Intel Core i7-3960X vs Intel Xeon E5-2687W

Compare Intel Core X-series 6 core CPU vs Intel Xeon E5 Family 8 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

CPU Comparison

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Price

The cheapest price from our partner retailers

$ 250.00
$ 749.00 significantly less expensive
$ 999.00

Benchmark Score

Overall Score

A combined score of all workloads

3693 points
4113 points
11% slightly better overall score

Gaming Score

The raw gaming performance with a fast GPU

4998 points
2% slightly better gaming score
4879 points

Multitasking Score

Performance in workloads using up to 8 cores

3261 points
3854 points
18% slightly better multitasking score

Heavy Workload Score

Performance in workloads using up to 16 cores

3155 points
3775 points
19% slightly better heavy workload score

Free CPU Benchmark

Want to compare your processor against the Core i7-3960X and the Xeon E5-2687W? Download our free and quick PC Performance Test.

Other Benchmarks

Blender score

Blender score

Cycles Render (Samples per minute)

69.62 points
87.34 points
25% slightly higher Blender score
Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Geekbench 5 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

3363 points
5319 points
58% significantly higher Geekbench 5 (multi) score
Geekbench 5 (single) score

Geekbench 5 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

665 points
716 points
7% slightly higher Geekbench 5 (single) score
Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Geekbench 6 (multi) score

Multi threaded benchmark

3209 points
3443 points
7% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (multi) score
Geekbench 6 (single) score

Geekbench 6 (single) score

Single threaded benchmark

661 points
11% slightly higher Geekbench 6 (single) score
592 points

Specifications

Cores

Number of physical processing units

6
8
33% slightly more cores

Threads

Number of logical processing units

12
16
33% slightly more threads

Clock Speed

Base frequency at which the chip operates

3.3 GHz
6% slightly higher clock speed
3.10 GHz

Turbo Speed

Higher frequency used for heavy workloads

3.9 GHz
2% slightly higher turbo speed
3.8 GHz

TDP

Thermal Design Power: Measure of heat generated by the CPU

130 W
15% slightly lower TDP
150 W

PCIe Lanes

Number of physical connections between the CPU and expansion slots

40
Identical
40

Memory Channels

Lanes for simultaneous memory access

4
Identical
4

Supported Memory

Maximum amount of RAM supported by this CPU

64 GiB
256 GiB
300% significantly more supported memory

Other details

Rank

Ranking in the hardwareDB database

464th of 1,089
426th of 1,089

Family

The product line

Core X-series
Xeon E5 Family

Release date

The official date of release of this chip

2011 November
2012 February

Memory Type

The type of memory used by this chip

DDR3-1066
DDR3-1066

Supports ECC memory

Does this CPU support error correcting memory

No
Yes

Core i7-3960X vs Xeon E5-2687W benchmarks

According to the hardwareDB Benchmark tool, the Xeon E5-2687W is faster than the Core i7-3960X. Despite this, the Core i7-3960X has the advantage in our gaming benchmark.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Xeon E5-2687W has slightly more cores with 8 cores compared to the Core i7-3960X that has 6 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i7-3960X. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i7-3960X has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Xeon E5-2687W. Also, the Core i7-3960X has a slightly higher turbo speed. A Core i7-3960X CPU outputs less heat than a Xeon E5-2687W CPU because of its slightly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. Indeed, the Core i7-3960X has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.

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