Intel Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition Review

Intel’s latest processor series has arrived, and we’re looking to find out if it becomes the company’s greatest. Compared to Intel’s latest mainstream part, Haswell, IV-E avails a quad-channel memory controller, a far more robust PCIe configuration, and the only place to get six-core parts. Are there other perks to be found? Let’s find out.

This coming March, Techgage will turn 9-years-old. In all the time the site has been around, we’ve taken a look at a countless number of processors from both AMD and Intel, and generally speaking, the process for reviewing a new one – especially one with a new architecture – has largely been the same: A) Benchmark; B) Stare in awe at the improved performance; C) Convert that excitement into words; D) Profit.

I’d love nothing more than to be able to say that the trend will continue with Intel’s just-released Ivy Bridge-E based processors, but the fact of the matter is, even Intel itself knew that it was going to be a hard sell. It had to have.

When Intel released its Sandy Bridge-E processors two years ago, I was left impressed overall with what it offered over the previous generation, but I mentioned in the conclusion that many “were hoping that Sandy Bridge-E would launch with eight cores” – and of course, it didn’t. It seemed to be a sure thing, then, that two years later, its successor would ship with those coveted eight cores. But not so.

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