Intel Core i7-6950X Broadwell-E Processor Review

Test System and Methods

Before we delve into any testing we would like to take this opportunity to overview our test system.

Test System

Z87

• Motherboard – ASUS Maximus VII Ranger
• RAM – 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport XT (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866MHz (10-10-10-30)
• CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme
• Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti
• Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt
• Main Storage Drive – Crucial M550 512GB
• Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench
• Displays – U2868PQU 4K
• Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit

Z170

• Motherboard – ASRock Z170 Extreme7+
• RAM – 12GB (4 X 4GB) Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz (16-16-16-39)
• CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme
• Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti
• Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt
• Main Storage Drive – Crucial M550 512GB
• Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench
• Displays – U2868PQU 4K
• Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit

X99

• Motherboard – ASUS STRIX GAMING X99
• RAM – 32GB (4 X 8GB) Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz (16-16-16-39)
• CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme
• Graphics Card – Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti
• Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt
• Main Storage Drive – Crucial M550 512GB
• Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench
• Displays – U2868PQU 4K
• Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit

Games Used

• Ashes of the Singularity (DirectX 12)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider

Test Software

• 3DMark – available here
• AIDA64 Engineer – available here
• Cinebench – available here
• Compubench – available here
• CPUID HWMonitor – available here
• CPU-Z – available here
• Handbrake – available here
• Prime95 – available here
• WinRAR – available here
• WPrime – available here

Test Procedure 

Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose key information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their own hardware. When it comes to CPU reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Please note, we prefer to re-test each CPU within a product’s performance range to ensure the results are completely accurate and reflect any changes to our samples over time or enhancements via graphics drivers.

This means we now include fewer results, but they are more accurate and easier to decipher. As always, your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery and other factors can yield different numbers and there’s always a margin for error when using software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Saying that, each benchmark is run at least three times and the average figure is taken to try to reduce the effect of hardware variation. Any important details regarding the benchmarks will be listed below.

Handbrake

To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage. This particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps and uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820×2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we transcode the 4K MP4 to a 1080p MKV file. Both the average frames-per-second and time elapsed are recorded to provide our readers with an idea of estimate video transcoding project times.