaws Z X79 1866mhz quad channel ram in mine. 8 slots, so going to splash on another set for around 60ish to make it tanky (well, say splash, mean put on the christmas list lol)

Zuban · 9 Nov 2012 at 20:13

got the 8 x 8gb up and running currently at 1600mhz default settings, I did however need to change my current overclock from 125 x 36 to 100 x 45, same vcore everything else auto, it would boot with 32gb just not 64gb. Changing the sa voltage didn't help, so it didn't seem to like using the baseclock with this much memory.