Last year, Intel released its new high-end desktop platform, the X99, which uses the new LGA2011-v3 socket. The CPUs launched for this platform are codenamed “Haswell-E,” and the most high-end CPU lauched for this platform is the Core i7-5960X, which has eight cores (16 threads thanks to the Hyper-Threading technology), 3.0 GHz clock (3.5 GHz maximum clock, through Turbo Boost technology), and the support for quad-channel DDR4 memories. Let’s benchmark this beast and see how well it performs.

The new X99 platform comes to replace the X79 platform, and the main difference between the two is the support to DDR4 memory instead of DDR3. (Both support quad-channel memory access.) This platform uses the new LGA2011-v3 socket, which is not compatible with LGA2011 CPUs from the X79 platform. LGA2011-v3 CPUs can have 40 or 28 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, and the exact way they are connected to the PCI Express slot and devices will depend on the motherboard. Since it is targeted to the high-end user, processors from the X99 platform don’t come with an embedded graphics adapter.

The Core i7-5960X is the most high-end CPU from this family and, so far, the most high-end desktop processor available on the market. It has 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, base clock of 3.0 GHz with turbo clock up to 3.5 GHz, 140 W TDP, and supports DDR4 memory modules up to 2,133 MHz, in quad-channel configuration. It supports SSE 4.2, AVX 2.0, and AES instruction sets. The Core i7-5960X has eight processing cores, but thanks to the Hyper-Threading technology, it is seen as a 16-core processor by the operating system.

The Core i7-5960X has an unlocked clock multiplier, which means you can overclock it by simply changing the core multiplier.

We were only able to tun it stable at 3.7 GHz, mantaining the cache memory clock at 3.0 GHz. At 3.8 GHz, we began to experience random crashes.

However, keep in mind that we did not change voltage or more advanced options, so with a little more patience, you will be able to reach higher overclocking levels.