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Intel Core i5-3550 vs Intel Core i7-4960X

Last updated: 2026-06-07

Table of Contents

Summary
Benchmarks
Specifications
User Reviews
Popular Comparisons

Summary

Benchmarks

Performance Overview
Average performance across multiple benchmarks

Single-core performance

Rank 2 - 96 %

Intel Core i5-3550

Rank 1 - 100 %

Intel Core i7-4960X

Multi-core performance

Rank 2 - 56 %

Intel Core i5-3550

Rank 1 - 100 %

Intel Core i7-4960X

Geekbench 6 Single-Core
Single-core performance

4C / 4T · 3.70 GHz

724

6C / 12T · 4.00 GHz

757

Geekbench 6 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

4C / 4T · 3.30 GHz

2,237

6C / 12T · 4.00 GHz

3,062

Geekbench 5, 64bit Single-Core
Single-core performance

4C / 4T · 3.70 GHz

783

6C / 12T · 4.00 GHz

806

Geekbench 5, 64bit Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

4C / 4T · 3.30 GHz

2,741

6C / 12T · 4.00 GHz

5,189

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 Multi-Core
Multi-core performance

4C / 4T · 3.30 GHz

1,402

6C / 12T · 3.60 GHz

2,868

More benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (SC)
1,989 entries

Geekbench 6 (MC)
1,927 entries

Geekbench 5 (SC)
2,512 entries

Geekbench 5 (MC)
2,483 entries

FP32 SP (iGPU)
2,219 entries

PassMark CPU-Mark
2,504 entries

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (MC)
751 entries

Cinebench R15 (SC)
1,113 entries

Cinebench R15 (MC)
1,110 entries

Geekbench 3 (SC)
945 entries

Geekbench 3 (MC)
941 entries

Cinebench R11.5 (SC)
826 entries

Cinebench R11.5 (MC)
837 entries

Specifications

At a glance

Wischen	Intel Core i5-3550	Intel Core i7-4960X
Family	Intel Core i5 (336)	Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition (24)
CPU group	Intel Core i 3000 (31)	Intel Core i 4000X (3)
Architecture	Ivy Bridge S	Ivy Bridge E
Technology	22 nm	22 nm
Segment	Desktop	Desktop
Socket	LGA 1155	LGA 2011
Predecessor
Successor		Intel Core i7-5960X

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

Wischen	Intel Core i5-3550	Intel Core i7-4960X
CPU Cores / Threads	4 / 4	6 / 12
Hyperthreading / SMT	✗	✓
Core architecture	normal	normal
Cores:	4x	6x
Frequency:	3.30 GHz	3.60 GHz
Turbo (1 Core):	3.70 GHz	4.00 GHz
Turbo (All Cores):		4.00 GHz
L2-Cache
L3-Cache	6.00 MB	15.00 MB
Overclocking	✗	✓

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

Wischen	Intel Core i5-3550	Intel Core i7-4960X
GPU name	Intel HD Graphics 2500	no iGPU
GPU frequency	0.65 - 1.15 GHz
CUs / Shader	6 / 48	/
Raytracing	✗	✗
Max. displays	3
Max. GPU Memory	2 GB
Technology	22 nm
Release date	Q2/2012

NPU AI performance

Wischen	Intel Core i5-3550	Intel Core i7-4960X
AI hardware
AI specifications
NPU + CPU + iGPU

Memory & PCIe

Wischen	Intel Core i5-3550	Intel Core i7-4960X
Memory	DDR3-1600 (25.6 GB/s)	DDR3-1866 (59.7 GB/s)
Max. Memory	32 GB	64 GB
Memory channels	2	4
ECC	No	No
PCIe	3.0 x 16	3.0 x 40
PCIe Bandwidth	15.8 GB/s	39.4 GB/s

Thermal Management

Wischen	Intel Core i5-3550	Intel Core i7-4960X
TDP	77 W	130 W
TDP (PL2)
TDP up
TDP down
T. junction max.

Technical details

Wischen	Intel Core i5-3550	Intel Core i7-4960X
Chip design	Monolithic	Monolithic
AES-NI	✓	✓
Operating systems	Windows 10, Linux	Windows 10, Linux
Instruction set	x86-64 (64 bit)	x86-64 (64 bit)
ISA extensions	SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX	SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX
Release date	Q2/2012	Q3/2013
Release price	213 $	960 $
Documents	Technical data sheet	Technical data sheet

User Reviews

Your rating

Here you can rate one or both of the processors. The average rating of Intel Core i5-3550 is 4.0 stars (3 ratings), while Intel Core i7-4960X has received 4.5 stars (11 ratings).

Click on the stars to rate one or both processors.

Intel Core i5-3550
4C / 4T · 3.30 - 3.70 GHz

★★★★★

Intel Core i7-4960X
6C / 12T · 3.60 - 4.00 GHz

★★★★★