Intel Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition CPU Processor Review

PCMark 7

PCMark 7 provides a set of 7 suites for measuring different aspects of PC performance with a high degree of accuracy. Overall system performance is measured by the PCMark Suite. The Lightweight Suite measures the capabilities of entry level systems and mobility platforms unable to run the full PCMark suite. Common use performance is measured by the Entertainment, Creativity and Productivity scenario suites. Component performance is measured by the Computation and Storage hardware suites. The Storage suite is ideal for testing SSDs and external hard drives in addition to the system drive.

An interesting set of results here, as we saw the 3960X coming out with the lowest score of all, but once overclocked, the results shot up by over 1000 PCMark points, showing that this CPU does here some really great potential behind it.

AIDA64

AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Whether it’s because we have an early revision processor or that quad channel really is that bad, but we saw some quite low scores when at stock speeds. It was only when we pushed our CPU slightly further that we saw some normal results come back into play. If you take a look, you can see that our 3960X overclok results are still slightly behind the dual channel 2700k based system.