The big question for many enthusiasts contemplating the X99 upgrade is, how well does Haswell-E overclock compared to previous gen processors? We’ll be answering this question together with how to overclock the processor in this guide.
Frequency Expectations
In our testing to date, the average overclocked frequency for 5960X processors is 4.5GHz. Very good processors will achieve 4.6GHz fully stable with less than 1.30Vcore. Lesser samples achieve 4.4GHz with the same voltage:
CPU | Frequency | Voltage
5960X | 4.6GHz | 1.30V = Good Result
5960X | 4.5GHz | 1.30V = Average Result
5960X | 4.4GHz | 1.30V = Fair Result
Overall for the 5960X we’re looking at around 100MHz lower than the (Ivy-E) 4960X, but with two extra cores in tow, which is more than respectable.
For those of you wondering about the K parts. They are easier to OC on air and water due to having fewer cores, thus less heat to contend with and higher voltages are possible. The end result is the possibility of overclocking the 6-core K series CPUs 100~200MHz higher than the 8-core 5960X.
