Intel Core i7 4960X Extreme Edition Processor Review

Chipset & Motherboards, Overclocking And Cooling

The Core i7 4960X continues to use the same packaging as the Haswell Fourth generation Core series processors do.

Both the six core processors use the packaging on the right while the quad core Core i7 4820K uses the packaging on the left. All three processors come without cooling solutions.

Intel does of course offer up its own certified cooling solution – the Intel TS13X. This is made by Asetek and is a 120mm AIO water cooler capable of taming the Core i7 4960X and other Ivy Bridge-E processors.

The chipset design is identical to the current X79 chipset because it is the X79 chipset. The PCIe 3.0 is genuine PCIe 3.0 this time but apart from that no major changes spring to mind.

The core ratio on the Ivy Bridge-E K series processors now allows you to go up to 63, previously 57. There is also real-time core overclocking and tuning enabled.

Intel point out programs that the six cores and 12 threads of the Core i7 4960X will be able to take advantage of.

Intel is working hard to push its Xtreme Tweaking Utility with Ivy Bridge-E and is teaming up to integrate the software into the HWBot overclocking community.

As I already mentioned the Core i7 4960X is compatible with current X79 motherboards from all the big vendors listed above. In theory all X79 motherboards will support the Intel Core i7 4960X processors but will require BIOS updates.

As you’d expect the Ivy Bridge-E CPUs continue the trend of supporting Intel’s XMP profiling and support version 1.3.