A few days ago, Intel simultaneously launched its X99 platform and a trio of Haswell-E processors to match. This launch marks the end of the X79 platform's reign, which lasted over three years and truth to be told, started to feel outdated in terms of feature set and even performance levels. Looking at previous reviews across the web, you can see that the 4770K and 4790K processors from the mainstream Haswell family coupled with a Z97 board provided similar performance - if not higher - than the very respectable 4960X IVB-E. It was about time for an LGA2011 update! The long wait is indeed over with the release of an updated LGA2011-v3 socket, the new X99 chipset, and a high end desktop processor lineup that supports the brand new DDR4 memory standard. Is your head spinning yet?

The Core i7 5960X I will be looking at in this review is Intel's first 8-core desktop processor, which sets it as the cream of the crop of the chipmaker's desktop line of processors. This fully unlocked beast of a processor comes loaded with 2.6 billion 22nm Tri-Gate 3-D Transistors that fit into a large 17.6mm x 20.2mm die and eight physical cores that translate into 16 processing threads thanks to Hyper Threading. It also boasts an impressive 20MB L3 cache and no fewer than 40 PCI-E 3.0 lanes. The 5960X has an out of the box base clock of 3.0GHz that bumps to 3.5GHz with Intel's Turbo Boost 2 Technology. The base clock might seem low at first glance, but the two additional cores play a role in this drop and the overall performance should not suffer. However, the 140W TDP that seems to be the norm with the new Haswell-E processors just might make overclocking a bit problematic. Looking at the overclocking track record of the previous Haswell chips, I'm not holding my breath for any ground breaking numbers.