Intel Core i7 6950X Broadwell-E (10-core) CPU Review

Power Consumption

We measured peak system power consumption during a 10-minute AIDA64 system stress test with the options stress CPU, stress FPU, stress cache and stress system memory selected. This was measured at the wall using an Energenie power meter.

System power consumption for the i7 6950X is roughly the same as the i7 5960X at stock settings, when overclocked the i7 6950X is about 20-watts more frugal on power for the same voltage and nearly the same frequency. When considering there are two more cores being deployed on the i7 6950X compared to the i7 5960X, those numbers are even more impressive, the efficiency of Broadwell is certainly nothing to scoff at.

Temperatures

We measured the maximum CPU temperature, using core temp, from the same 10 minute AIDA64 stress test used to acquire power consumption figures. We then take an average temperature across all cores (excluding the package temperature), record the ambient temperature, and then calculate a Delta figure (actual temperature – ambient temperature).

While total power consumption is less for the i7 6950X, which means total thermal output (heat) is less, temperatures are a notable amount higher than the i7 5960X. Temperatures end up being higher due to the increased density of transistors and cores on the Broadwell-E die, but a Corsair H100i is still able to easily cool the i7 6950X on a relatively quiet fan profile.

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