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X99, LGA 2011-3 and DDR4: Get Ready For A Big Upgrade

Intel Core i7-5960X, -5930K, And -5820K CPU Review: Haswell-E Rises
By , Igor Wallossek

And by big I mean that a move to Haswell-E necessitates a lot of new hardware.

Intel got a lot of life out of LGA 2011. The interface surfaced alongside Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E) almost three years ago. However, a number of variables can change over time to break compatibility, including the introduction of DDR4 memory technology.

Physically, the old and new enthusiast processors are the same size. Their ball pattern pitch is the same, too. But Intel keys its Core i7-5000-series CPUs differently than the -4000s or -3000s, so you can’t accidentally drop an LGA 2011 model into LGA 2011-3, and vice versa.

In short, that -3 is important, and although both interfaces employ 2011 pins, Intel ensures you don’t mix up Haswell-E with Ivy Bridge-E or Sandy Bridge-E by notching the package uniquely. You need an X99-based motherboard for Core i7-5960X, -5930K, or -5820K.

There is good news, though. Consistent dimensions translate to cooling solution compatibility. Just be sure your old LGA 2011-specific heat sink or water block can handle Haswell-E’s slightly higher thermal ceiling. Intel’s previous-gen flagships were 130 W parts, these new Core i7s are rated at 140 W, and as we’ll see shortly, overclocking can quickly push power use much higher.

X99 Express: A Platform Controller Hub With Familiar Features

The evolution of Intel’s chipset business is painfully slow to watch. As functionality finds its way into the CPU itself, there’s less and less for the platform controller hub to handle. And what remains doesn’t change very often. If you were hoping for a connectivity revolution from X99, prepare for disappointment.

Fortunately, X79 was so old that X99 at least gets Intel’s top-end platform back up to modern standards. It enables 14 USB ports, six of which support USB 3.0 transfer rates. There’s an integrated gigabit Ethernet MAC. HD Audio is a requisite, of course. And we find a familiar eight lanes of PCI Express 2.0 for attaching add-ons, either through expansion slots or on-board third-party controllers. Perhaps the most notable step forward is support for up to 10 SATA 6Gb/s devices.

Now, the bummer is that Intel continues attaching its PCH to the host processor through a four-lane DMI 2.0 connection. You get 2 GB/s of bi-directional throughput, so it’s not hard to concoct a combination of peripheral, network, and storage traffic to overwhelm the narrow pipeline.

At least the top two SKUs give you plenty of PCIe for attaching the fastest graphics cards, SSDs, and 10 GbE add-ins, right?

DDR4: A New Memory Technology, But Why?

Given today’s multi-channel memory controllers built into processor dies, we rarely hear about bandwidth limitations unless integrated graphics is involved. Last generation’s Ivy Bridge-E supported up to four channels of DDR3 at up to 1866 MT/s, and that was good for more than 40 GB/s of throughput.

So, why DDR4?

The transition isn’t really motivated by a prescient need in the enthusiast space. But as you see some of Intel’s other processing products start emerging in the server and then mobile markets, DDR4’s inherent benefits will have more of an impact.

For example, a lower supply voltage of 1.2 V helps pull power consumption down compared to the 1.5 V DDR3 modules we’re used to. Some of that is mitigated in today's piece, since the DDR4 kits we have in-house are pushed to 1.35 V, sometimes requiring even more voltage. But in an enterprise-oriented configuration, multiple Haswell-EP-based CPUs are going to use registered modules down at the standard’s specified 1.2 V, delivering quantifiable power savings.

Foundries are also manufacturing DDR4 using more advanced processes, allowing for higher density. Again, this affects server customers looking to cram tons of capacity into their machines more than enthusiasts considering Haswell-E, perfectly content to spread 32 or 64 GB across eight slots.

DDR4 also paves the way for higher data rates, starting at 2133 MT/s and scaling up from there. Latencies are up too, though. What we noticed was that a Core i7-4960X armed with DDR3-1866 isn’t too far off a Core i7-5930K with DDR4-2133 in SiSoftware’s memory bandwidth benchmark.

More apparent from our testing is that there are still kinks to be worked out. The X99-based motherboards in our lab are continuously receiving firmware updates, most of which relate to DDR4 compatibility. Some won’t boot at all. Others struggle to hit data rates in excess of 2666 MT/s. At that point, we have to switch from a 100 MHz BCLK to 125 MHz or more. The 2800 and 3000 MT/s options still aren’t stable (at least in our SoCal lab; Igor got his 2800 MT/s setup running in Germany). Until firmware, module compatibility, and pricing improves, DDR4 may be the reason cautious enthusiasts camp out on the sidelines for a while.

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  • 1 Hide
    wireframed , 29 August 2014 18:24
    Well, that's a bit of a mixed bag. The review was nice, though.

    Personally, the 3DS and After Effects benchmarks were of most interest, since they are what I spend most of the CPU time on. (3DS in particular, right now I'm logging dozens of CPU hours a day on 3DS alone). It's pretty clear that unless the platform costs of Haswell-E are much higher than IB-E, going with the old won't make sense. The 5930k beats the 4960X. which is at least 50% more expensive.

    I've been waiting forever for an upgrade to my i7 930 based workstation, and I didn't feel like jumping on an IB-E a couple months before a brand-new HEDT platform is released.

    I had hoped Haswell-E would be a bit more impressive, but OTOH, investing in a DDR4 platform now might be a good idea, given my workstations typically have 3-4 years in them. At the very least, a drop-in upgrade to Broadwell-E would be nice to have as an option.

    Now to see how big a pounding I'll take in Denmark for X99/DDR4/Haswell-E... :o 
  • 0 Hide
    haider95 , 30 August 2014 17:56
    sweepstakes only for US users?
  • 0 Hide
    Robi_g , 30 August 2014 22:06
    Text on the competition PC says EVGA motherboard, but the picture has an ASrock one.
  • -1 Hide
    Robi_g , 30 August 2014 22:06
    Text on the competition PC says EVGA motherboard, but the picture has an ASrock one.
  • -1 Hide
    Robi_g , 30 August 2014 22:07
    Text on the competition PC says EVGA motherboard, but the picture has an ASrock one.
  • -1 Hide
    BigBadBeef , 2 September 2014 05:45
    I am an enthusiast and even I say "NO" to this marketet prototype. I will not participate as Intel's guinea pig.
  • 0 Hide
    LePhuronn , 4 September 2014 14:59
    Although I agree with the logic behind the "smart choice" at the end of this article, in the real world the PCI-E lane count for gaming is a moot point. X99 is NOT a gaming platform. It is a workstation and productivity platform. Regardless of how much you hobble your CPU, you're still paying £300 for the motherboard and £400 for comparatively paultry amounts of RAM, so the price of overall Haswell-E adoption is very high.

    Therefore anybody who's going to load up on GPUs enough to worry about PCI-E lanes will have sufficient money to drop in a 5960X on principle. Anybody who's adopting X99 for productivity purposes will not skimp on core count and also go 5960X, especially considering they're likely to go at least 32GB RAM and therefore shelling out a lot of money. Those producing on CUDA cards may not even go X99 at all because 1150 Haswell has more than enough power to run the software. Folders and CUDA Miners similarly will want all GPUs running at full tilt so will likely invest in the 5960X to get all the PCI-E lanes.

    So really, the only "smart choice" is 5960X or don't go X99 at all.
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