Overclocking to 4.2GHz, plus numbers
We overclocked the sample engineering-sample 980X EE by increasing the juice by just 0.1V. Turbo Boost and EIST were both turned off in the BIOS.4GHz came and went easily enough, and the first signs of instability were manifested at 4.3GHz. Dialling back down to a safe, conservative 4.2GHz - 26 per cent above stock - here's the chip's vital stats.
| wPrime v2.02 multithreaded - 1024M calculation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i7 975 EE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 980X EE | Intel Core i7 980X EE (OC) | Intel Core i7 930 OC | AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE |
| 257.28 | 318.02 | 298.27 | 171.58 | 141.01 | 218.65 | 378.87 |
| CINEBENCH R11.5 - 64-bit - multi-CPU | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i7 975 EE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 980X EE | Intel Core i7 980X EE (OC) | Intel Core i7 930 OC | AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE |
| 5.94 | 4.78 | 5.03 | 8.83 | 10.71 | 6.83 | 4.01 |
| x264 HD benchmark - pass one | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i7 975 EE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 980X EE | Intel Core i7 980X EE (OC) | Intel Core i7 930 OC | AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE |
| 78.59 | 65.38 | 68.91 | 88.66 | 106.74 | 91.55 | 71.95 |
| x264 HD benchmark - pass two | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i7 975 EE | Intel Core i7 920 | Intel Core i7 930 | Intel Core i7 980X EE | Intel Core i7 980X EE (OC) | Intel Core i7 930 OC | AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE |
| 31.78 | 25.83 | 27.44 | 46.11 | 55.47 | 36.68 | 21.9 |
The only competition the six-core CPU has is from its own default performance, which it beats out by over 20 per cent in core-intensive tasks. It beats the pants off the Core i7 930 @ 4GHz, too.
