Intel Core i7-3820 Extreme Edition CPU

Written by Hank Tolman

Monday, 05 March 2012

Table of Contents: Page Index
Intel Core i7-3820 Extreme Edition CPU
Features and Specifications
Sandy Bridge Extreme Architecture
Processor Testing Methodology
SiSoft Sandra Memory Bandwidth
AIDA64 Extreme Edition Tests
PCMark Vantage Tests
CINEBENCH R11.5 Benchmarks
CPU-Dependent 3D Gaming
PassMark PerformanceTest
Media Encoding Benchmarks
SPECviewperf 11 Tests
SPECapc Lightwave
Blender and POV-Ray
Core i7-3820 Overclocking
Sandy Bridge Extreme Final Thoughts
Intel Core i7-3820 Conclusion

Page 4 of 17

Processor Testing Methodology

In this article, I am comparing the Intel Core i7-3820 at stock and overclocked speeds on the ASUS Rampage IV Formula motherboard to a wide variety of systems. I am comparing it to the i7-3960X on the ASUS Sabertooth X79 motherboard, the i7-2600K, its closest competitor in price, on the ASUS P8P67 motherboard, the i5-2500K on the ASUS Sabertooth P67 motherboard, the i7-980X on the ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard, and the AMD FX-8150 and AMD Phenom-II X4-980BE on the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard. This should give us a good smattering of different CPUs and platforms to look at.

Intel X58 Express Test Platform

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme with BIOS 0901
Processor: 3.33GHz Intel Core i7-980X
System Memory: 12GB (6 2GB DIMMs) Corsair Dominator CMD12GX3M6A1600C8 DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24)
Primary Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300G
Graphics Adapter: AMD Radeon 6850
CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM

Intel P67 Express Test Platform

Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 with BIOS 1305; ASUS Sabertooth P67
Processor: 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-2600K; 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-2500K
System Memory: 8GB (2 4GB DIMMs) Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24)
Primary Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300G
Graphics Adapter: AMD Radeon 6850
CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM

AMD 990FX Test Platform

Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair V Formula with BIOS 0083
Processor: 3.6GHz AMD FX-8150 "Bulldozer"; 3.7GHz AMD Phenom-II X4-980BE
System Memory: G. Skill F3-17066CL7D-4GBPIS DDR3-1866 (9-9-9-24)
Primary Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300G
Graphics Adapter: AMD Radeon 6850
CPU cooler: Thermalright Silver Arrow

Intel X79 Express Test Platform

Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth X79 BIOS 0707; ASUS Rampage IV Formula X79
Processor: 3.3GHz Intel Core i7-3960X; 3.6GHz Intel Core i7-3820
System Memory: 16GB (4 4GB DIMMs) Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24)
Primary Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300G
Graphics Adapter: AMD Radeon 6850
CPU cooler: Corsair H60

Benchmark Applications

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
SiSoft Sandra Lite 2011.SPS (1780)
AIDA64 Extreme Edition v1.85.1600
Futuremark PCMark Vantage v1.0.2.0 64-Bit
- TV and Movies
- Gaming
- Music
Maxon CINEBENCH R11.5 64-Bit
Street Fighter IV benchmark
PassMark PerformanceTest 7.0b1021
x264Bench HD 3.0, including AMD-supplied variants using new FX instructions
SPECviewperf-11:
- Lightwave 9.6
- Autodesk Maya 2009
- Siemens Teamcenter Visualization Mockup
SPECapc LightWave 3D v9.6
Handbrake 0.95 video transcoding
Blender 3D rendering
POV-Ray 3D rendering

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Comments

# Sweet spot? — realneil 2012-03-06 09:55

I wonder if this will be the affordable sweet spot for many of us? The lower price is compelling and the performance is very good too. I can't see quitting my i7-2600K system for this one yet, but it looks to be a good choice for future consideration.

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# Uhh.. this isn't an Extreme Edition — bcmac401 2012-03-06 10:07

That would be the 3960X. This is the baseline LGA2011 Core i7.

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# From a Multi-GPU gaming rig builder's perspective — Luay 2012-03-07 05:18

The difference between the i7 3820 and the i5 2550k in gaming performance is not worth the extra money spent on the CPU, motherboard and quad channel RAM.
For two CF/SLI GPUs we have P67 motherboards in the $120~$180 range.
For tri-fire/SLI or more we have NF200 equipped P8P67 WS Revolution and Rampage boards that sell for the same price of a low-end LGA 2011 motherboard. This is a hard sell either because it's not good enough or LGA 1155 is just too good.

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# Love Mine. — Enigma8750 2012-03-20 08:21

Coming from AMD 890 board to this motherboard was like night and day. My Benchmark 06 is 29080 at 4.5 ghz. I know I can get more but I want a nice stable system with no errors. The Performance of the CPU and the Two 5770's Crossfired is amazing. I am only using Corsair 1600 memory but this computer is a F1 Race car. My old 5xxx Video cards have never Breathed so well. I can only imagine what a couple of 7850's would look like. I am amazed at this CHIP and I bought my ASRock Extreme 9 board for this chip at Christmas, knowing that it would be a killer chip at an excellent price. it is. I am very very happy with mine and I love it.

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# Happy to keep what I have! — DB62 2012-03-20 21:40

Ya, I know it's way overpriced, but my system, with a 990X, a GTX580 Lightning, 4 raid-0 RE4's, and 1-Intel 510 SSD, serves every need I have, and does it fast, without a problem. Plus, it's an overclocking champ.

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# ewf — xcc 2012-03-31 22:28

don't understand what comparision demonstarte when all cpus are running different amount of ram.3xxx with 16gb and few ones only on 4gb.my athlon x2 was doing 44fps on 2gb and 122fps on 4gb on specviewperf maya with all other component same ,resolution, threads etc everything same. as such benchmark is 100% fake to me. yes 3xxx needs 4 ram for quad channel but 4 ram can be used in dual channel too. so why not all cpus running 16gb(for quad and dual both) and 12gb(for triple channel).
simply seems intel sponsered benchmark to fakely demonstrate 3xxx is best processor

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# RE: ewf — David Ramsey 2012-03-31 23:07

Since none of these benchmarks are memory-constrained, the amount of memory (past 2G or so) is irrelevant.

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# RE: RE: ewf — xcc 2012-04-01 06:28

but whats problem installing same amount of ram on all. also speed of ram r different

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# Great investment — Glock10mm 2012-04-14 22:50

Just picked up the 3820 and an X79 SABERTOOTH.Great upgrade from my AMD 980 & ASUS Crosshair board. Using my same 1600 ram(which would never run @ 1600 on my old board) and crossfired 6870's. Works great and and really only cost about $75 more for the setup than the 2600k setup(buying a high end 1155 board). Running @ 4.625 and very stable. If I had already owned an 2600k setup, it would not be worth the money for the minimal gain. Coming from an 2 year old board and going to Intel for the first time in 10 years, it seemed to make sense to purchase the newest socket board.

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# 1.624v ,Really — John Elmore 2012-05-12 06:52

Running a i7-3820 at 4750gigs at a whopping 1.624v on a lower end CPU water cooler Corsair H60,I would like to know what your temperatures were reading.I find it hard to believe that it did not shut down with that kind of voltage running though it ,when intel says the safest voltage is 1.350v and not to run it over 67c.I know with just a Corsair H-60 you would be running way over 67c.Unless it was reading the voltage wrong.I have a i7-3820 on a ASRock X79 ExeTreme 4 and I can run 4750gigs at 1.304v and my tempertures run at 65c-62c-64c-60c running Prime95,on AIR a $35 Coolermaster 212 EVO.If them H-60's run that good I will have to get me one ,but all the reviews I have seen puts them around 3c to 5c cooler then what I am running.I would really like to see your tempertures at 1.624v at 4750gigs.

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