HiSilicon Kirin 920 vs Intel Core i7-3960X

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


HiSilicon Kirin 920 CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i7-3960X
HiSilicon Kirin 920 Intel Core i7-3960X

CPU comparison

In this CPU comparison, we compare the HiSilicon Kirin 920 and the Intel Core i7-3960X and use benchmarks to check which processor is faster.

We compare the HiSilicon Kirin 920 8 core processor released in Q3/2014 with the Intel Core i7-3960X which has 6 CPU cores and was introduced in Q4/2011.
HiSilicon Kirin (29) Family Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition (24)
HiSilicon Kirin 920 (3) CPU group Intel Core i 3000X (4)
2 Generation 3
Cortex-A15 / Cortex-A7 Architecture Sandy Bridge E
Mobile Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The HiSilicon Kirin 920 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 1.70 GHz. The processor can compute 8 threads at the same time. The Intel Core i7-3960X clocks with 3.30 GHz (3.90 GHz), has 6 CPU cores and can calculate 12 threads in parallel.

HiSilicon Kirin 920 Characteristic Intel Core i7-3960X
8 Cores 6
8 Threads 12
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? Yes
1.70 GHz
4x Cortex-A15
A-Core 3.30 GHz (3.90 GHz)
1.30 GHz
4x Cortex-A7
B-Core --

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

HiSilicon Kirin 920 Characteristic Intel Core i7-3960X
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

Graphics (iGPU) integrated into the processor not only enable image output without having to rely on a dedicated graphics solution, but can also efficiently accelerate video playback.

ARM Mali-T628 MP4 GPU no iGPU
0.60 GHz GPU frequency --
0.60 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
Midgard 2 GPU Generation --
32nm Technology
1 Max. displays
4 Compute units --
64 Shader --
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory --
11 DirectX Version --

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

ARM Mali-T628 MP4 GPU no iGPU
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 No
No Codec VP9 No
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
No Codec AVC No
No Codec VC-1 No
No Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

Up to GB of memory in a maximum of 2 memory channels is supported by the HiSilicon Kirin 920, while the Intel Core i7-3960X supports a maximum of 64 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s enabled.

HiSilicon Kirin 920 Characteristic Intel Core i7-3960X
LPDDR3-1600 Memory DDR3-1600
Max. Memory 64 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 4 (Quad Channel)
-- Max. Bandwidth 51.2 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache --
-- L3 Cache 15.00 MB
-- PCIe version 2.0
-- PCIe lanes 40
-- PCIe Bandwidth 20.0 GB/s

Thermal Management

The HiSilicon Kirin 920 has a TDP of --. The TDP of the Intel Core i7-3960X is 130 W. System integrators use the TDP of the processor as a guide when dimensioning the cooling solution.

HiSilicon Kirin 920 Characteristic Intel Core i7-3960X
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) 130 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The HiSilicon Kirin 920 has 0.00 MB cache and is manufactured in 28 nm. The cache of Intel Core i7-3960X is at 15.00 MB. The processor is manufactured in 32 nm.

HiSilicon Kirin 920 Characteristic Intel Core i7-3960X
28 nm Technology 32 nm
Chiplet Chip design Monolithic
Armv7-A (32 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX
-- Socket LGA 2011
None Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d (C2 Stepping)
No AES-NI Yes
Android Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q3/2014 Release date Q4/2011
-- Release price 970 $
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Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
HiSilicon Kirin 920 HiSilicon Kirin 920
8C 8T @ 1.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-3960X
6C 12T @ 3.90 GHz
804 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
HiSilicon Kirin 920 HiSilicon Kirin 920
8C 8T @ 1.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-3960X
6C 12T @ 3.90 GHz
4973 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
HiSilicon Kirin 920 HiSilicon Kirin 920
8C 8T @ 1.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-3960X
6C 12T @ 3.90 GHz
736 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
HiSilicon Kirin 920 HiSilicon Kirin 920
8C 8T @ 1.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-3960X
6C 12T @ 3.90 GHz
3488 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
HiSilicon Kirin 920 HiSilicon Kirin 920
ARM Mali-T628 MP4 @ 0.60 GHz
77 (100%)
Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-3960X
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
HiSilicon Kirin 920 HiSilicon Kirin 920
8C 8T @ 1.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-3960X
6C 12T @ 3.90 GHz
8454 (100%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
HiSilicon Kirin 920 HiSilicon Kirin 920
8C 8T @ 1.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-3960X
6C 12T @ 3.30 GHz
2643 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
HiSilicon Kirin 920 HiSilicon Kirin 920
8C 8T @ 1.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-3960X
6C 12T @ 3.90 GHz
159 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
HiSilicon Kirin 920 HiSilicon Kirin 920
8C 8T @ 1.70 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-3960X
6C 12T @ 3.90 GHz
1158 (100%)

Devices using this processor

HiSilicon Kirin 920 Intel Core i7-3960X
Unknown Unknown

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