Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition: specs and benchmarks
Aggregated performance score
It provides poor benchmark performance at 5.75% of a leader's which is Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX.
Summary
Intel started Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition sales 14 November 2011. This is a Sandy Bridge architecture desktop processor primarily aimed at office systems. It has 6 cores and 12 threads, and is based on 32 nm manufacturing technology, with a maximum frequency of 3300 MHz - 3900 MHz (1 core)3900 MHz (2 cores)3800 MHz (3 cores)3800 MHz (4 cores)3600 MHz (5 cores)3600 MHz (6 cores) and a locked multiplier.
Compatibility-wise, this is processor with a TDP of 130 Watt.
General info
Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and pricing.
| Place in performance ranking | 1041 | |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | |
| Value for money | 1.47 | |
| Market segment | Desktop processor | |
| Series | Intel Core i7EE | |
| Architecture codename | Sandy Bridge (2011−2013) | |
| Release date | 14 November 2011 (12 years ago) | |
| Current price | $301 | of 15701 (Xeon Platinum 8276L) |
Value for money
Performance per price, higher is better.
Technical specs
Basic microprocessor parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters can generally indicate CPU performance, but to be more precise you have to review its test results.
| Physical cores | 6 (Hexa-Core) | |
| Threads | 12 | |
| Boost clock speed | 3.3 GHz | of 6.2 (Core i9-14900KS) |
| Bus support | 5 GT/s | |
| L2 cache | 1,536 KB | of 98304 (Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX) |
| L3 cache | 15 MB | of 768 (EPYC 7373X) |
| Chip lithography | 32 nm | of 3 (Apple M3 Max 16-Core) |
| Die size | 434.72 mm220.9 mm × 20.8 mm | |
| Number of transistors | 2270 Million | of 9900000 (Ryzen 5 7645HX) |
| 64 bit support | + | |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | |
| Unlocked multiplier | No |
Compatibility
Information on Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition compatibility with other computer components and devices: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.
| Number of CPUs in a configuration | 1 (Uniprocessor) | of 8 (Opteron 842) |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 130 Watt | of 400 (Xeon Platinum 9282) |
Technologies and extensions
Technological capabilities and additional instructions supported by Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| AES-NI | + | |
| AVX | + | |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel number of RAM supported by Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition's memory controller. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequency may be supported.
| Maximum memory size | 64 GB | of 786 (Xeon E5-2670 v3) |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection types of supported peripherals.
| PCIe version | 2.00 | of 5 (Core i9-12900K) |
| PCI Express lanes | 40 | of 128 (EPYC 7551P) |
Benchmark performance
Single-core and multi-core benchmark results of Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition. Overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.
Combined synthetic benchmark score
This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.
3DMark Fire Strike Physics
Benchmark coverage: 4%
Send your test results of Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition.
AMD equivalent
According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition is Ryzen 5 3400GE, which is nearly equal in speed and higher by 2 positions in our ranking.
Here are some closest AMD rivals to Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition:
Similar processors
Here is our recommendation of several processors that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.
Recommended GPUs
People consider these graphics cards to be good for Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition, according to our PC configuration statistics.
These are the fastest graphics cards for Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition in our user configuration statistics. There is a total of 64 configurations based on Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition in our database.
