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Intel Core i7 5960X Haswell-E (8-core) CPU Review

Bioshock Infinite

We used the Bioshock Infinite demanding ‘Ultra’ setting and a 1920 x 1080 resolution to push today’s gaming hardware. Our data was recorded using a section of the game, not the built-in benchmark.

BioShockInfinite-settings-1080-Ultra+DDOF

bioshock

Metro: Last Light

We used a 1920 x 1080 resolution and the Metro: Last Light built-in benchmark set to ‘High’ quality to offer an intense challenge for the gaming hardware while also making playable frame rates a possibility.

metro-ll-high-1080

metro

Tomb Raider

We used a 1920 x 1080 resolution and the Tomb Raider built-in benchmark set to ‘Ultimate’ quality.

tomb-raider---ultimate-1 tomb-raider---ultimate-2

tomb raider

Gaming performance was never going to be a strength for Haswell-E. Even many of today's games show little improvement when moving up from a four-core Intel chip, and that point is only emphasised with a GPU-bound resolution.

While the 5960X doesn't take any gaming performance leads, it doesn't get left behind by the high-speed 4790K either. What did surprise us was the change (or general lack of) in benchmark scores when an 800MHz clock boost was applied.

Clearly our settings are limited by the graphics card, resolution, and game configuration. We are looking into better ways of outlining gaming performance differences between processors. The higher computational demands brought about by a 4K resolution may be a situation where the parts with higher core counts could shine. We don't believe in testing at 1024×768 (or less), because it is not even close to a ‘real world' enthusiast gaming environment in 2014.

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4 comments

  1. If it’s a ‘Must Have’, does that mean you’ll give me one for free? ; )

    Good review Luke, thanks. (Although pro tip: deceptively is a better adverb than deceivingly for prose).

  2. Yes it is a must have. Jewish NSA inside is the best chipset to follow the idiot masses. All the Intel chipsets send datas to the Israel. Jews have been watching the entire world thanks to Intel chipsets and Microsoft Operating Systems. Oh I need to add Apple products. Thaks to Apple products NSA & CIA have millions of fingerprints & identitiy details etc… I am a bit confused. As if Jews are playing games by using these agent chipsets. Not the idiot gamer masses.

  3. You know, there are some archived articles on KG.net that you haven’t posted on yet. Better get to it ; )

  4. Nice, it really does come into it’s own! Great review!

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