Intel Ivy Bridge-E CPU set to disappoint fans

New benchmarks for Intel’s Ivy Bridge-E Core i7-4960X that have appeared on Tom’s Hardware signal to enthusiasts that there’s even less of a performance jump than we got moving from Ivy Bridge to Haswell on the desktop.

In synthetic benchmarks appearing on Tom’s Hardware there’s not a lot of variation compared to the Core i7-3970X, Intel’s most expensive desktop part thus far. There’s less than a 5% improvement across the board and while it’s a very good processor in its own right, there’s a lot of heat underneath it from the Core i7-4770K and the cheaper Core i7-3930K, both of which feature unlocked multipliers and can handle four less threads.

Memory bandwidth remains unchanged from Sandy Bridge-E and the only application that seems to post some gain is Handbrake. Other benchmarks indicate a slight performance improvement, possibly owing to better thermal management algorithms from Intel.

Whetstone double native benckmarks for the Core i7-4960X

Memory bandwidth benchmarks for the Core i7-4960X

Cinebench benchmark for the Core i7-4960X

Handbrake benchmark for the Core i7-4960X

power consumption for the Core i7-4960X

Power consumption is much lower, to the tune of an average of almost 60 Watts, bringing the processor down under the average power consumption of the Core i7-2700K. This will also result in lower temperatures and possible higher overclocking headroom. Tom’s Hardware did their tests with an engineering sample, so the results might not be as good when the final retail product launches.

It looks like Ivy Bridge-E brings even less benefits to desktop users and the only reason why you might opt for one is that its the only option currently available. It will retail for the same US $1000 price point as its predecessor and Intel will also be putting out a $550 part in the form of the Core i7-4930K. The company is also rumored to be planning a Core i7-4920K which may be replacing the outgoing Core i7-3820.