Intel releases “Sandy Bridge E” – new enthusiast boards and CPUs

By Marco R. On November 14, 2011 · 5 Comments

Quite some information about the new Sandy Bridge refresh got leaked in advance, now Intel officially announced them. The two top models are already in stores, the third will join the party a bit later.
The top model of the new lineup, the i7 3960X, features six cores (resulting in up to twelve threads thanks to hyper-threading) and comes with an incredible amount of 15MB L3 cache and a default clock of 3.3GHz. As usual with the high-end Intel CPUs, it comes with an unlocked multiplier, which will allow for quite some overclocking fun, along with a relatively adjustable base clock (especially regarding SB).

The second chip in the party is the 3930K which comes with a slightly smaller cache, but otherwise similar specifications. The price though is clearly lower, $555 vs. the almost $1000 for the top model.
With the yet to be released i7 3820 Intel completes the refresh. This last processor is a quad core and won’t be fully unlocked, but the price will be distinctly lower as well and will be available in Q1 ’12.
All the new CPUs come with or quad channel RAM capability and officially support DDR3 1600. Here’s an overview of the new and current Intel i7 lineup:

Along with the new processors, Intel also releases new desktop motherboards with the X79 chipset and the proper socket for the new Sandy Bridge E CPUs. The boards come with all the usual features plus PCI-E 3.0 lanes. More details about the boards can be found here on the website of Intel.

Here’s the press release from Intel:

Press Release	Select Show
Second-Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor Family ‘Goes Extreme’ on the Eve of the 40th Anniversary of the Intel 4004 CPU NEWS HIGHLIGHTS Intel announces two new six-core, 12-thread desktop processors targeted at PC power users and enthusiasts: the Intel® Core™ i7-3960X and the Intel Core i7-3930K. These best-in-class enthusiast products are the first six-core client processors in the second-generation Intel Core processor family, and the first-ever Intel client processors supporting quad-channel memory. More software titles are being optimized for multiple cores and more people are working with advanced applications, especially in content creation, 3-D rendering and gaming. SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 14, 2011 – Intel Corporation today advanced its highest-end six-core processor family with the introduction of two new processors: the Intel® Core™ i7-3960X processor Extreme Edition and the Intel Core i7-3930K processor. These are the first six-core client processors in the second-generation “Sandy Bridge” Intel Core processor family. With over 2 billion transistors, Intel’s latest client processors offer the processing power equivalent of approximately 365,000 Intel 4004 processors*. The 40th anniversary of the Intel microprocessor is being celebrated this month. Users and developers of the most advanced applications — especially in content creation, 3-D rendering and gaming — will see benefits from the additional cores, large CPU caches and new quad-channel memory support. With more people posting rich media online and playing immersive games, software developers are welcoming the performance and features offered by these new processors. Game developers such as id Software are hungry for more CPU cores. “To render our uniquely textured worlds, RAGE uses a very compute-intensive real-time process to transcode texture data from highly compressed form on disk to a compression format the GPU can use directly for rendering,” said John Carmack, technical director, id Software. “With two more available cores, a six-core system can transcode over 50 percent more texture data per second during gameplay than a four-core system, bringing new surfaces to full resolution quicker.” These processors also support the new Intel® Advanced Vector Extension (AVX) instructions which benefit 3-D rendering and physics. “MAXON Cinema 4D and Cinebench are designed to take advantage of all available processor threads” said Harald Schneider, CTO, MAXON* Computer. “Our new, optimized render engine intelligently divides render tasks across the threads for a more evenly distributed workload, giving us maximum throughput and performance. In addition, our upcoming service update will include Bullet-based dynamics optimized with the new Intel AVX instructions for faster physics simulations. This means faster previews and final rendering, and the ability to create even more complex scenes with more objects, more effects and higher resolutions.” The Intel Core i7-3960X and the Intel Core i7-3930K are fully unlocked so overclockers and enthusiasts who want to modify performance settings can do so with simple utilities**. Based on Intel’s industry-leading 32nm manufacturing process, the new CPUs run at base speeds of 3.3 and 3.2 GHz with 15MB and 12MB of L3 cache respectively. The Intel® X79 Express chipset that supports this new LGA 2011 socket platform delivers the must-have capabilities and performance for enthusiasts such as 6Gb/s Serial ATA (SATA) ports and additional PCIe* 2.0 lanes, leading to new levels of performance and expandability for high-end desktop platforms. “We are excited to deliver the ultimate desktop platform to enthusiast PC users,” said Zane Ball, general manager for Intel’s Desktop Client Platforms Group. “With uncompromised performance, quad channel memory, amazing Turbo headroom and more robust PCI Express capabilities, this platform is sure to create a lot of excitement for our customers and the industry.” In addition to the new processors, Intel is launching a liquid-cooled CPU thermal solution. Co-developed with Asetek*, this solution will provide robust system cooling while requiring zero maintenance. This solution has been optimized to work not only on the LGA2011 socket, but also the LGA1366 and 115x sockets. Intel is also releasing two new enthusaist motherboards — the Intel® DX79SI and Intel DX79TO — with robust features for this high-end platform. Information on these boards can be found at www.intel.com/extremeboards. The Intel Core i7-3960X and the Intel Core i7-3930K are available now at 1KU prices of $990 and $555, respectively. More information is available at www.intel.com/corei7EE.

Press Release

Show

Second-Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor Family ‘Goes Extreme’ on the Eve of the 40th Anniversary of the Intel 4004 CPU

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Intel announces two new six-core, 12-thread desktop processors targeted at PC power users and enthusiasts: the Intel® Core™ i7-3960X and the Intel Core i7-3930K.
These best-in-class enthusiast products are the first six-core client processors in the second-generation Intel Core processor family, and the first-ever Intel client processors supporting quad-channel memory.
More software titles are being optimized for multiple cores and more people are working with advanced applications, especially in content creation, 3-D rendering and gaming.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 14, 2011 – Intel Corporation today advanced its highest-end six-core processor family with the introduction of two new processors: the Intel® Core™ i7-3960X processor Extreme Edition and the Intel Core i7-3930K processor. These are the first six-core client processors in the second-generation “Sandy Bridge” Intel Core processor family. With over 2 billion transistors, Intel’s latest client processors offer the processing power equivalent of approximately 365,000 Intel 4004 processors**. The 40th anniversary of the Intel microprocessor is being celebrated this month.

Users and developers of the most advanced applications — especially in content creation, 3-D rendering and gaming — will see benefits from the additional cores, large CPU caches and new quad-channel memory support. With more people posting rich media online and playing immersive games, software developers are welcoming the performance and features offered by these new processors. Game developers such as id Software* are hungry for more CPU cores.

“To render our uniquely textured worlds, RAGE uses a very compute-intensive real-time process to transcode texture data from highly compressed form on disk to a compression format the GPU can use directly for rendering,” said John Carmack, technical director, id Software. “With two more available cores, a six-core system can transcode over 50 percent more texture data per second during gameplay than a four-core system, bringing new surfaces to full resolution quicker.”

These processors also support the new Intel® Advanced Vector Extension (AVX) instructions which benefit 3-D rendering and physics.

“MAXON Cinema 4D and Cinebench are designed to take advantage of all available processor threads” said Harald Schneider, CTO, MAXON* Computer. “Our new, optimized render engine intelligently divides render tasks across the threads for a more evenly distributed workload, giving us maximum throughput and performance. In addition, our upcoming service update will include Bullet-based dynamics optimized with the new Intel AVX instructions for faster physics simulations. This means faster previews and final rendering, and the ability to create even more complex scenes with more objects, more effects and higher resolutions.”

The Intel Core i7-3960X and the Intel Core i7-3930K are fully unlocked so overclockers and enthusiasts who want to modify performance settings can do so with simple utilities***. Based on Intel’s industry-leading 32nm manufacturing process, the new CPUs run at base speeds of 3.3 and 3.2 GHz with 15MB and 12MB of L3 cache respectively. The Intel® X79 Express chipset that supports this new LGA 2011 socket platform delivers the must-have capabilities and performance for enthusiasts such as 6Gb/s Serial ATA (SATA*) ports and additional PCIe* 2.0 lanes, leading to new levels of performance and expandability for high-end desktop platforms.

“We are excited to deliver the ultimate desktop platform to enthusiast PC users,” said Zane Ball, general manager for Intel’s Desktop Client Platforms Group. “With uncompromised performance, quad channel memory, amazing Turbo headroom and more robust PCI Express capabilities, this platform is sure to create a lot of excitement for our customers and the industry.”

In addition to the new processors, Intel is launching a liquid-cooled CPU thermal solution. Co-developed with Asetek*, this solution will provide robust system cooling while requiring zero maintenance. This solution has been optimized to work not only on the LGA2011 socket, but also the LGA1366 and 115x sockets.

Intel is also releasing two new enthusaist motherboards — the Intel® DX79SI and Intel DX79TO — with robust features for this high-end platform. Information on these boards can be found at www.intel.com/extremeboards.

The Intel Core i7-3960X and the Intel Core i7-3930K are available now at 1KU prices of $990 and $555, respectively. More information is available at www.intel.com/corei7EE.

Aniruddha Bhattacharyya

Unless they price it more strategically, it’ll be sold scantly.

Why don’t they price them near ~$300 ? Magic of big numbers will mitigate the loss in keeping the price down (take a look at iProducts)
- http://www.techinferno.com Marco R.
  
  The past has shown that it will sell well enough, it’s an enthusiast chip, and people who want the best are usually willing to pay for it. At the moment there’s no processor available with a similar processing power. AMD has some very interesting new products, but it just can’t keep up with the top models of Intel, at least not the current AMD CPUs.
  In this performance class Intel has no real concurrence, thus they can easily charge as much as they want…
  
  The i7 3820 is expected to be more affordable, I’m sure it will sell well enough.
  - Aniruddha Bhattacharyya
    
    Recently AMD introduced 12 core CPU
    - http://www.techinferno.com Marco R.
      
      They even introduced the 16 core opteron CPUs, but at the moment there are as good as no use for so many cores, especially not for home applications.
      
      When you want the CPU that best fits your need, a lot depends on what kind of work you’re doing and especially which applications you use. Having a lot of cores is one thing, but having software that really uses them is another thing.h
      - Aniruddha Bhattacharyya
        
        I agree, but that same logic can also be applied to this 6 core Intel CPU
        
        One thing that is different for Intel (the positive side) is higher clock for each core , which AMD does not (at least right now)