I'm currently trying to wrap my head around the Haswell-E idling functionality.
In my personal experiences with the x99 platform and 2011-3, I'm amazed at how much frequency switching occurs during load on my x99 system. I have run tests on 3 different 5960X chips along with 2 different x99 Asus motherboards: The x99 Deluxe & the x99-e WS.
Besides the variable OC performance on each CPU (2 decent Costa Rica chips and 1 sub-par Malaya chip), I have been observing the CPU frequency jumping around like crazy in CPU-Z (ROG Asus release) and AI Suite 3 (DIP3). When I push a full load the system (I have done this with all the various configurations mentioned above), you will see the CPU frequency rapidly jump between 1200MHz (assuming the OC is running @ 100MHz) and the OC speed (i.e. 44000).
It just doesn't make sense to me why the frequency is switching like this under a full load (all 8 cores) in Adobe After Effects while rendering. I started to think this was an issue with AI Suite (in the latest version, 1.090 and the older version, 1.088), so I tried using the AI Suite Clean Install (running this on Win 8.1, 64). After doing so, I observed similar CPU frequency occurring with CPU-Z but not as rapidly. At this point, I started to understand that the CPU idle speed is actually part of the Haswell-E technology. I see it listed on the CPU spec sheet, so I guess it's completely normal. Is this so?
OK, so here's the twist:
I can actually render around 25% faster in Adobe After Effects @ STOCK 5960X speeds (no OC with AI Suite 3). When I set up an OC with AI Suite 3, I get a much higher CPU frequency (4.4+ versus the stock 3.5 w/ Turbo Boost) BUT the rendering is actually slower.
What's going on with AI Suite / Dual Intelligent Processors and the 5960x? The more I observe, the more confused I am.
Thanks in advance.
I should note that I have been an OSX user for many years. I finally got fed up with Apple and their Mac Pro line, so I made the switch back to Windows after the x99 (DDR4, Haswell-E) release. I have spent 3 weeks straight learning about the new system and experimenting with various boards, etc to find the optimal set-up. My x99 deluxe arrived with 3 bad SATA ports, so I returned it and made the upgrade to the x99e-ws which is what I'm currently running.
Current system specs:
5960x + Asus x99e-ws
64GB 2400 Ballistic (8x8)
Windows 8.1, 64-bit
Corsair H100i w/ Tuniq TX-4 thermal paste
1000-watt EVGA power supply
Asus GTX980